Spring 2003

University Debaters and Economic Students Bring Home Laurels

Mr. Yaniv Zaid, a third-year Law and Economics student, won the bronze medal—third place—in the world university debating championships held in South Africa at the end of December/beginning of January.  Prior to this event, Guy Yariv (Economics and B.A. Honors) and Anat Gelber (Philosophy) had won the Israeli pairs student debating championship.  Ironically Zaid came in second in the Israeli singles competition.

University of Haifa Debating Club took second place at the European university debating championships held in Zagreb , Croatia , in March.  The club has been runner-up in this event three times in a row, making it a power in international debating circles. 

Four third (and last)-year students from the Dept. of Economics – Business Administration track, two women and two men, composed the first-ever Israeli team to compete in the global business challenge held at the University of Washington in Seattle in April.  Although the team did not win, “they represented us with dignity,” said Dr. Doron Kliger, Lecturer in Economics and the team’s adviser.  In all, 14 undergraduate teams from around the world competed.  “What the others did in three years, they had to do in two months,” he commented, explaining that the UH team had only this short amount of time to train for the event and that they were economic, not strictly business administration students.

The president of Sratbucks Coffee International, Peter Maslen (2nd from r.), 
poses with Dr. Doron Kliger (r.) and the Dept. of Economics and the University's undergraduate business team 
that competed in Seattle (l.-r.): Keren Berko, Lior Shalev, Yael Segev and Gil Golan

*Prof. Shay Gueron, Dept. of Mathematics, has brought home another winning team of young mathematicians.  His team of Israeli high schoolers just edged out the Hungarian team in the 14^th bi-national competition between the two countries, held in Budapest in April.  Two Israelis attained a perfect score as did two Hungarian pupils.  The Israeli team, which Gueron coaches and trains, beat Hungary by two points in the overall group scoring.  The mathematician views training for the international Math Olympics with events like the  Hungarian rivalry as “a national mission, an important means of instilling a perception of excellence in sciences among Israeli youth and public.”