Forensic Magazine Branches Out

Forensic Magazine is "powered by Labcompare, the Buyer's Guide for Laboratory Professionals." Its slogan is "On the Scene and in the Lab." Today's newsletter includes the following item, sandwiched between an article on DNA cold cases in Florida and domestic abuse in Nicaragua:

Texas State Forensic Association Names Educator of the Year
Wednesday, April 22, 2020

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Julie Welker, chair of Howard Payne University’s Department of Communication and coach of HPU’s speech and debate team, was recently named the Texas Intercollegiate Forensics Association (TIFA) Educator of the Year. ... Welker, in her twenty-second year on the faculty at HPU, has been coaching the speech and debate team since 2005. ... [read the full story]

As a former high school and college debater myself, I applaud Professor Welker's coaching, but the newsletter brings to mind a discussion of the terms "forensic evidence" and "forensics" at a meeting of the National Commission on Forensic Science. A commission member, herself a university chemist, urged the commission to eschew these terms because of the speech and debate connection. At the time, I thought she was being picky. Now I am not so sure. By the way, the adjective "forensic" comes from the Latin word forensis, meaning "of the forum" or "public."