Hi everyone,

You are cordially invited to attend the 2016 USU National Debate Championship, scheduled Friday-Sunday, October 21-23, 2016. The Claremont Colleges Debate Union and Claremont McKenna College will host this bespoke debate event. The tournament features competition in the British parliamentary debate format; it is open to national and international college/university teams.

Building on the Debate Union’s traditions of innovative practice and convivial inclusion, the tournament will offer the following championship awards – undergraduate champion, graduate/professional school champion, community college champion, novice champion (first year BP team with prior speech/debate experience), and new champion (no prior speech/debate experience in any format). [Both members of a team must meet the requirements of the award category for awards eligibility]. The tournament will feature 10 (ten) debates, as well as open adjudication in all debates. The debates are ‘preliminary’ to awards but all teams vying for a championship award and/or substantial debate practice will be scheduled to participate in all 10 debates. It may be the case that some debate teams may not be able to participate in the full tournament due to academic, work, travel, or other schedule conflicts. The tournament will rank teams and also have awards for participants after the first 6 debates, although teams must compete in all 10 preliminary debates for championship awards. (This opening portion of the tournament is designated as the Claremont Colleges Intercollegiate Debate Tournament).

Tournament features are selected to enhance the competitive and pedagogical experiences for all participants. Many are unique to the USUNDC. For example, the tournament tries to ensure that all participants receive the same experience for the same registration fee. In other words, Team ABC, new to debate and quite inexperienced and only modestly successful, should have the same number of debate opportunities as Team ZYX, a highly experienced and historically successful team. Of course, those debate opportunities should maximize feedback from judges for all participating debaters, to ensure that the lesser experienced participants receive as much valuable information to help them develop their public speaking and argumentation skills. Ten rounds for everyone; open adjudication in all debates. 3 rounds Friday, with registration and announcements from 12:30-1:30 PM and Round 1 beginning at 1:30 PM; 5 rounds on Saturday; last 2 rounds and final awards on Sunday. Guests should be able to depart on Sunday by 2:00 PM. For those participating only at the Claremont Colleges Intercollegiate Debate Tournament, departure is after the awards following Round 6 on Saturday, with the departure at approximately 4:30 PM.

The tournament includes the staples of Claremont debate events – outstanding catered food and beverages for all diets provided throughout the day, on-time scheduling, exceptional judging, door and other prizes during the event, etc.

The tournament invitation, available at [log in to unmask] on Monday, August 29, details the conventional and novel features of the tournament. Please write with any questions on procedure.

Best regards,

John

John Meany

Director of Forensics

Claremont McKenna College

Claremont Colleges Debate Union