Monash win Easters

From monash_debaters

Monash wins Easters 2011 in a 5-4 split decision! Congratulations to Monash 6 and ANU 1 on an excellent and close grand final!

To watch the final visit http://www.ustream.tv/channel/monash-debaters

Live stream from "Easters"

Monash Debaters have a live stream of the Easters Tournament in Australia

Visit http://www.ustream.tv/channel/monash-debaters for the live debates or for videos of previous debates in the competition.


Streaming Video by Ustream.TV

WUDC 2012 Adjudication Webseminar 1

From http://dlsuworlds.wordpress.com/

The hardworking DLSU Worlds Adjudication team will be producing webseminars on adjudication in the run up to WUDC in December in Manila.

Here is the very first one — An Introduction to Adjudication. Web seminar 1 comes with slides on an introduction to adjudication and a video of a debate complete with oral adjudication from the co-CA Sam Block. So if you want to hear their thoughts on adjudication issues, pick up some new methods of tracking debates, hear Sam’s oral adjudication and compare your notes with his, take the DLSU Worlds 2012 Webseminar 1. Enjoy!


DLSU Worlds 2012 Webseminar 1 Slides: An Introduction
Practice Debate 1: THB national sporting teams should reflect the diversity of the national population
Oral Adjudication 1
DLSU Adjudication Webseminar 1 Notes

JECIT Results

Justice Edwin Cameron Invitational Tournament is a round-robin for South Africa’s top teams, based on SA Nationals, Pan-Africans and applications. The tournament runs over 5 rounds with 16 teams, top 4 teams breaking to finals after round 5. Motions are generally open.

Results:
Winners: Alex de Jager and Matthew Butler-Adam (UCT) (4-3 panel split against Dan and Vivek)

Finalists:
James Wink and Anthony Hodgson (Independent)
Richard Stupart and John Stupart (Wits/Rhodes)
Daniel Kaliski and Vivek Ramsaroop (UCT)

Breaking judges: Kimera Chetty, Zikho Pali, Kyle Parkin, Piet Olivier, Alma Diamond (DCA), Alex Sloan (DCA), Claire Hawkridge (CA)

Top Speakers:
1. Richard Stupart
2. Vivek Ramsaroop
3. Daniel Kaliski
4. (tied) Alex de Jager and Matthew Butler-Adam

Best Adjudicator based on speaker and adjudicator feedback: (tied) Kyle Parkin and Kimera Chetty
Motions:
Round 1: TH rejects consensus
Round 2: TH would let the music play on
Round 3: TH is mostly harmless
Round 4: THBT the fat lady hasn’t sung until the cows come home
Round 5: (closed) TH supports the decision to try Henry Okah in South Africa
Final: THB the dark side is better (they have cookies)

Thanks to all who attended and congrats to convener Gene McAravey and her team for an excellent

Impact of Debate on Academic Performances: Final Paper

You may recall that we recently had a survey for Saad Bin Amjad on the Impact of Debate on Academic Performances.  If you are interested the final paper is now available here.  Best of luck to Saad in the academic assessment of it.

From Saad Bin Amjad:
Since I started debating back in the 7th Grade, learned a lot and achieved a lot till date.But I was always put into a dilemma at times by the 'society', about what is the true impact of debate in life, especially in the academic paradigm.


This semester, in my university course, English 105, I got the opportunity to do a research on any of my field of interest and finally I submitted the paper on debate on 21st April.


The research may seem inadequate, incomplete and below average, but since I am just learning how to prepare a paper and compile data, please ignore my ignorance.


I am happy and honored that I could finish a paper in such a short time, in which you all guyz helped. Hope you would enjoy reading the paper and come to know about different perceptions and findings!

IUB IV results

NSU 3 (Nabil Azad Chowdhury, Jasia Haider and Naveed Adnan) won the IUB IV final defeating NSU 1 (Faria Ahmed, Javed Adnan, Kaiser Kabir) 3-2 in the final.

Best Speaker of the Final: Kasier Kabir.

Motions:
R1: THW make two years of military training compulsory for every citizen within the age group of 16-20.

R2: THW impose a salary cap for the players of the professional team sports.

R3: THW legalize sex tourisim in develpoing countires.

R4: THBT gov should financially support single pregnant teenage mother.

R5: THBT we should completely shift to clean energy by the year 2021, in the light of the current natural diasters.
Quarters: THBT gov should not allow media to publicize the celebrity kidnappings.
Semi: THBT West should arm Burmese militia.

Final: THW form an ethical commission with legal enforcement authority for violation of ethical conducts by politicians.

Back from Holidays

Hi,
You may have noticed that posts have been a little lacking in recent days.  I was away on a brief holiday for a few days.  As a result I have a mountain of e-mails and articles to catch up on.  I'll post as much as I can now but if you sent me an update and I missed it apologies.  Please send it on again.

Colm

Athens Open Results

Results




Winning team: Belgrade A (Goran Jankuloski and Tijana Mijalkovic)

Finalists: Balls to You! (Selena Torlakovic and Milan Krstanovic), Molon Lave Bitches (Oskar Avery and Crt Podlogar), PFA A (Alex Evans and Constantine Tarabanis)

Best Speaker: Milan Krstanovic (University of Belgrade)

Motions:
Round 1: In cases of persistent tax evasion, THW revoke an individuals right to vote

Round 2: Except in cases of rape, THBT a mother should not have an abortion without the consent of the father.
Round 3: In cases where there is harmful depiction in the media, THW compensate minority communities.
Round 4: THW impose an immediate ban on all pornography which shows or simulates violence.
Round 5: THBT Western governments should assassinate leaders who use violence against their own people.
Semifinals: THBT Greece and Turkey should withdraw their troops immediately from Cyprus.
Final: This house believes democracy has failed.

The Tab can be found at http://open.debating.gr/

2 PhD positions in Argumentation Theory, Lisbon, Portugal‏

This is to let you know that 2 positions are now open for a 4-year PhD programme at the ArgLab, Institute of Philosophy of Language, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal, in the domain of political and legal argumentation. The programme is meant to include international cooperation, first of all within the ArguPolis framework developed by the University of Lugano and their partners.

Funding is secured through a grant received by the Institute from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and should not be affected by the current financial volatility in Portugal.

Deadline for applications: May 31st, 2011.

Start of the programme: September 1st, 2011.

Details can be found here:
http://www.arglab.ifl.pt/arglab-events/2011/4/12/2-phd-positions-4-years-open-at-arglab.html

and here:

http://www.fcsh.unl.pt/investigacao/bolsas/programa-de-doutoramento-internacional-argumentation-and-communication-instituto-de-filosofia-da-linguagem-ifl/view

Please forward this message to whomever may be interested.

Thank you!
With regards,

Marcin Lewinski, PhD
Post-doctoral researcher
ArgLab
Institue of Philosophy of Language (IFL)
Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Edifício I&D - 4 andar
Avenida de Berna 26
1069-061 Lisbon
Portugal

Congrats to Anat and Michael

Congrats to Anat Gelber (DCA at Worlds last year) and Michael Shapira (current Worlds ESL Champion) on their marraige.  Many people will know them from Worlds, Euros and several other tournaments in recent years.

Mazel tov! May they have many many happy years together.

1st China National High Schools' English Debating Championship 2011

Dear Friends of Debate, I am happy to announce that we will be holding the 1st China National High Schools' English Debating Championship 2011 this summer in the city of Nanjing, China.

We would like to invite your high schools and/or your former high schools to send debate teams to compete in this inaugural, ground-breaking event in China.




Please help us to spread the word on this event by forwarding it to teachers, debate trainers and students you know who may be interested to consider coming to join our debate party.

Below is a summary of the event at a glance:
1. Dates: 23th to 29th July (Arrival on 23rd and Departure on 29th July)

2. Location: Jinling High School, Nanjing, China

3. Debate Format : 3-on-3 World Schools' Style
(World Schools' Debating Championship or WSDC Debate Format)

4. Tournament Capacity: 50 Teams

5. Schedule: Please see Schedule document attached.

6. Tournament Structure
a) Main Competition -- For Mainland Chinese High School Teams
b) International Finals Series -- For High School Teams from Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, International Schools in China, and the rest of the world
c) 8 Preliminary Rounds of Debates, Quarter to Grand Final
d) High Schools do not need bring along judges as we will be inviting top local/overseas judges to provide quality adjudication

7. Registration Fee -- 800Chinese Yuan/RMB per debater/teacher/judge (excludes hotel accommodation)

8. Registration Deadline: 21st May 2011

9. Registration Method : Submission of Registration Form A (attached) by 21st May 2011 to both these email addresses:
1. chinahighschooldebate2011@hotmail.com
2. George Chen at: georgecc1991@hotmail.com

10. Social Events
a) Opening Ceremony/Welcome Dinner
b) Break Night Dinner & Party
c) Grand Final/Closing Ceremony/Awards Presentation/Championship Dinner

11. Tournament Website
A Tournament Website will be ready by 23rd April. It will contain the same information I have given in the attached documents, and will be updated regularly.

Thanking you and hoping to hear from you, on behalf of the Organising Committee.

For more information or clarification, please write to me.

cheers,

loke wing fatt
Overall-in-charge/Chief Adjudicator
1st China National High Schools' English Debating Championship 2011
Society for Associated Inter-Tertiary Debaters (SAID)
Singapore
Website: saidsg.wordpress.com

Ten lessons from USU 2011‏

Fresh from being CA of the US Universities Debating Championships Stephen Boyle, the CA, has posted a list of ten lessons from the tournament.  It's common practice after major international tournaments for the CA to prepare a report for the organising council on how things went. However this report rarely gets published to the wider community (not for any secret reason just that it comes out a year later at council and gets lost in all the other information coming out about the current tournament). 

Even though USU has no governing council Stephen still thought it might be useful for people hosting the competition over the next few years, and indeed for anyone organising a competition at all, if he shared some of the lessons that they learned.

For anyone interested, the 10 lessons can be found here.

Venezuela Wins North American WUDC Spanish Language Championship

Campeones: Venezuela (Roddy Rodriguez & Daniel Valensi) (2O)

Segundo Lugar: Chile (Constanza Diaz Dabanch & Nicole Hansen) (1O)

Finalistas: Cornell (Lorena Michelen & Ana Cristina Zapata) (1G), Venezuela (Monica Tismineski & Jesus Gorrin) (2G)

1.) Colombia (Ana Diez & Carlos Parra)
2.) Venezuela (Monica Tismineski & Jesus Gorrin)
3.) Chile (Constanza Diaz Dabanch & Nicole Hansen)
4.) Venezuela (Roddy Rodriguez & Daniel Valensi)
5.) Cornell (Tito Reynaldo & Saul Blanco)
6.) Cornell (Abdiel Ortiz & Rodrigo Otarola)
7.) Vermont (Jim Usborn & Harrison Bigler)
8.) Cornell (Lorena Michelen & Ana Cristina Zapata)
9.) Cornell (Ana Cristina Arroyo & Kristina Francillion)
10.) Cornell (Eric Castillo & Jouquin Ponce)
11.) Cornell (Faheem Fazeli & David Jose Pagan)
12.) Vermont (Siobhan Neela-Stock & James Dee)

Final: Esta casa terminaría la guerra contra las drogas.
Semifinales: Esta casa cree que los países Latino Americanos deberían priorizar la seguridad medio ambiental sobre la seguridad económica.
6ta ronda: Esta casa cree que el modelo Costa Costarricense de desmilitarización es la mejor política para países Latino Americanos.
5ta ronda: Esta casa cree que los países emergentes son gobernados de mejor manera por lideres femeninas.
4ta ronda: Esta casa cree que tratados de libre comercio han hecho más daño que bien.
3ra ronda: Esta casa haría que la iglesia católica redistribuya sus terrenos a los pobres.
2da ronda: Esta casa cree que los grandes eventos deportivos internacionales deberían ser organizados en países democráticos
1ra ronda: Esta casa devolvería artefactos culturales de valor histórica a sus países de origen.

Mejor orador
1. 467 –Carlos Parra (Colombia)
2. 464 – Nicole Hansen (Chile)
3. 464 – Jesus Gorrin (Venezuela)
4. 463 – Ana Maria Diez (Colombia)
5. 460 – Constanza Diaz Dabanch (Chile)
6. 458 – Tito Reynaldo (Cornell)
7. 457 – Monica Tismineski (Venezuela)
8. 456 – Roddy Rodriguez (Venezuela)
9. 453 – Kristina Francillion (Cornell)
10. 453 – Faheem Fazili (Cornell)
11. 453 – Saul Blanco (Cornell)

Stanford wins HWS / IDEA Round Robin

5th annual HWS / IDEA Round Robin champion:

Stanford University (Alex Campbell & Anish Mitra)

Second place: Oxford University (Bell & Woolgar)

Finalists: Hart House (Goswami & Penner) & MIT (Goldstein & McKee)

* The team from the University of the Witwatersrand missed making the finals on a tie-breaker and so deserves special mention.

Best speaker: Ben Woolgar (Oxford)

Second speaker: Stephanie Bell (Oxford)

Third speaker: Alex Campbell (Stanford)

Fourth speaker: Joe Roussos (Witwatersrand)

Fifth speaker: Anish Mitra (Stanford)

Sixth speaker: Adam Goldstein (MIT)

Seventh speaker: David Maher (New South Wales)

Eigth speaker: Veenu Goswami (Hart House)

Ninth speaker: Angela Kintominas (New South Wales)

Tenth speaker: Steve Penner (Hart House)

Stephen Boyle from Ireland (now coaching at UVM) won the Honored Adjudicator award.

Motions for 2011:

1) This house would eliminate tenure for university professors.

2) This house believes that S&M contracts are unconscionable.

3) This house would give preference to immigration applicants whose values are consistent with those of the host nation.

4) This house supports parents who secretly install spyware on their children’s electronic devices.

5) This house would not use public money on life-extending medical care for people over a certain age.

Finals: This house believes that whenever individuals have a choice between spending their money on luxuries or donating it to ameliorating suffering, morality demands donating.

Change of coach at LaVerne

It is with great regret that I have to announce that Josh Martin will no longer be serving as the University of La Verne Debate Coach. Since my retirement from debating tournaments, Josh stepped up to lead our debate program with tremendous personal sacrifice. With I would like to thank him for his expertise and loyalty, which I, the team, and our community have deeply benefited from. We look forward to Josh's future contributions to the international debating community and fully support him in his future endeavors.

Josh will still be directing our previously announced Summer Training Program and will always be considered as one of our own.

Josh's old debating partner Rob Ruiz (with whom he won the 2007 USU National Championship) volunteered to serve as our Director of Forensics and John Patrick (with whom Josh won the 2006 USU National Open) will serve as Debate Coach. Both Rob and John, currently adjunct instructors with our department, have graciously offered their time and service to lead our debating program. All future communication with the University of La Verne Debate Team should be directed to: rruiz@laverne.edu  and/or jpatrick2@laverne.edu

Thank you so much for your kind attention and best wishes to all.

Professor Ian T. Lising
Chair
Speech Communication Department
University of La Verne

South African National Universities Debating Championships

Dear Debating Community

The Tuks Debating Union cordially invites you to the 16th annual South African National Universities’ Debating Championships, dubbed “Nationals 2011,” hosted at the University of Pretoria from the 9th until the 15th of July 2011, which is proudly sponsored by Standard Bank.

Website

Both the registration and training components of Nationals 2011 will run online, and the website can be found at http://www.sa-debating.co.za/, under the NUDC portal (look for the Nationals 2011 logo). The website will function as a means of communication, as well as a means to provide you with the information you may require about the competition. The training component of the site is up and running and you can expect more content to be loaded shortly. The registration link will appear when registration opens on the dates indicated below.

Registration and Fee

Registration will be divided into two periods – Early registration and late registration. Early registration will run from the 29th of April to the 27th of May, while late registration will run from 30th of May to the 10th of June. The registration fee for early registration will be R650.00 per delegate, while the late registration fee will be R850.00 per delegate

Registration will run on an “Institutional Representative” system. Each institution will register a single representative, who will then be responsible for entering all the registration data for their institution. This process will be explained in more detail closer to the opening of registration.

WEBSITE: http://www.sa-debating.co.za/

E-MAIL: stevetchem@gmail.com  reg.paida@gmail.com

Team Slots

Each institution is guaranteed 4 team slots at the competition during early registration. The initial team cap has remained the same as previous years due to the interests of a number of new institutions in joining “Nationals 2011”. If you wish to apply for additional team slots, you can do so once registration opens by sending an e mail to reg.paida@gmail.com . These additional slots are not guaranteed and will only be allocated after the close of early registration, if there are still slots available. The additional slots will be offered one per institution, in the order for which they were applied.

Adjudicators

The “n-1” rule for adjudicators will apply. If you send n teams, you will be required to send n-1 adjudicators. We reserve the right to adjust the number of team slots available to your institution if you do not meet the n-1 requirement for adjudicators. You will be allowed to send a maximum of n+1 adjudicators to the competition. If you wish to send additional adjudicators (over the n+1 limit), you can apply by the same process as for additional team slots. These places will be awarded in the same manner as for team slots.

If you have any queries about Nationals 2011, please feel free to contact me. We look forward to seeing you in the Jacaranda City in July!

Regards,

Stephen Thompson Convener: Nationals 2011

DLSU Worlds Registration Communication

Dear World Debate Community,

We would like to thank you for your cooperation during the First Phase of Registration. The list of registered institutions is now available! :)

At this point, we would like to ask you to take one more look at this list and tell us if you think there is something wrong with your institution's information. Please take note that as outlined in our bid, we allocated 1 team and 1 adjudicator each to every institution after the 300 team mark. After coming up with the initial 300 teams, we then looked for countries which were not yet represented and after which, we looked for institutions which were not yet represented.

We have also published the raw list of Independent Adjudicators and Observers. These lists reflect all those who registered and have not yet been finalized since we will not be able to accommodate everyone due to logistical constraints. The Adjudication Core will be releasing information about application for Adjudicator Subsidies which will begin in May. This will allow the Adj Core to assess each candidate based on their ability to judge the tournament well. Other individuals who would like to apply for subsidies will also be given a chance to send in their applications during this time.

Thank you all again for your support.

For any questions or clarifications, please do not hesitate to contact the Registration and Communications Director Crystal Francisco at crystal.francisco@dlsuworlds.com  or through info@dlsuworlds.com

Best,
The Registration Team

Scholarships available for the China Advocacy Institute

Get the tools you need to advocate for sustainability during the China Advocacy Institute.


The Advocacy Institute is an inter-disciplinary course set in Dalian, China that enrolls university students from China, the US, and other countries around the world. The institute's goal is to equip students with a deeper understanding of sustainability and provide the tools necessary for advocacy. This diverse course includes lecture, discussion, debate, media, and field trips to relevant sites.

This year, students will explore sustainability through two case studies of environmental disaster: the 2010 oil spills in Dalian, China and the Gulf of Mexico. Through lectures and discussion, instructors will guide students in analyzing how an oil spill impacts the environment and local livelihoods. The course will examine government and corporate responses to each of the two oil spills. As an interactive extension of course materials, Professor Robert Trapp will teach students to debate the issues formally. A professor of Graphic Arts from Dalian Nationalities University will exhibit his photographs of the Dalian oil spill and guide students on a tour of the site.

For more details, visit http://willamette.edu/dept/idea/advocacy_institute

Application Deadline: 15 April, 2011

Program Fee: We are offering full scholarships for international applicants outside China and the U.S., who have not attended the Advocacy Institute in previous years. For Chinese students who are not attending Dalian Nationalities University, the cost is RMB 650. The program fee does not include airfare.

Program Dates: May 18 - June 3, 2011 (must arrive in China on May 17 -- instructions will be given to selected participants)

Program Location: Dalian Nationalities University, Dalian, Liaoning, China

Application form: Download application form on the Office of International Education website: http://willamette.edu/dept/idea/advocacy_institute/apply/

Live Debates this weekend: HWS / IDEA Round Robin

If you want to watch some live debates on line this weekend IDEA are livestreaming the HWS / IDEA Round Robin championships from New York

Go to http://www.idebate.org/streaming/hwsrr2011/ to watch the action.

Live debates this weekend: North American Spainish Championships

If you are interested in watching some debates this weekend IDEA are live streaming from the Campeonato Norte Americano de Debate in New York.  The debates are in Spanish.


To watch the debates visit http://www.idebate.org/streaming/cnad2011/

International Debate Camp in Porto‏

Dear Debaters and Friends,
We are proud to announce that the registration to the http://sociedadededebatesup.org/ (IDC) is now open.

The IDC will happen from 17th to 24th July 2011 in Porto (Portugal) and it will combine trainings provided by a strong international faculty; an amazing and diverse social program that includes lots of partying and one day of guided tours, wine tasting and boat sailing; a competitive tournament in the end of the week; good food and a wonderful scenario.

This is going to be more than just a debating competition. We want participants to get fully engaged with the experience. Under the motto learning, sharing, competing: learning will be fostered not only by the trainings and the training debates, but also by lectures provided by faculty members, and will have emphasis on the theme "empowering citizenship"; sharing will be promoted in every aspect of the debate camp starting from registration where you will be asked to share your views on democracy and citizenship related issues that will generate an online debate even before the event starts; competition will not be contained in debates, it will be a part of all camp as you will become part of one of five teams that will compete against each other on small outdoor games, on the training debates and other challenges that we will propose you. All this, for under 20€ a day (150€).

So now you know register and spread the word. Tell your friends, forward this email, share the event on facebook, ask us for billboards and we'll send them by mail to you, help us getting to everyone that may enjoy this.

We can't wait to show you the best week of your summer holidays.

Thanks in advance,
Ary
Website: www.tiny.cc/idcporto
Email: sociedadededebates@gmail.com
Facebook Registration Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=101530623265692
Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_114216798653114

Impact of Debate on Academic Performance

Saad Bin Amjad doing some research for his course titled the "Impact of Debate on Academic Performance".


The following links are the questionnaires, easy ones, for the debaters and non debaters to fill! Please feel free to put your honest answers and the results would be posted soon with thee research paper here in this blog!

Looking forward to your cooperation.

For Debaters:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dE9yR2VmN3BPem4yMGpqNVNzTTM3R2c6MQ#gid=0

For Non-Debaters:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dGNDaWVBbjZTWTF4blhOSEFlODluRHc6MQ#gid=0

USU 2011 Results

Here are the results from this weekend's United States University Debating Championships.

Winners:

Harvard BE (Jo Box & Cormac Early)

Finalists:
Yale DF (Max Dovala & Kate Falkenstein)
New South Wales KM (Angela Kintominas & David Maher)
Alaska CS (Sarah Carpenter & Aime Stanley)

Top Speakers
1. Cormac Early (Harvard)
2. Jo Box (Harvard)
3. James Kilcup (Loyola Marymount)
4. Kate Falkenstein (Yale)
5. Colin Haughey (Alaska)
6. David Maher (New South Wales)
7. Naz El-Khatib (Yale)
8. Margaret Brower (Colgate)
9. Max Dovala (Yale)
10. Bob Cashen (Loyola Marymount)

Semi-Finalists
Yale BE (Nate Blevins & Naz El-Khatib)
Alaska CH (Drew Cason & Colin Haughey)
Alaska FP (Brett Frazer & Amy Parent)
St. John’s CM (Kamya Chandra & Nipun Mahajan)

Qtr-Finalists
Carleton CM (Simon Cameron & Romeo Maione)
Claremont SW (Will Savage & Matt Wolfson)
Queens EW (Kayla Ellis & WuDi Wu)
Fordham MM (Peter Morrissey & Caitlin McElroy)
Edinburgh BO (Paul Brown & Sebastian Osborne)
Colgate SS (Austin Schwartz & Travis Steele)
Cornell BY (Alex Bores & Ryan Yeh)
Loyola Marymount CK (Bob Cashen & James Kilcup)

Octo-Finalists
St. John’s FP (George Fitzpatrick & Korey Pace)
Seattle KP (Michael Kaemingk & Chase Parker)
Claremont CB (Joseph Clifton & Jesse Katz-Blumenthal)
Harvard KR (Praga Kakani & William Ryan)
Vermont AC (Sarah Anders & Dam Cmejla)
Vermont GL (Paul Gross & Issac Loeb)
UCDLS OR (Dearbhia O’Gorman & Janine Ryan)
Patrick Henry GN (Joanna Griffith & Michal Walters)
LaVerne MT, (Ryan Mansell & Corey Teter)
Colgate BC (Margaret Bower & Michael Cohen)
Portland BB (Aaron Baker & Lindsay Bing)
LaVerne PP (John Patrick & Brian Pride)
Seattle SW (Sophia Sanders and Ben Watts)
Swarthmore KM (Jenny Koch & David Mok-Lamme)
Regis BD (Kaleb Brooks & Jon Denzler)
Bates EM (Colin Etnire & Ian Mahmud)

Novice Winner
Cornell RS

Novice Finalists:
Claremont MT
Colgate MS
China Peking-Fudan HZ

Best Judge:
Monica Ferris
Josh Martin

Top Judge:
Gavin Ilsley

Coach of the Year
Stephen Boyle (University of Vermont)

Motions:
Final: This House believes that the United States government should actively facilitate the circumvention of Internet filters in other countries.
Novice Final: This House would open brothels on military bases
Semi: This House supports a constitutional right to a minimum standard of living
Qtrs: This House would instruct juries to acquit where they believe conviction would not be in the public interest.
Octos: This House believes that human shields are legitimate targets in war
R5: This house would create a public forum for active duty military personnel to criticize government policy.
R4: This House would mandate a quota for women on the boards of large corporations
R3: This House would grant amnesty to dictators who voluntarily leave office.
R2: This House would charge players who commit violent sporting fouls with assault.
R1: This house would mandate insurance in disaster prone areas

LSE win the Paris IV

The 2011 Paris IV took place this weekend. Congratulations to LSE (John Ashbourne and Png Zhiheng) for winning the main break and Berlin for winning the ESL title, Harish Natarajan for topping the speaker tab and Desisslava Kirova for topping the ESL speaker tab. The tab is attached. If anyone is curious, the motions were as follows:

1. THW Ban Public Sector Strikes in Times of High Government Debt (Music: "9 to 5"-Dolly Parton)
2. THB That France Should Open Its Borders to Any Migrant from One of Its Former Colonies ("Empire State of Mind"-Jay-Z)
3. TH Supports the Establishment of 'Harvey Milk Schools' in Europe (The Harvey Milk School is a school in New York for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Young People) ("Teenage Dream"-Cover by the cast of Glee)
4. THW Use Partition To Solve Civil Wars in Divided Societies ("Better Together"-Jack Johnson")
5. THB That It Is Immoral To Donate To Animal Charities Whilst Humans Are Dying of Poverty ("Feel Good Inc"-Gorillaz)
Semi: THB That Israel Should Abolish Conscription ("Everybody's Gone To War"-Nerina Pallot)
ESL Final: As the Editor of Jyllands-Posten in September 2005, THW Not Have Published the Mohammed Cartoons
Final: THB That A Woman Who Wears High Heels Is No More Free Than One Who Wears the Burqa ("Broken Heels"-Alexandra Burke)

Many thanks to Maja Cimerman for being a great DCA, Stephan Nunner for tabbing, and Louisa Zhang for convening an absolutely exceptional tournament. Hope to see lots of you in Paris this time next year-no IV has better cheese and wine!

WUDC Manila 2012 Initial Reg list

After the first phase of registration yesterday DLSU have released the list of all teams who registered.

You can find it here.

They have highlighted a lot of duplicate entries (in grey) and suspect duplicates (in yellow).  However instead of just deleting them they have sent out the whole list and asked for input. If you have registered you should check the list and make sure you are not mistakenly down as a duplicate.


Dear World Debating Community,

Thank you for participating in Phase 1 of the registration for De La Salle Worlds!

By as early as 1030AM Manila time, we have received more than a thousand team applications. Such a huge number of registration applications initially slowed down the server, but the team was ready for any eventuality and we are happy to tell you that the server never crashed as opposed to what may be perceived as such.


In the first 30 seconds of registration when there was a massive influx of individuals visiting the page, the traffic from the server became extremely busy, that as a preventive measure, the server slowed itself down a bit to be able to cope with the number of registrants in order for it not to completely crash.

This did not mean however, that certain information did not get through. The only trouble was loading the confirmation page which notifies the registrant that the form has been sent to the system. The information was sent on time, exactly when individuals clicked the submit button. Evidence for this is that the first registration form was sent within 22 seconds of the opening of registration, despite having trouble loading the confirmation page.


We would like to assure everyone that the data in the initial list of registrants are indeed the information you sent in particular time periods and that there is nothing to worry about.


At this point, we would like to ask you to review the list of registered institutions and determine the following:
1. if your institution has duplicate entries
2. if the person who registered for your institution is really your representative
3. if the name of your institution is completely spelled out


The Registration Team has done a preliminary review of the data and their comments are also seen on the file.


Please send an email to the Registration and Communications Director, Crystal Francisco (crystal.francisco@dlsuworlds.com ), to update your registration. Institutions have until April 4, 2011 to send a verification email. After the given time, the registration team will remove registrants with unverified data such as ACRONYMS for institution name and duplicate entries. We believe that everyone will cooperate so that we can have the Official list of registered institutions available on or before April 7.


Should you have any questions or clarifications about the list, please do not hesitate to send an email to info@dlsuworlds.com and we will get back to you at the soonest possible time.


We can’t wait to take you all to Manila!


Best,
The Registration Team


Regards,


Bianca Marie K. Lagdameo
Deputy Convenor, De La Salle Worlds
21st Floor Br. Andrew Gonzalez Hall, 2401 Taft Avenue, Manila
(632) 5244611 loc 376

Live debates this week: US Championships

If you want to watch some debates this weekend IDEA are streaming live rounds from the Unites States University Debating Championships in Vermont.

http://www.idebate.org/streaming/usu2011/

The schedule for the debates is as follows (all times East Coast US and subject to running late as many tournaments do)

Friday 1 April
Round One 4pm
Round Two 6pm

Saturday 2 April
Round Three 9am
Round Four 11:30am
Round Five 2:30pm
Round Six 5pm

Sunday 3 April
Octofinals 9am
Quarterfinals 11:30am
Semifinals 2pm
Final 4:30pm