16 April 2002
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News
from Vermont Debate AKA The Voice of Edwin is the weekly newsletter
of the Edwin Lawrence Debate Union at the University of Vermont, an
endowed co-curricular program which trains students in debating and
sponsors national competition and community events. The newsletter is
published every Tuesday during the school year and infrequently at other
times. Alfred C. Snider is the Director. 802-656-0097 voice, 802-238-8345
mobile, 802-656-4275 fax, asnider@zoo.uvm.edu
email, and http://debate.uvm.edu/ldu.html
web site. |
| Jackie Massey, coach, and Jillian Marty, president, hold national awards
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The 2001-2002 season came to a competitive close at the Cross Examination Debate Association National Tournament held at California State University Fullerton. UVM kept its top ten standing to close at the year at #9 [see details below].
The LDU set new team season records for most wins (438) and most debates (831).
Aaron Fishbone and Shawn Wilkerson were both named to CEDA's All American Debate team. This was the second such award for each, having been named All Americans in the 2000-2001 season. Then two were also 5-3 in the preliminary debates, but lost a difficult decision to Emporia State in the elimination rounds. The team got an enthusiastic round of applause from the debaters and coaches at the awards assembly.
Other teams, with considerably less experience, posted strong results. Jillian Mary and Sheila Limprevil were 4-4, Casey Gervais and Anthony Pagan were 4-4, and Claudia Greenman and Lana Langsweirdt were also 4-4. Brian Cole and Edwin Owusu were 2-6 as were Teresa Hill and Jill Witney. Abigail Trebilcock had been debating on a hybrid team with California State University at Long Beach's Nader Haddad and were 2-2 after the first day when Nader had to withdraw because of illness.
Jackie Massey had been selected to represent the East region as judge for the Final Round. The debate took place between Fort Hays State University (KS) and Michigan State University. The decision was 5-4 for Fort Hays with Jackie in the majority. It was an amazing debate, and a video will soon be available at the Debate Central website. Jackie was the last to give his decision.
The LDU also delivered a live webcast of the final round debate which was a new high in debate technology. Viewers reported excellent audio and good video from the webcast. Thanks to Wesley Wright for his help in this project.
UVM Coach Snider received the Don Brownlee Award for service to debate. His ability to inspire debaters to become coaches was noted. He was clearly embarrassed when the chant of "Tuna Tuna" accompanied his clasping of the award.
The tournament was also a good place to chat with candidates for the UVM faculty position being vacated by Jackie Massey. Several excellent candidates had a chance to meet with LDU staff and students during the tournament.
In summarizing the year, coach Jackie Massey remarked, "We did so well, and we never really compromised ourselves in our argument selection. We never sold out." Coach Snider saw it a bit differently, "As the season went on, the students became more and more committed to their own arguments and positions as a form of personal advocacy. The nice part is that by the end of the season each debater had developed their own major positions, and no two teams did the same thing."
NDT sweepstakes can be found
at http://www.whitman.edu/offices_departments/rhetoric/ndt/00zoverall.htm
CEDA sweepstakes can be found at http://esc.wichita.edu/ceda/ceda0102.htm
NDT SWEEPSTAKES RACE |
CEDA SWEEPSTAKES RACE |
|
1.
University of Rochester 557 |
1 Michigan State EC |
Last year UVM entered the only team from the USA to attend the Torneo Hispanoamericano de Debate held at Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile. This year the UVM team has been invited back, and UVM coach Snider has been invited to present a workshop on judging and assist with the management of the tournament. The tournament will be held at Universidad Interamericano in San Juan, Puerto Rico on May 6-11, 2002. Last year's event was truly groundbreaking, as for the first time UVM students debated in a second language at an international tournament, to the acclaim of the Spanish speaking teams who were deeply impressed by Americans who understood that to be truly international debate must occur in a variety of languages. "They are so used to Americans demanding that all debates be in English that they were impressed by our willingness to put ourselves at risk in a second language. The team performed well, receiving several standing ovations during the competition," said coach Snider. "This year, we hope to do even better."
Retiring UVM coach Jackie Massey will be attending the tournament. Friend of UVM debate and famous Spanish language debate coach Rodrigo Rojas of Universidad Diego Portales, now pursuing a Fulbright at New York University, has agreed to help coach the team before the tournament.
TRAVEL
WITH THE LDU...
The program that the New York Times called "Boot camp for the brain and for free speech as well," [August 9, 2002, p. A12] returns for a 20th summer on the UVM campus. The World Debate Institute last year attracted over 300 people from more than 15 nations for high intensity training for two weeks. WDI will offer a two week high school policy workshop, a one week national high school leadership workshop, a college policy debate workshop, a college parliamentary workshop, an international debate workshop, as well as coach training programs.
The current CEDA National Champions, Joe Ramsey and Jason Regnier, were WDI students last summer.
For more information, go to http://debate.uvm.edu/wdi.html.
FROM
THE SQUAD MEETING...
EVENTS
COMING UP....
RESEARCH ASSIGNMENTS
FLASHPOINT
TELEVISION SHOW
SQUAD
MEETING
2001-2002 SEASON |
WINS |
LOSSES |
% |
PREVIOUS |
417 |
365 |
53 |
CEDA NATIONALS |
21 |
28 |
|
TOTAL |
438 |
393 |
52.7 |
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