27 August 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. |
| International Students at WDI
| "Black" Division speakers, including many LDU debaters |
The Lawrence Debate Union gears up for its 104th year of competition after an incredibly eventful summer.
The LDU and UVM once again hosted the World Debate Institute (20th year), providing an intense educational experience for students and teachers from around the world. This was the largest WDI yet and many thought the most successful. The program included 20 high school students at a one week National Leadership Workshop, 126 high school students at the National High School Policy Debate Workshop, 18 teachers at the Coaching Workshop, 12 students at the International Debate Workshop, 75 students at the National College Policy Debate Workshop, 20 students at the College Parliamentary Wokshop, as well as a number of distinguished guests from around the world. These guests included Dr. Kyung-Ja Lee, Dean of the School of Communication at Kyung Hee University in the Republic of Korea (who has hired WDI faculty member Jason Jarvis to teach debate there), Luis de Llano of Venezuela (who is working with a number of different groups to start a national debate program in Venezuela), Maria Rosso of Interamerican University of Puerto Rico (who hosted the recent Torneo Hispanoamericano in Puerto Rico), Mila Turajlic of the Yugoslav University Debate Network, Rodrigo Rojas of Universidad Diego Portales in Chile, and many others, including coaches from Haiti and visitors from Rumania. Students from the UK, Nicaragua, Guyana, Japan, Puerto Rico and other nations also were part of the events.
LDU students did well as the tournament at the end of the college policy session. In the "Black" (more experienced) division, Jillian Marty '04 and Jake Meany '06 were undefeated and finished second, Lana Langsweirdt '03 finished third, Sheila Limprevil '05 and Edwin Owusu '05 were seventh, and Brian Cole '03 and Teresa Hill '04 finished eighth. In speaker awards Lana was second, Sheila was sixth, Brian was seventh, and Jake was ninth. In the "Gold" (less experienced) division,Kayce Massey '04 finished as eighth place team. Ten LDU students attended WDI.
In the earlier part of the summer LDU coach Alfred Snider was asked to administer the National Forensic League's national tournament for high schopol speech and debate, which was held in Charlotte, North Carolina. The event featured 2800 contestants and 1300 judges in 13 different speech and debate events. It was a harrying experience, but all seem to have survived and the tournament was said to be efficiently run and no complaints were heard, in itself an unusual event.
The LDU also produced several new items to offer to other schools as debate learning resources. Mental Help is a 600 page resource book on the 2002-03 national high school debate topic. Policy Debate 2003 is a CD-ROM that includes 600 pages of argument resources on the high school topic, a complete debate textbook, a complete argument textbook, and six full motion videos on the high school topic.
Alfred Snider and LDU alumni Maxwell Schnurer published a book, Many Sides: debate across the curriculum, a resource for teachers who want to use debate as a learning method in the non-speech classroom. The book is currently available on amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. It has proved so popular that a second edition has alkready been called for and this Fall it will be translated into Russian.
Teresa Hill '04 received substantial publicity for sponsoring a "math camp" for students in the Burlington area, and she has been credited with making math fun for kids.
Jillian, Sheila, and Edwin worked at the Catholic University of America summer debate institute, and also at the Baltimore Urban Debate League institute, and finally at the inaugural Marshall-Brennan Urban Debate League (Washington, DC) institute, directed by LDU alumnae Sarah Snider, who is the Program Manager of the MBUDL, based out of American University and Catholic University.
Finally, the LDU has been invited to organize and staff a summer debate institute to be held next year in China. The program will be held in English and train Chinese students (and others from all over Asia) in the arts and skills of debating.
The LDU recorded and broadcast eight new installments of the television program Flashpoint. More details later.
UVM also attended
the international Spanish language debate championship held in Puerto Rico
in May. A complete journal of the experience along with many, many pictures
can be found at http://debate.uvm.edu/travel/puertorico/pr0502.html
Monday August 26 was the first day of class. No debate meeting had been advertised but of course there was one and a nice crowd turned out for it, brimming with enthusiasm and anxious to get the season started.
2002-2003 topic was
announced:
Resolved that the United States Federal Government should ratify or accede
to, and implement, one or more of the following:
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty;
The Kyoto Protocol;
The Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court;
The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights aiming at the Abolition of the Death Penalty;
The treaty between the United States of America and the Russian federation
on Strategic Offensive Reductions, if not ratified by the United States.
LDU preliminary travel
schedule was announced:
| September 20-23 Georgia State 28-29 Rochester |
February 1-2 Cornell 7-9 Western Washington 14-16 Kansas 21-23 East Regionals/D8 |
| October 12-13 Columbia 19-20 Vermont 26-28 Harvard |
March 28-02 Towson 20-24 CEDA Nationals, AZ |
| November 1-3 West Point 8-10 Central Oklahoma 15-17 Wake Forest 23-24 Binghamton |
April 3-7 NDT, GA |
| January TBA UMKC TBA William Jewell TBA Belgrade (Yugoslavia) Open |
May TBA Tercer Torneo Hispanoamericano de Debate |
Some teams were declared: Lana Langsweirdt and Jen Knops, Jake Meany and Jillian Marty, Edwin Owusu and Sheila Limprevil, and Brian Cole and Teresa Hill. Others are milling about and many more teams will soon emerge.
Recruitment efforts were high on the list. Posters were handed out and postering assignments were volunteered for. Trinity McDonald, Billings Langsweirdt, Lafayette Old Mill Hill, Library Cole, Waterman Langsweirdt, Votey/Perkins/Torrey/Kalkin Massey, Morril/Terrill/Marsh/Aiken Witney, Mance Cole, Tunnel Marty, Living & Learning Marty Limprevil Bryce, MAT Langsweirdt, CBW Converse Teresa, Harris-Millis Limprevil, Simpson-Mason-Hamilton Meany, WDW Meany, CWP Owusu, Gym Hellmuth. KEEP PUTTING THE POSTERS UP!
FROM THE SQUAD MEETING
FLASHPOINT
TELEVISION SHOW
SQUAD
MEETING |
|
WINS |
LOSSES |
% |
2001-2002 SEASON |
438 |
393 |
52.7 |
2002-2003 SEASON |
0 |
0 |
|
TOTAL |
|
|
|
UVM Debate was #9 in both major national polls for debate in the USA for the 2001-2002 season.
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