25 October 2005

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, alfred.snider@uvm.edu email, and http://debate.uvm.edu/ldu.html web site. To unsubscribe from the email version of the newsletter go to http://list.uvm.edu/archives/topicnews.html .

THE SWORD IS OURS!
VERMONT WINS WEST POINT TOURNAMENT


| Nick and Jason with final round judges and "the sword" |

To see a fun collection of photos of the weekend to go http://debate.uvm.edu/wp2005.html

One hundred and one teams attended the 38th annual West Point Invitational Debate Tournament last weekend at the U.S. Military Academy, and one team came home with the award that everyone wanted the most -- the sword. The sword is an antique military saber that has been mounted on velvet along with its scabbard and encased in wood and glass. Around the wooden case are engraved the schools that have won the right to possess the sword for one year, the school that wins the open division at the tournament. This year that school was Vermont and the team was Nick Landsman-Roos and Jason Hitchcock, both UVM juniors. They were 5-1 in the preliminary debates, losing only to Liberty University. Nick was named the top speaker and received the award named after General Daniel Kaufman, former debater and long-time commandant of the Academy. Nick had 171 out of a possible 180 points. In the octafinal debate they received a bye because they were the #2 seed/ In the quarterfinals they defeated a fine team from Cornell University on a 3-0 decision, with the ballots coming in very quickly. In the semifinal round they met the team from Liberty that had defeated them in the preliminary rounds, and defeated them 3-0 in what observers called one of the quickest decisions they had ever seen a judging panel make. In the final round they met Boston College and debated in front of a panel of "soldiers and scholars," West Point has a tradition of having the open division final round judged by three topic area experts with little or no debate experience. This year the panel consisted of a general with specialization in China's military policy, a colonel with expertise in international relations focusing on East Asia, and a member of the White House national security staff in the Bush first-term who directed the global force posture review and is now teaching at West Point and at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. The decision was 2-1 for Vermont, with the general in the dissent. UVM was negative and argued that with the six party talks at a critical stage now was not the right time to pressure China, that a policy of engagement would better meet Boston College's goal of protecting intellectual property rights, and that the process of using sanctions on China would be counterproductive to both economies and relations. "This is another of my important goals," said Hitchcock, "and that goal has now been reached. The sword is ours."
The other open division teams did very well, considering that they are all JV teams entering the open division because they want the challenge and they want to develop in the long run. All four of them were 3-3, but Ethan Nelson and Mike McMahan had high enough speaker points to make the octafinal round, where they were defeated by Binghamton 3-0. The teams of Leslie Keller and Megan Harlow, Shane Clark and Chase Whiting, and Brady Fletcher and Colin Kern all were 3-3 and missed by a few speaker points. "With all of these JV teams competing well in the open division, we hope to do well at JV nationals," said Coach Snider. UVM has won the JV national title in the last three consecutive years.
In the junior varsity division two teams reached the elimination rounds. The team of Stephanie Kimerer and Sumeet Sharma were 4-2 in prelims, won their octafinal debate 2-1, before losing in the quarterfinals. Stephanie was the #4 speaker in the division. Sumeet is a first year student who was attending his first tournament with the LDU. The team of Jeffrey Wilson and Matt Jokajtys were 3-3 but had enough speaker points to reach the elimination rounds, where they lost 3-0 in octafinals to Liberty. Jeffrey is a first year student and Matt is a novice debater. Ethan Kichura and Zoe Anderson showed progress and were 2-4. Novice Dave Bates and new LDU debater Noah Lynn were 2-4 in their first college debate tournament, which was very encouraging.
The LDU had eight novice teams and none of them won any awards, but the results were very encouraging. Seven of those eight teams had members who had never been to a debate tournament before. "None of them went 0-for," said coach Justin Parmett, "and that is very encouraging when you consider they were at their first debate tournament ever and we had eight teams." Three of those teams were 3-3 and just missed the elimination rounds, including Doug Helal and Tim Dougherty, Cameron Lawler and Gabriel Mabil, and Adam Rostler and Brennan Leene. Adam Scherr and Ari Diaconis were 2-4 along with Justin Brown and Alex Thibault as well as Ethan Backus and Taylor Lalemand. Eric Hoke and Corey Paradies as well as Tyler Brannan and Amadeus Kaelber were 1-5. "I was pleased by the 1-5 teams and their approach, and I predict a lot of good things from them in the future," said director Snider.
The contingent of 17 teams was the largest at the tournament. The total record was 50-59, a losing record, but with seven teams debating up a division and seven teams at their first tournament out of 17 teams, that record is very good indeed. "We want to win all of our debates," said director Snider, "but we have an agenda. That agenda involves teaching students how to debate the right way for long term development and of challenging students with higher levels of competition so that at the end of the year we will have our best performances."

DOCTOR WHO THEATER RETURNS TO BURLINGTON
MONDAYS AT 8:15 PM. EMAIL alfred.snider@uvm.edu FOR A SCHEDULE!

LDU TRAVEL SCHEDULE FOR 2005-2006

SEMESTER ONE Record Placed SEMESTER TWO

10/1-2 BUFFALO 32-36 1-3-5
10/15-16 UVM SCRIMMAGE
10/21-23 WEST POINT 50-59 1-5-9-9
10/29-31 HARVARD
11/04-06  CATHOLIC
11/12-14 WAKE FOREST
11/13-14 UMASS 
11/18-26 INTL DEBATE ACADEMY            

1/3-5 NORTH TEXAS
11/7-10  TEXAS-DALLAS
1/28-30 BARD 
2/04-06  TEXAS 
2/11-12  BINGHAMTON 
2/25-26  D8/CEDA EAST WEST CT  
3/3-5  NOV/JV NATS GEORGETOWN  
3/23-27  NDT NORTHWESTERN 
3/31-4/03 CEDA NATS DALLAS

FLASHPOINT TELEVISION

Watch Flashpoint from your computer screen whenever you want! You will need RealPlayer installed on your computer to become a part of our growing audience. Here are some recent programs now available at http://debate.uvm.edu/flashpoint.html. Watch on Burlington Channel 15 Wednesday 12:30 PM, Thursday 10 PM, Saturday 1 PM.
Last taping: September 17, Saturday 2 PM. Topics: Caribbean Colonies; Hurricane, Environment & health. Panelists: Fletcher, Anderson, Snider, Whiting.
WATCH FOR NEW FLASHPOINT EPISODES AT THE WEB SITE BY THE END OF THE WEEK!


NOTES FROM MONDAY NIGHT'S 6 PM MEETING:

HOODED SWEATSHIRTS AND SWEATPANTS ARE COMING. AFTER A LONG DISCUSSION CONCENSUS WAS ARRIVED AT FOR "2+2=5 DOUBLETHINK" TO BE THE SLOGAN FOR THIS YEAR. MEMBERS WANTED TO POINT OUT THE ORWELLIAN PROCESS OF DOUBLETHINK THAT IS ALL TOO PREVALENT. ORDERS WILL BE TAKEN NEXT WEEK AND PRODUCT AVAILABLE THE WEEK AFTER THAT.

NEW RESEARCH ASSIGNMENTS WERE GIVEN OUT. ALL DUE THURSDAY.

LESLIE KELLER REPORTED ON THE NEW FUNDRAISING PROGRAM IN COOPERATION WITH DEVELOPMENT. ALUMS AARON FISHBONE AND CHUCK MORTON ARE ALSO INVOLVED. A MASSIVE MAILING WILL GO OUT IN EARLY JANUARY.

HARVARD: HITHCOCK & LANDSMAN-ROOS WITH JUSTIN & HELEN
CATHOLIC: FOUR TEAMS WITH EMILY & TUNA
UMASS: EVERYONE SHOULD PLAN ON GOING
WAKE FOREST: HITCHCOCK & LANDSMAN-ROOS, KELLER & HARLOW WITH JUSTIN
INTL DEBATE ACADEMY IN SLOVENIA: KELLER, LANDSMAN-ROOS, MEANS WITH TUNA

AN INTERNET WILL BE FILMED SATURDAY AT 5 PM. IT WILL BE TAPED AND WEBCAST THEN ARCHIVED AT OUR WEBSITE. THE TOPIC MUST INVOLVE THE UNITED NATIONS AND TERRORISM. DEBATERS: JULIA, SHANE, BRADY, CHASE, ETHAN, JEFFREY. THIS WILL BE DISCUSSED ON THE LISTSERV.

MORE PEOPLE STILL NEED TO GET DRIVER TRAINING FOR VANS!

WORK STUDY POSITIONS: CHASE IS EVIDENCE, JULIE IS MIDDLE SCHOOL, LESLIE IS FUNDRAISING, STEFFI IS EVIDENCE ARCHIVING, BUT ALL SHOULD HELP CHASE PRINT THE EVIDENCE.

THE PC IN THE OFFICE IS ONLY FOR EVIDENCE ARCHIVING. PLEASE USE MACS OTHERWISE.

TO JOIN THE LDU DEBATER LISTSERV GO TO http://list.uvm.edu/archives/debater.html

MEETINGS THIS WEEK

NOVICE TRAINING THURSDAY AT 7 PM

PRACTICE DEBATE
WEDNESDAY 7 PM MEGAN-JEFFREY VS. COLIN & STEFFI CRITIC TBA

CLAUDIA GREENMAN claud662@aol.com
It was great seeing you last weekend at the debate house which always brings back such great memories! I spent so many hours at that house preparing for tournaments, that it truly feels like a second home. You asked for a bio about what I was currently doing... I am currently the Youth Director for Temple B'nai Abraham where I have created and teach a post bar/bat mitzvah program for teenagers. I currently have 85 students in my program where each week we discuss hot topics that we are prominent in the media, our own lives, and within politics. I have structured many debates for my students about the Israeli disengagement, parental consent on abortion, and the death penalty. I have traveled to Israel this past spring with a group from the Jewish Federation and will have the opportunity to travel back there each year as a youth group leader with my high school students. I am also going to Amsterdam in February with the students to explore the Jewish culture in their society. I am really excited about all the opportunities that this career has to offer! If any of the UVM debate alumni's want to email and will be in the New York/New Jersey area, please email claud662@aol.com. Would love to hear what you all are doing...

SHANE EGIZI shane_egizi@hotmail.com
How are you doing? it's good to hear team is doing very well. Jess and I are enjoying our second year here in Hong kong. I hope you got the webpage to see our pics of Tibet this past summer. One of my highlights was watching Tibetan monks debate in their monastery.

MATTHEW BYRNE mbyrne@gravelshea.com
Gravel and Shea, Burlington, Vermont, is pleased to announce that Matthew Byrne has joined the firm as special counsel. Mr. Byrne practices in all areas of business litigation and frequently represents clients in complex commercial cases. He attended the University of Vermont and after graduating with honors from the University of Chicago Law School praciced law in Chicago where he was a partner at Kirkland and Ellis LLP.

SQUAD MEETS AT 6 PM EACH MONDAY NIGHT, 475 MAIN STREET, ALL WELCOME!

2004-2005 NOVICE DEBATE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
2004-2005 JV DEBATE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
UVM DEBATE WAS #6 IN THE CEDA NATIONAL SWEEPSTAKES FOR 2004-2005
UVM DEBATE WAS #18 IN THE CEDA NATIONAL SWEEPSTAKES FOR 2003-2004
UVM DEBATE WAS #10 IN THE CEDA NATIONAL SWEEPSTAKES FOR 2002-2003

OUR RECORD
WINS
LOSSES
PERCENTAGE
PREVIOUSLY
32
36
WEST POINT
50
59
TOTAL
82
95
46.3%
2004-2005 RECORD
323
328
 49.6%
2003-2004 RECORD
315
374
 45.7%
2002-2003 RECORD
334
384
46.5%

ALWAYS CALL IT HUBER HOUSE!