30 December 2003

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.
The LDU meets every Monday night at 6 PM at 475 Main Street.

EVERY DECEMBER....
VERMONT DEBATERS GIVE UP HOLIDAYS TO PREPARE

| Helen's famous distraction drill | Writing frontlines |

Watch .avi movie of distraction drill at http://debate.uvm.edu/avi/swing04drill2.AVI

The strange LDU winter ritual is underway once again. Students return after Christmas to give up their holidays for several days of intensive preparation for tournaments in early January. Eight-hour days feature speaking drills, research, strategizing, practice speeches, and practice debates. In some ways it is this preparation period as much as the two tournaments that get students ready for a successful second semester. Papers and files spread out around the office and people have time to devote to debate without other academic tasks infringing. When the day is over some work late and some commune in the evenings to heighten fellowship.

The schedule for the rest of prep and the tournaments is as follows:
-Tuesday 12/30 prep day 10-6, Wednesday 12/31 prep day 10-2.
-Thursday 1/1, free day.
- Friday 1/2 drive to Boston early for noon plane to Dallas, Texas.
- Saturday-Sunday-Monday 1/3-5 tournament at University of North Texas.
- Tuesday-Wenesday-Thursday 1/6-8 tournament at University of Texas at Dallas.
- Friday 1/9 fly back to Boston, arrive at noon, drive to Burlington.
UVM classes resume on 1/20.

Thanks to Sam Miller and Charles Hoag for helping us on the Boston drives!

UVM ENDS YEAR IN TOP 20 NATIONALLY
#13, #19, #20 IN NATIONAL STANDINGS

The standings are out and UVM continues to represent. Here are the three major lists compiled by three different organizations. All use a different formula for calculating national standings based on actual competitions, and none is perfect. While proud of our performance the LDU emphasizes that personal growth and development are the goals of the LDU, not sweepstakes points. Here are the Top 50 in each so you can see the schools we finished behind and ahead of. Congratulations to the University of Oklahoma, a new program directed by LDU former coach Jackie Massey, for finishing #6 in the CEDA standings.

AMERICAN DEBATE ASSOCIATION	CROSS EXAMINATION DEBATE ASSOCIATION	NATIONAL DEBATE TOUNAMENT
1 Liberty489 2 Rochester231 3 Army187 4 George Mason 158 5 Catholic156 6 Mary Washington 7 Boston College 131 8 Navy128 9 Trinity115 10 Case Western 111 11 Cornell110 11 John Carroll110 13 Vermont106 14 Binghamton95 15 Towson94 16 Wayne State88 16 Pittsburgh88 18 Wake Forest82 19 Richmond79 20 West Virginia72 21 James Madison 59 21 Capital59 23 Emory58 24 Miami-Ohio56 25 Marist54 26 George Washington 27 Dartmouth43 28 Georgetown42 29 Michigan State 36 30 Weber State33 31 Clarion32 32 Columbia29 33 Fordham27 33 Western Washington 35 Augustana24 35 St. Lawrence24 37 Loyola22 38 Baylor21 38 Pace21 38 Iowa21 38 Northern Iowa21 42 Univ. of Mass.20 42 Texas-San Antonio 42 UMKC20 45 Michigan-Dearborn 18 46 Bard-Vassar16 47 King's College14 47 Allegheny14 49 Miami (FL)13 50 Florida 12	1 Liberty University 2 Emory 3 Rochester 4 Cal-Berkeley (Univ. 5 Wayne State Universi 6 Oklahoma 7 Michigan State Univ. 8 Missouri-Kansas City 9 Cornell University 10 Catholic University 11 U.S. Military Academy 12 Texas (Austin) 13 Wake Forest 14 George Mason 15 Redlands 16 CSU Fullerton 17 Boston College 18 Central Oklahoma 19 Vermont 20 Northwestern 21 John Carroll Univers 22 New York Univ. 23 Miami (Florida) 24 Southern California 25 North Texas (Univ. o 26 Dartmouth 27 Idaho State 28 Trinity University 29 SUNY-Binghamton 30 Iowa 31 Case Western 32 Harvard 33 Vanderbilt 34 Gonzaga 35 Arizona State 36 Mary Washington Coll 37 Weber State Univ. 38 Augustana IL 39 Missouri 40 Miami (Ohio) 41 Georgia 42 Pittsburgh 43 Texas San Antonio (U 44 Southwest Missouri S 45 Baylor 46 Georgetown 47 Wichita State 48 U.S. Naval Academy 49 Kansas (Univ. of) 50 Texas-Dallas	1. Liberty University 479 2. Emory 417 3. Cal-Berkeley 344 4. Wayne State Univ. 342 5. Rochester 336 6. Catholic University 323 7. Texas (Austin) 293 8. Michigan State Univ. 292 9. U.S. Military Academy 287 10. Redlands 285 11. George Mason 280 12. Northwestern 277 13. Boston College 272 14. Oklahoma 271 15. Missouri-Kansas City 266 16. Cornell University 262 17. Dartmouth 251 18. Wake Forest 242 19. North Texas 241 20. Vermont 240 21. CSU Fullerton 238 22. Trinity University 233 23. Iowa 232 24. Mary Washington 230 25. John Carroll 227 26. Southern California 224 27. Idaho State 215 28. Georgia 212 29. SUNY-Binghamton 210 30. Pittsburgh 209 31. Gonzaga 206 32. Weber State Univ. 206 33. Miami (Florida) 205 34. Richmond 198 35. Harvard 194 36. Baylor 193 37. Emporia State U. 193 38. New York Univ. 193 39. Miami (Ohio) 187 40. Southwest Miss. St. 187 41. Central Oklahoma 185 42. Kansas (Univ. of) 183 43. Case Western 182 44. U.S. Naval Academy 178 45. Arizona State 173 46. Vanderbilt 171 47. Wichita State 171 48. Louisville 170 49. West Virginia 163 50. Augustana IL 158

LDU HOLDS RECRUITING WORKSHOP FOR DC URBAN DEBATE LEAGUE STUDENTS

Some 20 DC debaters were at Huber House to find out about the LDU and the university. Many had been here for WDI during the summer. David Moss of Admissions gave them the nuts and bolts talk about applying, Jillian Marty gave them a talk about the debate team, and squad members including Sheila Limprevil and Edwin Owusu gave them a tour of campus. After a pizza lunch at Huber House they were off to the debate tournament. Come back and stay a while if you can!

SEEN AT HUBER HOUSE:
LORI SHERMAN, SARAH SNIDER, AARON FISHBONE, COUNCIL NEDD, PHIL KERPEN

| Lori Sherman | Sarah Snider |

| Aaron Fishbone calls for car repairs | Council Nedd & Phil Kerpen |

A number of LDU alumni and friends came through to visit this month.
Lori Sherman was on town, and dropped in to let us know she will be getting married this Spring. Lori is now living in Florida and working as a private consultant with licenses in nutrition counseling, aromatherapy and reflexology. She has a book coming out and is setting up a new website.

Sarah Snider is the program director of the District of Columbia Urban Debate League and she was in town with eight of her teams to attend a tournament at Burlington High School. She has had a very successful fall season of fundraising and her league is growing and prospering. She was on her way to Europe for a holiday right after the tournament.

Catholic University debate coach and LDU alum Aaron Fishbone also dropped by for a visit. He never mentioned that Catholic was ahead of UVM in the standings. He also visited former UVM debaters Anthony Pagan and Julie Winn. Last year Aaron was also the Director of the Southeast Europe Youth Leadership Institute held in Washington, DC and sponsored by the State Department. Over 140 students and teachers from the Balkans and Southeast Europe were in attendance, and a lot of their activities involved debating and staging public debates.

DC teacher Council Nedd who was last in Burlington for the coaching workshop at the World Debate Institute was also in town with the DCUDL crew as was Phil Kerpen of Cross-x.com and ndtceda.com. While not alums in the strict sense, it was good to have them visit.

If you come to Burlington drop by 475 Main Street, see Huber House, and get your photo in the newsletter!

NEW WEB PHOTO PAGES AVAILABLE

WDI-Europe photos and commentary from November. Go to http://debate.uvm.edu/travel/slo1103.html
Tuna's vacation photos from his house in Mexico. Go to http://debate.uvm.edu/tunamexico.html and also to http://debate.uvm.edu/tunamexicosnapshots122003.html
Watch for Texas Swing photo diary coming in January!

SIGN UP FOR DEBATE THEORY COURSE!

Helen Morgan Parmett will be teaching a course next semester entitled "Debate Theory." This 3-credit class is an ideal way for debaters to improve their skills and their records. The course looks to be very practical and adapted to the needs of each student.

SPCH96: Debate Theory, Wed 3:35 -6:05 PM. Contact Helen as it is a "by permission" course.

MEETINGS AND EVENTS THIS WEEK
PREP 9-5 SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY
PREP 9-2 WEDNESDAY

TRAVEL SCHEDULE 2004

SEMESTER TWO
JANUARY 1/3-8 North Texas-Texas Dallas swing 1/31-2/1 Cornell FEBRUARY 2/7-9 Northwestern 2/14-15 Binghamton	2/21-23 Kansas 2/28-29 DISTRICT8/CEDA East at Marist MARCH 3/12-14 Towson 3/19-22 CEDA Nats Louisville

RESEARCH

Research Director is Jillian Marty. Assignments accepted must be completed.

SWING PREP RESEARCH SHOULD BE COMPLETE.

LDU'S TV SHOW

NOW WITH 278 DIFFERENT PROGRAMS!
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.
Next taping in later January.

FROM THE SQUAD MEETING

NEXT SQUAD MEETING IS MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 6 PM

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

OUR RECORD

UVM DEBATE WAS #10 IN THE CEDA NATIONAL SWEEPSTAKES FOR 2002-2003.

OUR RECORD	WINS	LOSSES	PERCENTAGE
PREVIOUSLY	135	174	43.6%
TOTAL	135	174	43.6%
LAST YEAR AT THIS TIME	185	200	48.5%