WDI Success - Many People Make It Happen

Alison Maynard, Susie McPheeters, Ellen Morris, Janet Nunziata, Corin Blanchard and Nichole Hathaway pose after WDI debrief

It takes a crew to make a successful four-week event. Fortunately, at the University of Vermont the World Debate Institute has a dedicated and highly competent group of people who have worked very hard all year to make the event run so smoothly.

Whether it is lost library cards, locked rooms, premature expiration of computer access codes, parking issues or lost luggage, this crew has done a great job.

The group met this week for a WDI 2008 debrief and there was a long list of successes, challenges and plans for next summer. I want to personally thank everyone for their dedication and concern.

Policy Debate Final Round Now Online

The final round was won on a 3-0 decision:

[AFF] Zac Hartkopp (JCCC) & Derek Ziegler (Kansas State) defeat [NEG] Ben Dabiri(Oklahoma) & Jen Cox (Oklahoma).

Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, at least eliminating nearly all of the domestic subsidies, for biofuels, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, corn, cotton, dairy, fisheries, rice, soybeans, sugar and/or wheat.

Part One



Part Two

College Policy Tournament Results

Faculty members Ruth Zisman and David Register

David Register reports:

The 2008 National College Policy Debate Workshop is over!  The weather was
great and the evidence set is outstanding.  Our Scholars did an amazing job.
Thank you to Brian Rubaie, Lauren Sabino, Dylan Quigley, and Nick Watts for
all of their hard work in making this year such a success.


In our camp tournament, the final round was won on a 3-0 decision:

[AFF] Zac Hartkopp (JCCC) & Derek Ziegler (K State) defeat [NEG] Ben Dabiri
(OU) & Jen Cox (OU)


Speaker awards (2 and 3 tied):

1.       Ashley Fortner (Richmond)

2.       Jen Cox (Oklahoma)

3.       Derek Ziegler (K State)

4.       Ben Dabiri (Oklahoma)

See the indexes for the complete list of files produced:

http://debate.uvm.edu/dcpdf/wdi2008collegepolicyindexes1.pdf

http://debate.uvm.edu/dcpdf/wdi2008collegepolicyindexes2.pdf


Thank you to everyone who came, especially those novices from
Louisiana-Lafayette and Monmouth whose work ethics and brains should give
those programs a lot of hope for the future.


David Register
Lecturer/Debate Coach
Lawrence Debate Union
Department of Theatre
College of Arts & Sciences
University of Vermont
David.Register@uvm.edu

Debate - Policy - WDI Scholars Debate on Farm Subsidies

Left to right: Nick Watts, Lauren Sabino, Brian Rubiae, Dylan Quigley

Featuring Lauren Sabino of Wake Forest and Brian Rubiae of Texas-Dallas on the affirmative, against Dylan Quigley of Kansas and Nick Watts of Oklahoma on the negative. The debate was about ending agricultural subsidies to CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). Part 3 contains comments from Kansas State's Justin Green. Negative win.

CAUTION: Policy debate takes place at very high speeds and can be very technical, and for those reasons may be the most rigorous form of debate there is.

See the video at
http://debatevideoblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/debate-policy-wdi-scholars-debate-on.html

College Policy Debate Workshop Ends

Policy "hat" winners: Ashley Fortner of Richmond, Jennifer Cox of Oklahoma, Chris Latucca of Vermont, Alease Scott of Louisiana and Brian Rubaie of Texas-Dallas

The last of the five WDI programs this summer ended on Wednesday as the College Policy Workshop came to a close.

The day featured the last preliminary round of the tournament, an exhibition debate by the scholars, the final round of the tournament, and an awards ceremony where the inevitable "hats" were given out.

More details coming in a day or so after we all recover a bit, but I would have to say that it was a huge success. The atmosphere was excellent, the debaters improved tremendously, the evidence set produced was truly excellent and a good time seemed to have been had by all, and the evaluations showed that.

Plans for the future were boiling as the faculty had their dinner of some tasty Thai food. Watch this space for more about 2009 to come.

Watch Final Round of World Universities Workshop

The four teams were: 1st government Emily Barkdoll & Ethan Backus of Vermont, 2nd government Joshua Miller & Mandy Frank of Vermont, 1st opposition Lee Richmond & Garret Valdez of Tennessee Tech, 2nd opposition Darius Niknamfard & Scott Crespo of Cornell.

After totalling the ranks, it was Joshua Miller & Mandy Frank of Vermont with 53 points, and the next closest was Lee Richmond & Garrett Valdez of Tennessee Tech with 25.

The motion was: This House would put security cameras in the public places of city centers.

New Evidence Indexes from College Policy Debate

Now available at

http://debate.uvm.edu/dcpdf/wdi2008collegepolicyindexes2.pdf

Some pretty cool stuff here! Congratulations to all for hard work and creativity.

The picture above shows our printing room in the women's dressing room at the Royall Tyler Theatre at the University of Vermont. It is a sweet space.

See What Policy Debate Has Been Up To

Policy debate is very research-centered and the focus is on the one debate topic that will be debated all year.

Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, at least eliminating nearly all of the domestic subsidies, for biofuels, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, corn, cotton, dairy, fisheries, rice, soybeans, sugar and/or wheat.

The first set of evidence is now finished and out.

You may download and inspect the indexes to the arguments from the WDI first wave evidence set.

http://debate.uvm.edu/dcpdf/wdi2008collegepolicyindexes1.pdf

This is for information purposes only. We do not sell or vend the WDI evidence set because it belongs to those who produced it.

We will have another batch in a day or so.

Things are going well and the work is intense. Congrats to all.

World Debate Institute WUDC Session Concludes

From left to right, Champions Mandy Frank & Joshua Miller; special awards Julie Mirse, Morgan Sayre, Kenneth Barnes and Michael Vigeant

The super-intensive five-day WUDC training workshop held at the World Debate Institute at the University of Vermont concluded on Friday. After eight rounds of debate during the week the scores were totaled and the top four teams were invited to a grand final round, and twenty attendees agreed to judge.

The four teams were: 1st government Emily Barkdoll & Ethan Backus of Vermont, 2nd government Joshua Miller & Mandy Frank of Vermont, 1st opposition Lee Richmond & Garret Valdez of Tennessee Tech, 2nd opposition Darius Niknamfard & Scott Crespo of Cornell. After totalling the ranks, it was Joshua Miller & Mandy Frank of Vermont with 53 points, and the next closest was Lee Richmond & Garrett Valdez of Tennessee Tech with 25.

The motion was: This House would put security cameras in the public places of city centers.

Four other awards were handed out, the traditional "hats." After 25 years WDI continues its tradition of awarding a University of Vermont cap to those students who combine enthusiasm, a willingness to help others and improvement during the sessions as voted on by the faculty. The winners were:
Morgan Sayre of Vermont
Kenneth Barnes of Tennessee Tech
Michael Vigeant of Tennessee Tech
Julie Mirse of Tennessee Tech
Congratulations to the Tech students for an outstanding showing.

See the video of the final round at
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4953455623210924273