US Universities Swells to Over 140 Teams

Last year’s US Universities Debating Championship at Portland State University had a little under seventy teams. As of today there are already over 140 teams with more on the way for this year’s version held at the University of Vermont. The WUDC debating format is obviously becoming very popular in the USA, and teams are flocking to the first ever USU to be held in the East.

Besides a large USA draw there are a number of international teams attending. While international teams can win the tournament, only a USA team can be named national champion. International teams include:
Beijing Foreign Studies University from China
Central University of Economics & Finance from China
Cambridge Union from the UK
Hart House, University of Toronto from Canada
Ljubljana University from Slovenia
Middle Temple from the UK
Tel Aviv University from Israel
University of Witswatersrand from South Africa
Many other inquiries have been made by international teams.

The team cap had been set at 150 teams when the tournament was first announced, but it was never thought that it would reach that level. Now it seems clear that it will reach that level easily as entries keep coming in.

The team cap will be increased if necessary as some additional classrooms are available, but the tournament begins to experience other limits at that point. The large rooms set aside for the announcement of motions has a rated capacity of 330. The judge room has a rated capacity of 105, but there is a chance that an adjacent room might hold 100 more judges. The final is scheduled for the Royall Tyler Theatre which holds 270, but the round may be simulcast to an adjacent room.

Judging is also an issue. Many teams are asking to hire judges, but that may not be possible and so there may be some melt in entry due to the failure to locate additional judges. Calls are about to go out to APDA and CUDID colleagues inviting them to come and judge for pay, as these two groups have a tradition of supporting WUDC format contests and should be able to supply some judges.

One approach to the judge issue is that Neill Harvey-Smith, president of the World Debating Council and chief adjudicator for the 2009 USU, will be holding a rigorous judge training session on early Friday afternoon 3 April 2009. The session will include a comprehensive briefing followed by a written test. Then a sample debate will be staged and judges will score the sample debate . We will be remiss to allow judges to participate unless they have undergone this screening process. Judges will then be graded with the best judges used as chairs and other judges assigned as panelists. This will allow the most effective deployment of judges during the tournament, with an emphasis on the “bubble” rounds where a tam will be facing elimination if they do not score highly.

The University of Vermont is honored by the turnout for this tournament and is working hard to hold an event that is competent, hospitable and fun.

Full team list is at http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/usu/Teams.html