The University of North Texas Debate Team of Amy Schade, (Biology first year from Grapevine TX) and Colin Quinn (Communication Studies Sophomore from Chicago, IL) just won the National Junior Division Debate Tournament title held at Johnson County Community, in Kansas City, Mo. Schade and Quinn defeated the University of Oklahoma in the final round to take the title. They posted wins over Wichita State University, Augustana College, the University of Northern Iowa, the University of Kansas, and the University of Texas at San Antonio. Schade and Quinn were undefeated in the prelims and won four elimination rounds to claim the title.
North Texas (Univ.) competed at the NJDDT (National Junior Div. Debate Tourn) debate tournament hosted by Johnson County. Competition began on 3/12/2011 and ended on 3/14/2011. The tournament was attended by 53 teams from a variety of colleges and universities. Competitive academic debate tournaments offer competition in a variety of divisions that are separated according to the experience level of the competitors. All teams compete in a fixed number of preliminary rounds, and teams with the top preliminary round records (typically just under half the teams in the division) compete in a single-elimination bracket for the championship in their division.
In addition to team wins and losses, individual speakers are awarded speaker points based on the quality of their presentations. Awards are typically given to the top 10 students in each division. North Texas (Univ.) had no speakers in the top 25.
Debate teams are composed of 2 speakers. Each school may enter multiple teams in any or all levels of competition. Rookie division is for competitors at their first tournament ever. Novice division is generally for competitors with 1 year of experience or less. Junior Varisy is for students with 2 years of experience or less. The Open division is the highest level of competition, and it has no entry restrictions.
Although there are many formats for collegiate debates, by far the most research intensive, well documented, and rigorous format is competitive policy debate. Students are required to do thousands of pages of research on top of their regular coursework to compete at the top levels. Competitive academic policy debate is governed by two national organizations, the National Debate Tournament (NDT) and the Cross-Examination Debate Association (CEDA). Each organization sanctions its own regions, comparable to athletic conferences, and there regional and national standings each organization maintains. These standings can be viewed by going to www.debateresults.com and clicking on the links for the the NDT Point standings or the CEDA point standings. Each are in the lower-right-hand box. A full list of all awards a school has run this season can be obtained from the same page by clicking on the link labeled 'Show awards by school.'
The full list of schools in attendance includes: Missouri State, Texas San Antonio, Wichita State, Illinois State University, Augustana IL, Wisconsin Oshkosh , Southern Methodist Univ., Kansas (Univ. of), Oklahoma, Kansas State, Wyoming, Northern Iowa (Univ.), Kansas City KS CC, Emporia State U., Missouri-Kansas City, North Texas (Univ.), Johnson County, George Washington, Concordia, Minnesota.
For more information about the debate program at North Texas (Univ.), contact:
Brian Lain, blain@unt.edu, 940-565-4534; or Louie Petit, louiepetit@gmail.com, 417-459-0350