An amazing showing for the Canes at the West Point Debate Tournament

The University of Miami Debate Team traveled to West Point, New York on October 18-21 to compete at the US Military Academy. As a squad, the team won 26 debates, losing only 12. Four of five UM Teams entered in the tournament advanced into the elimination (award) rounds). In a field of 42 teams in novice debate, UM teams finished the preliminary debates seeded 4, 5, and 13, and advanced into the semifinals. 

In Junior Varsity, UM was the 9th seed. 

In the Junior Varsity Division, David Silverman and Spencer George compiled a preliminary debate record of 4-2, but lost a 2-1 decision in the sweet sixteen to Liberty University. The UM Novice team of Valentina Valdez and Nate Nunez also had a 4-2 record in the prelims, and defeated George Mason University in the first elimination round on a 3-0 decision. 

Also in Novice debate, Barbara Puodzius and Ashley Park were 5-1, advancing into the quarterfinals. In the round of 16, they defeated a team from Liberty University of Virginia. Joe Karam and Russ Wilde were 5-1, advancing all the way into the semifinals, where they lost a 2-1 decision to Binghamton University of New York. Along the way, UM won key debates against The New School from New York City, West Virginia University, Monmouth, Vanderbilt, and Cornell. 

This is another outstanding performance by the UM Debaters, who have been working hard on the topic of Presidential War Powers since the summer. UM’s goal is to break the top 20 in national rankings, based on squad success.

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Results from the Sunshine State Showdown at UCF

In order to generate more opportunities for debate competition closer to home, and to promote the growth on debate programs in Florida, UM Debate led the organization of the first Sunshine State Showdown Intercollegiate Debate Tournament, held at The University of Central Florida in Orlando on October 12.  The tournament was hosted by UCF, and run by UM Faculty David Steinberg and Patrick Waldinger.  UF, FSU, USF, UCF, and UM participated.  That the event was held was a success for us, and it offered the opportunity to involve 12 UM Debaters (and lots of other student debaters from Florida) in an excellent day of debate competition.  For nine UM students, it was their first time to enter an intercollegiate policy debate tournament. 

Of course, UM students won a number of awards.  The team of Xingkai Liu and Anna Ivanova won all four of their debates and were the 2^nd place team, losing on tie-breakers to a team from UF.  Anna was the 3^rd place speaker in the tournament and Xingkai was 6^th.  Adrianne Babun-Chavarria and Vikas Manjunath won 3 debates against one loss and were the fourth place team.  Communication Major Renee Reneau was the top speaker and Michael Fuentes won recognition as the 7^th place speaker.

This week the UM team will travel to The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.  After this week, 21 UM students will have represented the U in Debate competition, 13 in their first intercollegiate policy tournaments. 

Participation in debate is open to all UM undergraduates.  Interested students should contact David Steinberg at dave@miami.edu

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UM Debate gets a first place finish at Georgia State!

Ashley Park and Barbara Puodzius, members of the University of Miami Debate team, won the novice championship at the Georgia State University National College Debate Tournament held in Atlanta on September 21-23.  

The team is sponsored by the School of Communication and coached by David Steinberg, a senior lecturer at the SoC and the university’s director of debate.

Park and Puodzius, both students in the College of Arts and Sciences, defeated teams from Wake Forest, the University of West Georgia, Vanderbilt and the University of Louisville.

UM’s squad entered two novice teams and three junior varsity teams in the policy debate tournament, which was held under the auspices of the American Debate Association, the Cross Examination Debate Association and the National Debate Tournament. 

In Atlanta, the five UM teams competed in six preliminary debates on the topic, “Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase statutory and/or judicial restrictions on the war powers authority of the president of the United States in one or more of the following areas: targeted killing, indefinite detention, offensive cyber operations or introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities.” 

The UM Team of Valentina Valdez and Nate Nunez, also in the novice division, won four of six debates to advance into the award rounds as the sixth seed.  Valdez was recognized as the 10th place individual performer of the 58 novice debaters competing, and Nunez took seventh place. 

 In the junior division, David Silverman and Spencer reached the quarterfinals; Ali Jessani and Ryden Butler advanced into the elimination debates.  Joe Karam and Ken Yu also competed for UM at the tournament.
 
The participating schools included New York University, University of Florida, Florida State University, University of South Florida, University of Houston, University of Georgia and Georgia Tech.

The debaters began their research and argument preparation during the summer, Steinberg said. They also spent a week of intense preparation at a debate retreat in Davenport, Fla., before the start of school in August.   In addition to Steinberg, the debaters are coached by Patrick Waldinger, assistant director of debate, and by doctoral student Randall Martinez.

“This weekend was a great success for UM Debate, and for our new assistant director of debate, Patrick Waldinger,” Steinberg said.  “It is awesome to have him here.  His work and leadership, along with the dedication and talent of our students, made the win happen.”

The team will compete again at the University of Central Florida on Oct. 12th.  Later in the year, the team will travel to tournaments at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.; Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C. 

Participation in debate is open to all UM undergraduates.  Interested students should contact David Steinberg atdave@miami.edu.

Pictures by David Steinberg

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University of Miami to host the 2014 Pan American University Debating Championship

The University of Miami debate team is excited to be hosting the Pan American University Debating Championship January 24th - 26th, 2014. The competition will bring in students from universities across the U.S., Latin America, and Europe to debate contemporary topics that effect a globalized world. Students will be able to compete in either English or Spanish language British parliamentary format debates. For more information check out the tournament page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CPUD2014

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Updated list of debate video sites

Thanks to the efforts of various coaches and directors across the country, this year in debate has produced a substantial amount of high quality videos available for online viewing. This is a brief collection of various debate videos we have come across (feel free to send us your links if you're not mentioned) from the last two years. The videos are divided up by event below. 

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