News

A Letter From the Director During COVID-19

Dear URDU,

I am writing with great sympathy for all of you who have had your semesters disrupted academically, socially, and competitively. I cannot imagine the sadness our graduating seniors must be feeling as they have had their last in-person competitive opportunities taken away. Perhaps the most difficult change in this moment is that we are being required to close the debate office to any remaining students on campus until further notice.

Even though the semester won’t be “business as usual,” the coaches remain committed to providing opportunities for you all to participate in debate, even if those opportunities might not be under ideal circumstances. We’re making plans for some virtual events over the course of the next couple of months, and we hope you all will jump in and participate in an effort to help us maintain some URDU community during this tough time.

Despite the office being closed to students, coaches will be available for virtual instruction throughout the rest of the semester. In an effort to understand what sorts of competitive and/or pedagogical opportunities people might prefer – and to brainstorm with all of you generally – we would like you to fill out this short survey. As you will see, it is an attempt to gather information on what will work best for each of you as we try out some virtual debate options. This is all very new to me and the rest of your coaches, and of course we are not happy about having to make this transition – debate remains an intrinsically in-person activity for us – but we will try to make the experience the best it can be.

Your coaches will be making efforts to reach out individually to as many of you as possible over the next few days, and we also are making plans for virtual meetings and practices. We understand that this situation presents different challenges depending on a variety of factors. Therefore, if you don’t hear from us, please do not hesitate to reach out at any time if you need anything. We may not be able to solve your problem, but we can help support you, investigate the possible solution, and/or refer you to appropriate resources.

If you need anything, or just want to catch up, please don’t hesitate to email or call. We’re all still here to support you, even if the conditions under which we do that have changed dramatically. If you need to reach us, please try email first, and if we don’t respond and you need urgent assistance, go ahead and try us by phone. (If you want any of our contact info please direct message us!)

As of now our first virtual meeting will take place this Wednesday at 6pm, when classes resume. Please feel free to bring any questions or concerns up then, or beforehand in a direct communication. On the agenda so far are the following:

1) Check-in: how has your experience been so far? (Feel free to share or not share, just an opportunity if you’d like to)

2) Survey results: what forms of instruction, practice, and events we plan to implement, and more feedback if anyone has any to offer

That’s all for now debaters. Again, it pains us that we won’t be able to have in-person contact with most of you until the fall, but I am hopeful that we can stay connected nonetheless. I have great faith in the resilience of our URDU community to make it through this isolating and confusing time.

Your director,

Brady