2015-16 Debate Union Year In Review

Greetings from the URDU! I write you from sunny Rochester, New York. Now that the semester’s dust has settled, I wanted to make sure everyone out there across the state, country, and world knows about all of the great accomplishments our team has had this year.

Students, take a moment to reflect on the amazing year we’ve all had together. Alums, check out how we’re carrying on the URDU’s legacy, and take this as an occasion to remember your own debate experiences. Friends, check out these highlights to stay connected with us!

We were busy in 2015-2016. In addition to all of our debating, our team had several other significant accomplishments:

• Current debater and former team president Syed Reefat Aziz won a Kaufmann Entrepreneurial Year grant to start a high school debate program at East High School in the City of Rochester. Many of our debaters volunteered with this program this spring
• Current debater and policy debate captain Tobi Abubakare was invited to present on a panel about disability in debate at the National Communications Association conference in November
• We organized an extremely well attended and educational public debate about Beyoncé, popular culture, and feminism (see some great media coverage here)
• And of course, we hosted an excellent 2015 Brad Smith debate tournament here at the UofR in November

The URDU remains committed as ever to novice debate! In 2015-2016 we introduced debate to over thirty brand new URDU members. The individual and team highlights for our novice debaters are as follows (my apologies for the long list; our novices had a LOT of success this year):

• Bethany Gardner finished as a quarterfinalist at Novice Nationals in policy debate
• Bethany was third place speaker at Novice Nationals in policy debate out of sixty speakers
• Courtney Otto was fifth place speaker in novice at the Rotterdam Open
• Margeaux Kelly and Naomi Rutaragama reached quarterfinals at Northeast Regionals for policy debate
• Margeaux was fifth place speaker in novice at Northeast Regionals for policy debate
• Margeaux Kelly and Emmani Karra reached novice policy finals at the Cornell University tournament
• Margeaux was top novice speaker at Cornell in policy
• Emmani was second place novice speaker at Cornell in policy
• Teams Mark Tantarelli and Tom Borchart, along with Sakhile Mathunjwa and Derick Rossell, reached worlds quarterfinals in novice at Cornell
• Bethany Gardner was sixth place speaker in novice policy at the New School tournament
• Andres Ollarvez was seventh place speakerin novice policy at the New School
• Margeaux Kelly was eighthspeaker in novice at the UC Berkeley policy tournament
• Margeaux Kelly and Matthew Lyskawa were finalists at the Vermont tournament
• Derick Rossell was sixthspeaker in novice at the Hobart and William Smith Colleges tournament
• Margeaux Kelly and Matthew Lyskawa reached novice octafinals in policy at the West Point tournament
• Matthew was tenthspeaker in novice at West Point
• Margeaux and Matthew reached novice octafinalists policy at the Rutgers University tournament
• Matthew Lyskawa was top novice speaker at Rutgers **at hisfirst tournament ever**

Our experienced debaters returned and fought hard for some big wins this year, too (again, apologies for such a long list – we just can’t stop winning!):

• Ben Frazer and Sarah Hofmann were octafinalists at the US Universities Debating Championship – Sarah advanced for her second year in a row, and it was Ben’sfirst break in varsity afterwinning the novice division of USUDC last year
• Chris Perkins and Miriam Kohn were finalists at the Pan American Debating Championship
• Syed Reefat Aziz and Kate Zheng finished as the top ESL team at PanAms
• Syed Reefat Aziz was the top ESL speaker at PanAms
• Kate Zheng was the third place ESL speaker at PanAms
• Ben Frazer and Sarah Hofmann were semifinalists at the Northeast Regional tournament for worlds
• Andres Ollarvez and Dan Gomez finished as semi-finalists in the Spanish Language Division of the Cornell University tournament
• Tobi Abubakare and Cedric Bonsol reached quarterfinals in policy at Cornell
• Tobi was third place speaker in policy at Cornell
• Cedric was fourth place speaker in policy at Cornell
• Miriam Kohn was fifth place speaker in worlds at Cornell
• Chris Perkins was sixth place speaker in worlds at Cornell
• Dan Gomez wasninth place speakerin worlds Spanish-language division, Cornell
• Sarah Hofmann selected to judge in worlds elimination rounds at Cornell
• Tobi Abubakare and Cedric Bonsol were semifinalists in policy at the University of Vermont tournament
• Cedric was fifth place speaker at Vermont in policy
• Miriam Kohn and Chris Perkins were finalists in worlds at Vermont
• Miriam was third place speaker at Vermont
• Chris was eighth place speaker at Vermont
• Ben Frazer and Graeme McGuire were semi-finalists in worlds at Vermont
• Ben and Graeme were semifinalists at the Hobart and William Smith Colleges tournament
• Ben was third place speaker at HWS
• Sarah Hofmann was selected to judge in elimination rounds at HWS
• Cedric Bonsol finished as quarterfinalist with his swing partner at the Rutgers University tournament
• Cedric was seventh place speaker at Rutgers
• Ben Frazer and Syed Reefat Aziz were semifinalists at the Bard College tournament
• Syed Reefat Aziz was third place speaker at Bard
• Ben was sixth place speaker at Bard
• LindsayWrobelandKatelynOfferdahl were quarterfinalists at Bard
• Sarah Hofmann was selected to judge in elimination rounds at Bard

Whew! As you can see, we traveled a lot this year. After attending twenty competitions regionally, nationally, and internationally, our debaters had some serious accomplishments. Now that we’ve reviewed those competitive successes, let me end with two more points.

This year we brought two amazing new assistant coaches on board: BexleyBrown, former debater at the University of Alaska at Anchorage, and JeffersonYahom, former debater at the University of Oklahoma. Bexley and Jefferson were instrumental in all of our team’s successes this year, whether it was helping to organize our tournament, or working on our new high school program, or achieving the many competitive successes our debaters had this year, they were always eager and excited to work hard for their new team. We commend them on an amazing first season as assistant coaches! Thank you Bexley and Jefferson! We look forward to their return for another great year!

Lastly, we say goodbye to longtime URDU coach and Assistant Director Gordie Miller. After eleven years of service to the University of Rochester Debate Union, Gordie retired from debate coaching at the end of this season. Over the years he has had a distinguished career and has been recognized numerous times as a coach, judge, and debate educator. This year we introduced a team award in his name, the Gordie Miller Novice of the Year award, to ensure that his strong legacy of commitment to educating new debaters continues long into the URDU’s future. We will miss you Gordie! Stay in touch!

Thank you all for a great year! Our team couldn’t do any of this without our amazing debaters, coaches, and of course, our alums! I thank you for your support over the years and look forward to your future support of the team we all love!

Sincerely, 

Brady Fletcher
Director of Forensics
University of Rochester Debate Union