Debate Union Marches To Victories

The URDU kicked off the month of March by celebrating National Speech Education Day, where we gave out decorated bottle caps for a suggested donation to Leaping Boundaries, and organization our team is working with this year that works with high school debaters in Bangladesh. Thanks to Bri Terrell for making this event happen, and to everyone who tabled!

That same weekend debaters from our squad left for Morgantown, West Virginia and Budapest, Hungary for to participate in debate tournaments in each of our formats.

In Budapest all debaters expanded their Worlds format horizons competing against some tough European teams. Ultimately, Dan Lemire and Ben Frazer finished as Quarterfinalists, being the first break at that tournament for the URDU, and Dan Lemire’s first time breaking into elimination rounds. Congrats on a great trip! 

From L to R: Dan Lemire, Dan Gomez, Ben Frazer, and Tayfun Sahin in Budapest, Hungary

In West Virginia, first-time policy debater Niki Linganur and second-timer Ka Kei Fong reached Octafinals at the 2017 Novice National policy debate tournament, placing them among the top first-year policy debaters nationally. Niki had a winning record at her first tournament ever, and Katie reached elims for the second time, making her 2 for 2! Great work to these talented debaters.

Next the URDU took off for La Verne, California to compete in the 2017 Pan American Universities Debating Championship in the worlds format. Impressively, Miriam Kohn and Chris Perkins were able to WIN this tournament over some of the toughest teams in the Western Hemisphere, after having reached finals the previous year – they knocked out teams from Yale and Cornell along their path to victory. Syed Reefat Aziz was also named the Top English as a Second Language Speaker for the second year in a row! Reefat and Himi were also proud to come extremely close to breaking into elimination rounds in Himi’s first semester of debate! 

Niki Linganur and Ka Kei (Katie) Fong pose with their hard-earned Octafinalist trophy at the 2017 Novice National debate tournament in the policy format.

We continued onward and upward to yet more Championship tournaments – the 2017 Cross Examination Debate Association National Tournament in Kansas City, Kansas and the North American Women’s Universities Debating Championship at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, CA.

At CEDA: while team Cedric Bonsol and Tobi Abubakare did not finish as well as they’d have liked, they ended on a respectable 4-4 record in a tough pool of teams. On the other hand, Ben Morbeck (a first year, jv debater) and Anthony Pericolo (a first-year, novice debater) also went 4-4, an impressive accomplishment at their first CEDA tournament! 

At NAWUDC: Niki Linganur and Kanupriya represented the URDU well. While they did not reach elimination rounds, they gained some amazing experience and performed very well for two first-semester debaters! We look forward to more great things from them! Miriam Kohn was also selected to be an Independent Adjudicator at the tournament, a prestigious achievement for a current debater!

Miriam Kohn and Chris Perkins pose with their trophy after being named the 2017 Pan American Champions in worlds debate (left); First year Anthony Pericolo speaks at the Cross Examination Debate Association National tournament (center); Niki and Kanu at the North American Women’s Debate Championship in Vancouver (right).

Toward the end of the month the URDU hosted the East High School debate program for our second biannual East High Championship Tournament. Several high school students who had never tried debate before were able to compete, and a few of them made it to finals! We had a great turnout for that final round, and these new debaters got to compete in front of a crowd. We hope to continue hosting these fantastic students in the years to come.

URDU ended its “March to victory” with an impressive showing the King’s College Empire Debates in New York City. While each team contained one brand new debater, each earned some great points by ranking high in at least two debates over the weekend. Additionally, our own Syed Reefat Aziz served as Deputy Chief Adjudicator for the tournament, creating motions and helping to run the tournament. All of our debaters made us proud, and it was a nice way to end the month.

To top off a fun month, URDU hosted a well-attended public debate on Affirmative Action with the Asian American Students Alliance – a great partnership that produced a great debate. We look forward to hosting another public debate at the end of April – stay tuned!

URDU at the Empire Debates, from L to R: Fayez Mehdad, Syed Reefat Aziz, Tahsin Rakib Himi, Shuting Liang, Niki Linganur, Abrar Bhuiyan, Coach Bexley Brown, and Marcos Dos Santos.