A First For URDU At The World Championships

At the start of January the UR Debate Union traveled across the Atlantic to Cape Town, South Africa to compete in the 2019 World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) – the largest and most competitive intercollegiate debate competition in the world, featuring over 400 teams from more than 250 schools and over 90 countries around the globe

URDU debated a huge variety of topics and, in the end, Rochester’s Nikhila Linganur (’20) and Warish Zaman Orko (’21) represented UR tremendously, finishing in the octo-finals (top 8%) of the tournament field.  In turn, the duo becomes the first ever team to advance to the break-out rounds at the World Championships for UR Debate.

 Warish Orko (L) and Niki Linganur (R) became URDU's first ever debate team to reach breakout rounds at the World Championships!

The UR Debate Union has existed in one form or another since the founding of the University in 1850. They currently compete tournament-style regionally, nationally, and internationally in two formats of debate and have a total yearly roster of around fifty students.

URDU is an open-door debate team and values bringing the experience of competitive debate to students who have never had it before. Nikhila Linganur is one of those such students, having joined the Debate Union two and a half years ago with no prior experience whatsoever. This month she and her partner topped hundreds of other debaters, many of whom had been debating for eight or more years.

“Knowing the fact that Niki is only in her third year of debate makes it all the more remarkable that this is the first time Rochester Debate has advanced this far at the most competitive tournament in the world,” says Brady Fletcher, the team’s director. “This should be a resounding call out to any interested UR student who has not yet explored debate or has had doubts about their abilities. Our full-time debate instructors and your fellow debaters are here for you – we are a supportive, curious group of people who want to see you succeed!” If Nikhila’s performance is any indication, students surely will!

The WUDC concludes the 2018 calendar year of debate in the World’s format. UR Debate is very excited to be hosting the year’s regional opener for the World’s debate format, and the Spring regional opener for the Policy debate format, on January 26th! We’ll host students from all over the Northeast region and beyond. The tournament will be held in Hutchison Hall from 8am Saturday to 8pm Sunday of that weekend – all debates are open to the public. This is a great way to come and find out more about debate! Contact Director Brady Fletcher for more info: brady.fletcher@rochester.edu. 

UR debate moves into the Spring semester ever better! Meliora!