This article contains text that is written in a promotional tone .(July 2023) |
Formation | 1908 |
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President | Naz Soysal |
Affiliations | Yale University |
Website | www |
The Yale Debate Association (YDA) is Yale University's only competitive intercollegiate debate team. Founded in 1908, it is the most prolific winner of the American Parliamentary Debate Association's Club of the Year award. [1] The YDA was also the first American team to win and have the top speaker at the modern World Championships. [2] Currently, the YDA is the fourth-ranked collegiate debate society in the world, and as of January 2024, the highest ranked in North America. [3] [4]
Founded in 1908, the Yale Debate Association initially hosted debates with Harvard and Princeton three times a year. Teams of three students each debated topics that covered a wide range of issues. Prominent officials— from judges, to university presidents, and even former United States president Grover Cleveland— determined the winners of each round. The debates were open to the public, free of charge, and drew large crowds on campus. [5] The New York Times reported that “It is generally as important to win this debate [Yale v. Harvard] as to win the football match in the fall.” [6]
In 1922, Yale helped create an intercollegiate debate league with eight other institutions. The league grew to a national level when West Point hosted an open tournament in 1947. [7]
The YDA's most recent style of debate began with the creation of the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) in 1982. The format of parliamentary debate differs from those used by earlier leagues; teams consist of two debaters rather than three, and the order of the speeches is structured differently. The team continues to compete in APDA today.
The YDA has had two official faculty coaches. The first, John Chester Adams graduated from Yale in 1886 and coached the team from when he began teaching in 1914 to his retirement in 1941. [8] The annual Adams Cup Debate Tournament between residential colleges at Yale is named in his honor. The second, professor of history and oratory Rollin G. Osterweis, coached the team after Adams’ retirement until his own in 1979. Former students of Osterweis include 2004 presidential candidates John Kerry and George Bush. [9] "Rollie Osterweis, who coached the debaters, always said that Bill Buckley and John Kerry were the best speakers he'd ever worked with," Yale graduate Harvey Bundy told The New York Times in 2004. [10] Among those who acted as assistant coaches under Osterweis was John O'Leary, then a student at the law school and later the United States Ambassador to Chile. As noted below, the team now hosts a tournament for local Connecticut schools in memory of Rollin Osterweis.
The Yale Debate Association is run by a board of students who are elected by the team as a whole each year. This board is entrusted to handle nearly all responsibilities associated with running the team. Currently, the Executive Board consists of five members: the President, the Director of Development, the Director of Membership, the Tournament Coordinator, and the Treasurer. [11]
YDA membership is competitive and tryouts are held in the beginning of Yale's fall semester for those wishing to join the team. Once admitted, members remain on the team for the remainder of their time at Yale. The team consists of roughly 40-50 members. [12]
The Yale Debate Association primarily competes in the American Parliamentary style of debate as a member of the American Parliamentary Debate Association, which is an intercollegiate debate association with dozens of member universities across the United States. The YDA competes weekly at tournaments throughout the country.
Members of the team have also been active in the governance of the league, including election to the executive board of APDA. YDA members who have served as President of APDA include Andrew Rohrbach (2008–2009), Andrew Korn (2004–2005), and Scott Luftglass (2000–2001). [13]
In addition to competition within APDA, the YDA competes internationally. The YDA competes at the North American Debating Championships, at the World Universities Debating Championships, and at other Inter-Varsity debate tournaments. Currently, the YDA is ranked as the best collegiate debate organization in the world, ahead of the University of Sydney Union and the Oxford Union, according to the ranking methodology developed by iDebate, a major debating news website. [3]
The World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC) is conducted in the British Parliamentary style of debate. The YDA competes annually at WUDC and has had more top speakers at WUDC than any other American university, [14] and was the first team from the United States to reach the WUDC final round. [2]
Teams from across the United States and Canada attend the annual North American Championships. The style of debate is similar to American parliamentary, however speeches are shortened. As of January 2024, the YDA has won the tournament nine times, more than any other American team. [15] [16] [ circular reference ]
In addition to these tournaments, the YDA competes at the Oxford and Cambridge Inter-varsity tournaments. Yale debaters won the Oxford Invitational most recently in 2009, [17] as well as in 2006 (Yale also won the Cambridge Invitational in 2006) [18]
The Yale Invitational is a nationwide National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) tournament for high school students. Students come from across the country to compete in twelve events. Traditionally, quarter-finalists in Varsity Lincoln-Douglas, octo-finalists in Public Forum Debate, and Congressional Debate Super Session participants earn a bid to the Tournament of Champions. [19]
The Yale Invitational has been hosted on Yale University's campus every fall since 1993. The organizational aspects of the tournament are entirely run by student members of the YDA. The competition itself is directed by a core of experienced coaches who are familiar with tabulation and tournament direction.
The Yale Inter-Varsity Debate Tournament is an annual international debate tournament for college students held in British Parliamentary (BP) style. It was first held in 2006. The organizational aspects of the tournament are run by members of the YDA. The adjudication team is led by a Chief Adjudicator and Deputy Chief Adjudicator, both of which are often current or former team members. The Yale IV was the only British Parliamentary tournament held by a team that is part of the American Parliamentary Debate Association until Fall 2012, with the inaugural Brandeis IV.
Yale continues to debate Harvard and Princeton in the annual tradition of the Triangulars debates. The competition began near the end of the 19th century as an ad-hoc debate against Harvard. A more formal association began in 1908, when Yale joined forces with Harvard and Princeton to hold annual debates called “Triangulars” that would discuss current political and economic affairs. The debates gained national attention and were attended by high-level officials and large audiences. Today, the YDA continues this tradition by fielding two three-member teams to debate both the Harvard and Princeton delegations every year.
Founded in 1980, The Rollin G. Osterweis Tournament is a free tournament for high school students in Connecticut. The tournament includes a demonstration round from four current debaters and a training session for current high school debaters. The tournament is named after YDA Coach Rollin G. Osterweis and is funded by Jonathan Edwards College in coordination with the Rollin G. Osterweis Fund.
The YDA also runs the Adams Cup, an intramural debate tournament between the residential colleges at Yale. The tournament features students from Yale's fourteen residential colleges; the winner keeps the rotating trophy until the next year's tournament. [20] The YDA voted to discontinue the Adams Cup after its 2022 edition.
As one of the oldest debating institutions in the United States, the YDA has developed a large alumni community. Famous alumni have included 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry, [21] President and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court William Howard Taft [22] and publisher and journalist William F. Buckley. [23] Other former Yale debate team members include conservative writer and activist L. Brent Bozell, Jr., Stanford Law School professor Deborah Rhode, Yale Law School professor Akhil Reed Amar, Writer and commentator David Frum, Yale professor Tamar Gendler, Economist Austan Goolsbee, Writer Dahlia Lithwick, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and environmental attorney Ralph Cavanagh. The YDA recently celebrated its 100th anniversary with the Centennial Reunion in October 2008, where the Yale Association for Debate Alumni was formally created.
Over one hundred current and former members of the team attended the Centennial Reunion in October 2008. The event included demonstration debates by former members of the YDA, [24] as well as an alumni debate and a humorous debate, in addition to presentations demonstrating the current structure of the team. The event also paid tribute to the late coach of the YDA, Rollin Osterweis.
YADA was founded in October 2008 to serve as a community for former members of the YDA. The organization holds social gatherings for alumni members and serves as a mechanism for current YDA members to contact former members of the team.
In addition to its usual activities, the YDA is a partner organization of the New Haven Urban Debate League, which seeks to provide the local community with the opportunity to participate in the activity of debate. The NHUDL provides weekly coaching lessons to local area high school and middle school students, as well as three charity tournaments in each semester. The program has expanded from its inception in 2004 to include 14 public schools in New Haven. [25]
On March 31, 2010 Bruce Friedrich, Vice President of Policy for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) came to Yale to debate two YDA members on whether it is ethical to eat animals. [26] Friedrich has debated meat, fur, and animal-experimentation industry representatives on many television and radio programs, including NBC's Today show as well as other programs on stations including CNN and MSNBC. [27] The YDA defended eating animals. [28]
Yale University and Howard University held a joint event in 2009 and in 2010 that was sponsored by the NAACP and YDA. [29] The debates centered on several topics addressing important questions facing the United States with relation to race and equality. The event's style is shortened parliamentary and no winner is named. The 2009 and 2010 Yale-Howard Debates were attended by over 2,700 people in Woolsey Hall on Yale University Campus. [30] The audience also included prominent figures of the Yale administration.
Over the summer of 2009, the YDA participated in an exhibition debate in the middle of Harold Square in New York City against the Harvard team debating various pop culture topics. [31] Part of this debate was later shown on VH1 news. [32]
Over the past 25 years, members of the YDA have received many awards for their performances throughout the course of a season in the American Parliamentary Debate Association. Since APDA's founding, six Yale teams have won the Team of the Year award, granted annually to the league's top performing team of two individuals. [33] The league also gives the Speaker of the Year (SOTY) award, presented every year to its highest-ranked individual debater. YDA members have won this award six times in total. [34] Finally, the Novice of the Year (NOTY) award, given annually to APDA's top performing first-year debater, has been awarded to Yale debaters four times. [35]
The Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate is the national organization which governs all English language competitive university debating and public speaking in Canada. It sanctions several official annual tournaments and represents Canadian debating domestically and abroad. Its membership consists of student debating unions, sanctioned by their respective universities, from across Canada. CUSID has been described as "a student-run, parliamentary debate league with close ties to the American Parliamentary Debate Association".
Debate is a process that involves formal discourse, discussion, and oral addresses on a particular topic or collection of topics, often with a moderator and an audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for common opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, academic institutions, debate halls, coffeehouses, competitions, and legislative assemblies. Debates have also been conducted for educational and recreational purposes, usually associated with educational establishments and debating societies. These debates emphasized logical consistency, factual accuracy, and emotional appeal to an audience. Modern forms of competitive debate also include rules for participants to discuss and decide upon the framework of the debates.
The American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) is the oldest intercollegiate parliamentary debating association in the United States. APDA sponsors over 50 tournaments a year, all in a parliamentary format, as well as a national championship in late April. It also administers the North American Debating Championship with the Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate (CUSID) every year in January. Although it is mainly funded by its member universities, APDA is an entirely student-run organization.
The National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) is one of the two national intercollegiate parliamentary debate organizations in the United States. The other is the American Parliamentary Debate Association. Its membership is national with participating schools throughout the country. In 2015, NPDA was the largest debating organization in the United States with around 200-250 participating schools in any given year.
The Brown Debating Union (BDU) is a student-run debating organization at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. The team competes in American Parliamentary Debate and British Parliamentary Debate. Currently the team is ranked 2nd in North America.
The North American Debating Championship is one of the two official university debate championships of North America. It is sanctioned by the national university debating associations in the United States and Canada, the American Parliamentary Debate Association and the Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate. It has been held each winter on an alternating basis between the United States and Canada since 1992. The host university arranges all judging and is not allowed in the competition. The most frequent hosts have been the University of Toronto and McGill University, which have each hosted the championship three times. Bates College, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, and Queen's University have each hosted twice. This tournament, often abbreviated as NorthAms, is not to be confused with the North American Universities Debating Championship, abbreviated as NAUDC, which is hosted separately in the fall of each year as a British Parliamentary Style tournament. The two events are coordinated such that each is hosted by a different country, the United States or Canada, in a given year.
The World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) is the world's largest international debating tournament and one of the largest annual international student events. WUDC is held in the British Parliamentary format.
Parliamentary style debate, colloquially oftentimes just Parliamentary debate, is a formal framework for debate used in debating societies, academic debate events and competitive debate. It has its roots in parliamentary procedure and develops differently in different countries as a result.
The Otago University Debating Society (OUDS) is a debating society established in June 1878 and is the oldest society of the University of Otago, the first university to be founded in New Zealand. Echoing trends in Australia and the United States, in the latter decades of the nineteenth century debating was seen as an important talent for New Zealand's thought leaders, and was one of the three sports in the New Zealand University Games from 1902.
The Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championships (known colloquially as "Australs") is an annual debating tournament for teams from universities in the Australasian region. It is one of the world's largest debating tournaments, second only in size to the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC), the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC) and one of the largest annual student events in the world. Australs follows the Australia-Asian Debating format (three speakers plus replies), rather than the British Parliamentary Style used at WUDC. It is held every year in early-July under the auspices of the Australasian Intervarsity Debating Association (AIDA). The host university is selected a year before at a meeting of the Council of the Australasian Intervarsity Debating Association.
The Boston University Debate Society is a member of the American Parliamentary Debate Association. The current incarnation of the Boston University Debate Society was formed in 1999, and competes in parliamentary debate. Previously, Boston University teams competed in other varieties of collegiate debate. For instance, in 1975 a team from Boston University came in third at the National Debate Tournament, a policy debate competition..
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County funds a number of notable student-run organizations and clubs on campus.
The Rutgers University Debate Union (RUDU) is Rutgers University's intercollegiate debate team. Re-founded in 2001, the Union's roots extend back to the 18th century literary societies that existed at Rutgers (then Queen's College). There have also been the tradition of King's-Queen's Debates with Columbia University (then King's College) when Rutgers was known under its founding name of Queen's College.
The Harvard College Debating Union is Harvard University's only internationally competitive debate team. The union has won the most American Parliamentary Debate Association National Championships and the 2014, 2016 and 2018 World Universities Debating Championships.
The Debattierclub Stuttgart (DCS), also known as the Stuttgart Debating Union, is the debating society of the University of Stuttgart. It holds debates in both German and English. It was founded in 2004 and is now one of the internationally most successful German debating societies. The DCS is Vice World Champion and provided the Second Best Speaker of the World in English as a foreign language (EFL) at the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) 2010. At WUDC 2011, the DCS provided the Fourth Best Speaker of the World in English as a second language (ESL) as well as the Best Speaker of the World in EFL.
The Queen's Debating Union is the debating society of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It was founded as Canada's first debating society in 1843 and became one of the four founding organisations of Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate. It continues to be an active club on campus and has a strong presence both domestically and internationally as a competitive parliamentary debating club.
The Asociación Mexicana de Debate (AMD) is the regulating body for debate in México, formed by students, former students and debate coaches with experience at the most important debating competitions in the world, such as the World Universities Debating Championship, the World Universities Debating Championship in Spanish and the World Schools Debating Championship, and it is the only body that organizes British Parliamentary, Karl Popper and World Schools debate competitions in the country, including two national championships. AMD has the objective of spreading debate all around the country.
Rollin G. Osterweis was an American historian in the Department of History at Yale University for twenty eight years while also serving as the Yale Director of Debating and Public Speaking. Osterweis was the author of numerous books and articles focused on the history of the American South and on New Haven, Connecticut.
Competitive debate, also known as forensics or speech and debate, is an activity in which two or more people take positions on an issue and are judged on how well they defend those positions. The activity has been present in academic spaces in the United States since the colonial period. The practice, an import from British education, began as in-class exercises in which students would present arguments to their classmates about the nature of rhetoric. Over time, the nature of those conversations began to shift towards philosophical questions and current events, with Yale University being the first to allow students to defend any position on a topic they believed in. In the late nineteenth century, student-led literary societies began to compete with each other academically and often engaged in debates against each other. In 1906, the first intercollegiate debate league, Delta Sigma Rho, was formed, followed by several others. Competitive debate expanded to the secondary school level in 1920 with the founding of the National Speech and Debate Association, which grew to over 300,000 members by 1969. Technological advances such as the accessibility of personal computers in the 1990s and 2000s has led to debate cases becoming more complex and to evidence being more accessible. Competitors and coaches have made efforts to reduce discrimination in the debate community by introducing new arguments and recruiting debaters from underprivileged communities.
The HWS Round Robin (HWS RR) is an invitational British Parliamentary (BP) debate tournament hosted annually by the Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. Participation in the HWS RR is considered prestigious among BP debaters as it is limited to exactly 16 teams that qualify via either an automatic bid given to the champions of major debate tournaments that happen throughout the year, or a competitive application to the tournament's selections committee, with auto-bid teams given priority.