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Re: Another "Immodest Proposal"
So, I'm granting Bear some of the impact of his disad, to the extent that
it is unique, and hope some weighing of the impacts will take place as
(if) the discussion continues.
By the way, I greatly value the benefits of debate. I'm not so sure that
we have achieved the "Golden Mean" in the current system. Using
first-round applicants as an example (I know, they're not necessarily the
"best" example in terms of representativeness or sample size), six or
seven tournaments before Nationals seems to be the norm.
Tom Jewell
On Tue, 3 Dec 1996 MWBRYANT@aol.com wrote:
> No, no, no! The problem is not the LENGTH of the season, it's the COMPRESSION
> of the season, as I think most coaches recognized when they voted by a 2-1
> margin at SCA to move the release date up to August 1. Your proposal would be
> pure hell for the 1st semester, simply because debaters would push to go out
> every single weekend. My experience trying to get teams out to all seven of
> the Jesuit qualifiers this past semester convinces me that this sort of
> compression will clearly turn your academic and social contact impacts. If
> you're talking about reducing the size of the season below seven
> tournaments, we simply have a fundamental difference of perspective on the
> benefits of debate competition.
>
> Bear
> Weber State
>
>
>
>
> << Reply-to: tjewell@unm.edu
> To: CEDA-L@cornell.edu (Issues concerning CEDA Debate)
>
> Even though I'm pretty certain this won't fly (my hedge), I've been
> thinking about it for a while and it seems to fit many of the discussions
> that have taken place over the last few years re: the length and
> scheduling of the forensic season.
>
> Here's my idea: Stop non-national tournament competition at the
> December/January break.
>
> Before you hit the delete key (if you haven't already), please consider
> some of my reasons:
>
> 1. There are a ton of "National" competitions that are squeezed together
> and overlap, forcing programs to make decisions about which
> organizations to support. I'm sure I'll miss a few, but I can
> think of: NDT Nats and Qualifiers, AFA Nats and Qualifiers,
> CEDA Nats, NFA Nats, DSR-TKA Nats, APDA Nats, NPDA Nats, NEDA
> Nats, Phi Rho Pi Nats, PKD Nats. That's at least 12 "National"
> related tournaments, that could easily span over the second
> semester and clear up some of the log-jams.
>
> 2. Programs with limited resources might be able to compete with
> less strain over the course of a semester. Programs with more
> resources could travel more people and compete in more events.
> This was one of the nice things about the 2 topic system
> CEDA used for quite some time. In my opinion, the only reason
> that didn't work too well for most programs is that there were
> two topics, not that one shorter-season topic wouldn't have
> worked.
>
> 3. Students could be students one semester a year without losing
> a competetive edge over their peers.
>
> 4. Faculty members could spend some more time doing the things
> that are more likely to get them tenure than winning the
> National XXX--might even get some time with their friends and
> loved ones.
>
> OK, there are some arguments against this (besides, "this is what we've
> always done") that come to mind:
>
> 1. Our non-forensic colleagues will catch on to the fact that we're
> only working one semester a year.
>
> Well, we'd still be going to tournaments during the second semester.
> We might be able to claim some credit for the work we do over the
> summer. They might not care. They might want us to teach an
> extra class during the second semester--so?
>
> 2. The debates and IEs just start getting good by the second semester.
>
> I can't really answer this one--I think its true. But I also wonder
> if the margin of improvement is worth the cost--financially,
> professionally, academically, and personally.
>
> I'm sure you can think of others.
>
> I don't know. Is it worth talking about?
>
> Tom
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Tom Jewell
> Director of Forensics
> University of New Mexico >>
>
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tom Jewell
Director of Forensics
University of New Mexico
Communication Building, #138
Albuquerque, NM 87131
email: tjewell@unm.edu
office phone: (505) 277-3302
home phone: (505) 345-3691
office fax: (505) 277-4206
home fax: (505) 345-3693
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
References:
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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