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Re: Utah - Home of Debate Retirees???

Jeff,
I saw your note earlier today (re. eligibility and how am I still 
around).  The only reason I am responding generally, instead of
by private mail, is that a few other people are probably curious
as well.  
First, let me speak to my situation.  After Western Washington 
CEDA nationals I was convinced I would not be debating again and
the prospect didn't exactly dismay me.  I think that debate is
great but I had done my share of debating.  I took a position
teaching at a private high school in California until, one
week before school was to start this year, my position was
consolidated with another.  Since I had not graduated yet, this
seemed like a great time to finish up.  Given the short notice
of the situation I was going to need a some kind of grant and
it was too late to apply for anything.  I checked with a couple
of people in the NDT community and found that I did still possess
eligibility.  It was a difficult decision (I strongly preferred 
coaching and teaching to debating), but when Bear offered me a
way to get through the rest of college free - it seemed pretty 
silly to refuse.  I was kind of expecting an "interesting"
reception, so I was extremely careful to make sure that I can
legitimately conform to eligibility rules.  Now that I'm in it
I've got to say I find it kind of exciting to get a quick glimpse
of the world of NDT.  I'll be happy to be done, but I'm also
glad for the experience.  
As to the broader issue of eligibility (this responds more 
to Coe's letter), I do think that it is an important thing
to consider.  What has become apparent to me over the last
couple of years is that this system needs to be reformed
dramatically.  Selective action seems to have been the
hallmark of the  community.  I have seen several programs
constantly put under a microscope, while literally dozens
of programs count to points of transfers in their first
(please excuse the typos, I just wanted to dash this off
before I left for the weekend) year with the team.  I
rs ago.  It seems as though some programs are able to bend rules
simply because they are small.  If the arguments for eligibility
are true (and I believe they are) they apply equally to students
in all programs and the community needs to address the question
of consistent application.  Perho
(sorry, my typing sucks and I hit the return key...) Perhaps,
computer technology will allow us to input all tournament results
into an e-mail system so that effective and fair policing can
occur for eligibility at a lot of different levels.
I think that this thread could be interesting to explore at a
broad level.  If anyone has any questions, or just wants to
say Hi, for me personally we should probably do it by private mail
to avoid boring everyone else.  
				- Nick Coburn-Palo
P.S.  Tom, this is an amazing coincidence, but Alberty actually
graduated from my high school in Oregon and judged me for
years.  Isn't life strange...
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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