judge accountability, power, and dominance

[jhobbs@acuvax.acu.edu]

Judges should be accountable (meaning they should do their best and they
should receive feedback on their performance).  However, bullying and
other rude behavior are not an acceptable means to this end.  There is no
excuse for yelling (no matter how "bad" the decision).  People are mixing
applea and oranges.

So, if you don't like my decision, you can talk with me, write me a letter
("ballot"), have your coach talk with me--but don't raise your voice, cuss
at me, or make derogatory comments about me.

Second, I also believe that the actions of debaters before and after
the round can't help but affect the round.  They should affect the round.
Ethical behavior can be called for and enforced.  If a person falsifies 
evidence before the round, does this mean that he or she should not
be penalized for reading it because the falsification took place before the
round.  If you find out 2 minutes after the round that evidence has been 
falsified, is this too late to do anything about it?  To me, rude behavior
is an ethical question--just like evidence falsification.

Is this an example of judges using power and dominance to stop power and
dominance?  Perhaps, but there is a qualitative difference in the actions.
Stopping a bad action is quite different than being bad.  For example, using
my strength to hit a person in the mouth is quite different than using my
power to stop a person from hitting another person in the mouth.

Finally, I would like to point out that debating is not an objective science.
In close rounds (or garbled rounds) there really can be more than one winner.
If the round is garbled (unclear), one judge may catch certain words and
another judge will catch other responses. Thus, a different "flow" and a
different decision.  If the round is close, two different judges may have
different values or different paradigms, causing them to vote differently.

Thanks for the conversation on this important issue.

Jeff Hobbs
jhobbs@acuvax.acu.edu

---

Follow-Ups:

• need Point Loma's E-mail address
• From: Kristin Sue Hakala <khakala@emory.edu>

---

• Prev by Date: judges
• Next by Date: Re: 'what you're gonna see juhdge...'
• Prev by thread: judges
• Next by thread: need Point Loma's E-mail address
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread
  • Author

---

Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
Return to main CEDA-L Archive Page