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Re: Shortening the Debate Season

While I do agree that there are times when debate can become tiresome to
some people and put those persons at risk of burning out, I do not agree
that the solution to this is to put limits on all programs.   The season
had become extremely long: beginning with the first debate camp and
ending a week or two after Nationals, however the answer to this is not
to tell people that they cannot debate when they want to debate, but
rather to allow individuals to make the choice of whether or not they
feel a particular tournament fits within their life-plan.

Allow me to illustrate with a story:

Last Fall, my coach was busy grading papers and exams and had a humongous
workload hanging over her head.  She was extremely busy dealing with the
rigors of teaching and coaching. As such, she could not attend a full
weekend tournament.  I was also busy with academic work, but not as busy
as my partner Philip was.  While I could attend a local tournament, as I
could afford to take two days out of my schedule, I could not manage a
longer trip.  Philip, being a senior, had lots of time to take a long
trip for national tournament.  Because we had different levels of
availability / willingness to travel, we came to a brilliant solution...

Philip travelled to a national tournament at UCO with another member of
our team: Skinner.  Because they could both take almost a week off from
school without injuring their grades and social life, they took a long
trip.  I went to UNC-Chapel Hill with another emmber, Scott.  While we
had slightly more academic work to concern ourselves with, we found a
tournament that could accomodate us and our schedules.  Lisa, having
finished her work Saturday evening drove down to UNC to meet us and judge
Sunday rounds.  She was able to complete the work required for her
teaching posty and then come in for the duties of her coaching position.

As a result, we had two teams attending tournament, one coachless and the
other coached for half of the time.  All of us survived quite well.  We
all realized that we had to attend to academic commitments as well as
debate commitments.  However, we did not need a governing board to tell
us whether of not we were allowed to go. As responsible adults, we
determined whether or not we could attend a tournament.  

CEDA, as an organization, should encourage its member schools and
students to evaluate their travel plans as schools and individuals.  If a
particular school wants to limit itself to 4 tournaments per semester,
they should be allowed to do so.  If a person wants to travel every
weekend for an entire year, they should be allowed to do so as well.  If
a debater wants to have a significant life outside of debate, they should
be allowed to choose to do so.  However, they should not be allowed to
decide how many rounds another free person can debate in a year.

Ben
University of Richmond
Benjamin R. Bates, tyrant (in full fledged force again)
urtyrant@juno.com
"Be in this  world as though you were a stranger or a wayfarer."
 -- Hadith of the Prophet
References:
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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