The University of Michigan Debate Team

The University of Michigan
Debate Team
T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y
O F
M I C H I G A N
DEBATE TEAM
2013-2014 UM Debate Team Roster........................................................... 1
2012-2013 UM Debate Team Success........................................................ 2
UM Success at the National Debate Tournament .................................... 3
2013-2014 UM Debate Coaching Staff....................................................... 4
2013-2014 UM Debate Team Travel Schedule........................................... 5
Notable UM Debate Alums.......................................................................... 6
UM Debate Graduate School Placement................................................... 7
University Record New Leadership Article............................................... 8
Michigan Today National Debate Tournament Article.............................. 9-11
Michigan Daily Tournament Victory Articles............................................. 12-14
Michigan Daily Urban Debate Article......................................................... 15
Michigan Difference Scholarship Article................................................... 16
University Record Colburn Award Article................................................. 17
State & Hill Article....................................................................................... 18
Michigan Daily Debatable Future Article................................................... 19-22
Michigan News Service Elite Eight Article................................................ 23
http://www.michigandebate.com
http://twitter.com/UMDebateCamp
O f f i c e : 7 3 4 - 2 3 9 - 3 9 9 6 • Fa x : 7 3 4 - 7 6 3 - 5 9 0 2
C o n t a c t u s : A a r o n K a l l • D i r e c t o r o f D e b a t e • a k a l l @ u m i c h . e d u David Heidt • Assistant Director of Debate • davheidt@umich.edu
2013-2014 University of Michigan Debate Team
Ellis Allen, The Westminster Schools (GA), Class of 2015
Rishee Batra, St. Mark’s School of Texas (TX), Class of 2016
Callie Chappell, Traverse City Central High School (MI), Class of 2017
Cam Colella, St. Ignatius High School (OH), Class of 2016
Aidan Coyle, The Barstow School (MO), Class of 2016
Brian Henderson, Glenbrook South High School (IL), Class of 2016
Kevin Hirn, Whitney Young Magnet High School (IL), Class of 2014
Marc Jacome, Glenbrook South High School (IL), Class of 2016
Danny Kaprielian, Cherry Creek High School (CO), Class of 2017
Ryan Keenan, Juan Diego Catholic High School (UT), Class of 2017
Maria Keller, Canton Central Catholic High School (OH), Class of 2015
Joe Krakoff, Georgetown Day School, (DC), Class of 2016
Mengyao Liu, Pioneer High School (MI), Class of 2014
Dustin Meyers-Levy, Edina High School (MN), Class of 2016
Katja Molinaro, Dayton Oakwood High School (OH), Class of 2017
Will Morgan, The Westminster Schools (GA), Class of 2015
Wilson Mullen, Dayton Oakwood High School (OH), Class of 2017
Alexander Pappas, Glenbrook North High School (IL), Class of 2015
Michael Payne, Traverse City Central High School (MI), Class of 2017
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2012-2013 University of Michigan Debate Team National Rankings
Second Place, National Debate Tournament Varsity Rankingshttp://www.whitman.edu/debate/ndt
Ninth Place, American Debate Association Varsity Rankingshttp://www.cedadebate.org/forum/index.php?topic=4705.0
Seventh Place, National Top 25 Coaches’ Pollhttp://www.cedadebate.org/forum/index.php?topic=4392.0
2012-2013 University of Michigan Debate Tournament Success
University of Pittsburgh Round Robin, January 26-27, 2013, First Place
Illinois State University Tournament, October 12-14, 2012, First Place
Appalachian State University Tournament, November 10-12, 2012, First Place
University of Kentucky Tournament, October 6-8, 2012, Third Place
University of Southern California Tournament, January 3-5, 2013, Third Place
University of North Texas Tournament, January 9-11, 2013, Third Place
National Debate Tournament, March 29-April 1, 2013, Fifth Place
Northwestern University Tournament, February 9-11, 2013, Fifth Place
California State University at Fullerton Tournament, January 7-9, 2013, Fifth Place
University of Nevada, Las Vegas Tournament, October 20-22, 2012, Fifth Place
Vanderbilt University Tournament, October 26-28, 2012, Fifth Place
University of Texas at Dallas Tournament, January 5-7, 2013, Fifth Place
Harvard University Tournament, October 27-29, 2012, Fifth Place
University of Northern Iowa Tournament, September 14-16, 2012, Fifth Place
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NDT
NDT
NDT
Elimination Teams
38
Speaker Awards
22
First Round Bids
20
Bill Davey and Neil Wolf
Mike Green
Jim Speta - Denise Losbough
1971 Quarter-Finals
Mike Hartmann and Bill Black
1972 Quarter-Finals
Jim Speta - Denise Losbough
1987 Octa-Finals
Mike Green - Andrew Schrank
1987 Octa-Finals
Mike Green - Andrew Schrank
1988 Semi-Finals
Jim Speta - Denise Losbough
1988 Quarter-Finals
Joe Thompson and Andrew Schrank
1989 Finals
David Brownell and Denise Loshbough
1989 Quarter-Finals
Colin Kahl and Matt Shors
1990 Octa-Finals
Colin Kahl and Matt Shors
1991 Finals
Colin Kahl and Matt Shors
1992 Quarter-Finals
Matt Shors and Jenni Ouding
1993 Octa-Finals
Gorav Jindal and Raj Shah
1993 Double-Octas
Gorav Jindal and Raj Shah
1994 Double-Octas
Mike Dickler and Scott Hessell
1995 Octa-Finals
Mike Dickler and Scott Hessell
1996 Semi-Finals
Corey Stoughton and Matt Rice
1996 Double-Octas
Scott Hessell and Corey Stoughton
1997 Semi-Finals
Jason Hernandez and Tony Nicalo
1997 Octa-Finals
Lesley Wexler and Ellen Oberwetter
1997 Double-Octas
Corey Stoughton and Lesley Wexler
1998 Semi-Finals
Jason Hernandez and Kelly Steele
1999 Octa-Finals
Chris Pudelski and Gabe Scannapieco
1999 Octa-Finals
Chris Pudelski and Gabe Scannapieco
2000 Double-Octas
Adriana Midence - Carl Sammartino
2000 Double-Octas
Adriana Midence - Carl Sammartino
2001 Quarter-Finals
Adriana Midence - Shaun VanHorn
2002 Double-Octas
Jonah Feldman - John Oden
2002 Octa-Finals
Jonah Feldman - John Oden
2003 Octa-Finals
Adam Farra and Dylan Keenan
2007 Double-Octas
Adam Farra and Dylan Keenan
2008 Semi-Finals
Edmund Zagorin and Maria Liu
2009 Double-Octas
Edmund Zagorin and Maria Liu
2010 Double-Octas
Edmund Zagorin and Maria Liu
2011 Semi-Finals
Ellis Allen and Maria Liu
2012 Double-Octas
Kyle Deming and Alex Pappas
2012 Double-Octas
Ellis Allen and Alex Pappas
2013 Quarter-Finals
Kyle Deming and Kevin Hirn
1988 - 5th
Andrew Schrank
1988 - 6th
Joe Thompson
1989 - 5th
Andrew Schrank
1989 - 7th
1987 - 13th
Mike Green - Andrew Schrank
1988 - 3rd
Joe Thompson and Andrew Schrank
1989 - 3rd
David Brownell and Denise Loshbough
1989 - 5th
Colin Kahl
1991 - 4th
Colin Kahl and Matt Shors
1991 - 3rd
Matt Shors
1992 - 6th
Matt Shors
1993 - 1
Matt Shors and Jenni Ouding
1993 - 9th
st
Mike Dickler and Scott Hessell
Scott Hessell
1995 - 14th
1996 - 4th
Mike Dickler
1996 - 6
Mike Dickler and Scott Hessell
1996 - 4th
th
Scott Hessell
Scott Hessell and Corey Stoughton
Corey Stoughton
Corey Stoughton and Lesley Wexler
Lesley Wexler
Jason Hernandez and Kelly Steele
1997 - 2nd
1997 - 8th
1997 - 10th
Lesley Wexler
1998 - 3rd
1997 - 1st
1998 3rd
1999 - 8th
Chris Pudelski and Gabe Scannapieco
1999 - 12th
Corey Stoughton
1998 - 5th
Chris Pudelski and Gabe Scannapieco
2000 - 7th
Jason Hernandez
1999 - 12th
Gabe Scannapieco
2000 - 17th
Adriana Midence
2002 - 2
Adriana Midence and Carl Sammartino
2001 - 13th
Jonah Feldman and John Oden
2003 - 10th
nd
Jonah Feldman
Adam Farra and Dylan Keenan
2008 - 8th
2003 - 11th
Dylan Keenan
Maria Liu and Edmund Zagorin
2011 - 8th
Edmund Zagorin
Ellis Allen and Maria Liu
2012- 7th
2008 - 13
th
2011 - 8th
Ellis Allen
2013- 8th
Alex Pappas
2013- 10th
Ellis Allen and Alex Pappas
2013- 6th
Kyle Deming and Kevin Hirn
2013- 11th
2013 Octa-Finals
Michigan
Debate
3
2013-2014 University of Michigan Debate Team Coaching Staff
Aaron Kall, Director of Debate, akall@umich.edu
David Heidt, Assistant Director of Debate, davheidt@umich.edu
Austin Layton, Assistant Debate Coach, laytonau@umich.edu
Assistants:
Josh Clark, jreubenclark10@gmail.com
Erin Collins, erinbgcollins@gmail.com
Parker Cronin, ishkabible@gmail.com
Eric Forslund, eforslund@gmail.com
Maria Liu, liumaria@umich.edu
Scott Phillips, scottyp431@gmail.com
Whit Whitmore, whit211@gmail.com
4
2013-2014 University of Michigan Debate Team Travel Schedule
First Semester:
Georgia State University Tournament, Atlanta (GA), September 21-23, 2013
Wayne State University Tournament, Detroit (MI), September 28-30, 2013
University of Kentucky Round Robin, Lexington (KY), October 2-3, 2013
University of Kentucky Tournament, Lexington (KY), October 5-7, 2013
University of Nevada, Las Vegas Tournament, Las Vegas (NV), October 19-21, 2013
Harvard University Tournament, Cambridge (MA), October 26-28, 2013
Wake Forest University Tournament, Winston-Salem (NC), November 16-18, 2013
Appalachian State University Tournament, Winston-Salem (NC), November 16-18, 2013
University of Northern Iowa Tournament, Cedar Falls (IA), December 7-9, 2013
Second Semester:
University of Southern California Tournament, Los Angeles (CA), January 3-5, 2014
California State University at Fullerton Tournament, Fullerton (CA), January 7-9, 2014
Dartmouth College Round Robin, Hanover (NH), January 25-26, 2014
University of Pittsburgh Round Robin, Pittsburgh (PA), January 25-26, 2014
Indiana University Tournament, Bloomington (IN), January 25-27, 2014
University of Texas Tournament, Austin (TX), February 8-10, 2014
Freshman/Sophomore Nationals, East Lansing (MI), March 1-3, 2014
Cross Examination Debate Association National Tournament, Bloomington (IN), March 21-25, 2014
National Debate Tournament, Atlanta (GA), March 28-March 31, 2014
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Notable University of Michigan Debate Team Alums
AcademiaJeremy Bailenson, Director of Virtual Human Interaction Lab and Professor of Communication at Stanford University, Palo
Alto (CA)
William Black, Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City (MO)
Robert Hirshon, Professor at the University of Michigan Law School and Former President of the American Bar Association,
Ann Arbor (MI)
James Speta, Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law, Chicago (IL)
BusinessMichael Braun, Chief Assistant to the CEO at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, New York (NY)
Dennis Devine, Group Executive Vice President and Director of Retail Banking at Citizens Financial Group, Cleveland (OH)
Lee Hess, Chairman of Spectrum Capital Enterprises, Columbus (OH)
Phillip Ruedi, Equity Portfolio Manager and Associate Partner at Wellington Management Company, Boston (MA)
GovernmentAlan Helmkamp, Assistant Chief Executive Officer of Wayne County Cabinet Executive Staff, Detroit (MI)
Jason Hernandez, Assistant United States Attorney for Southern District of New York, New York (NY)
Colin Kahl, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, Washington (DC)
Kelly Steele, Former Campaign Spokesman for United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Washington (DC)
LawMichael Hartmann, Chief Executive Officer of Miller Canfield, Detroit (MI)
Ellen Oberwetter, Partner at Williams & Connolly LLP, Washington (DC)
Raj Shah, Partner at DLA Piper, Chicago (IL)
Matthew Shors, Deputy General Counsel at UnitedHealth Group Incorporated, Minnetonka (MN)
MedicineAlexa Canady, Appointed as the first female and African-American to a residency in neurosurgery and Pediatric
Neurosurgeon at the Sacred Heart Medical Group, Pensacola (FL)
Joshua Smith, Dir. of Inpatient Medicine at Saint Joseph Mercy Livingston Family Medicine Residence, Brighton (MI)
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Graduate Placement of Michigan Debate Alums- Last two Decades
Jeremy Bailenson, UM Class of 1994, PhD and Masters at Northwestern University
Peter Baldwin, UM Class of 1995, MBA at University of Michigan Business School
Matthew Cannon, UM Class of 2001, UC Berkeley School of Law
Jonah Feldman, UM Class of 2003, Masters at University of Texas
Julio Gurdian, UM Class of 2000, Northwestern University Law School
Jason Hernandez, UM Class of 2000, Columbia Law School
Scott Hessell, UM Class of 1997, University of Chicago Law School
Colin Kahl, UM Class of 1993, PhD at Columbia University
Dylan Keenan, UM Class of 2008, Yale Law School
Jeremy Kreisberg, UM Class of 2011, Harvard Law School
Derrick Lam, UM Class of 2005, George Washington University Law School
Adriana Midence, UM Class of 2002, Emory University School of Law
Ellen Oberwetter, UM Class of 1997, University of Texas School of Law
Laura Pisarello, UM Class of 2007, Emory University School of Law and New York University School of Law
Brandon Ponichter, UM Class of 1997, Harvard Law School
Christopher Pudelski, UM Class of 2000, Northwestern University Law School
Matt Rice, UM Class of 1998, Stanford Law School
Philip Ruedi, UM Class of 1993, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Daniel Samson, UM Class of 2001, University of Virginia School of Law
Gabriel Scannapieco, UM Class of 2000, Harvard Law School
Rina Shah, UM Class of 1999, MBA at Harvard Business School
Matt Shors, UM Class of 1993, Stanford Law School
Matt Sienkiewicz, UM Class of 2011, Columbia Law School
Joshua Smith, UM Class of 1997, University of Michigan Medical School
Ameet Soni, UM Class of 2004, PhD at University of Wisconsin
Corey Stoughton, UM Class of 1998, Harvard Law School
Lesley Wexler, UM Class of 1998, University of Chicago Law School
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Open for debate
BY JULIE HALPERT
May 11, 2011
IT’S a balmy Sunday on the first day of spring, but a dozen
students, members of the University of Michigan debate team, are
oblivious to the sunny skies. They're sitting in a small, windowless
room at the Michigan Union, practicing for a upcoming national
tournament in Dallas. While her teammate holds the stop watch,
Maria Liu, a 19-year-old junior, steps to the makeshift podium to
practice her argument: the U.S. should increase its immigration of
foreign nurses to respond to a nursing shortage. Liu lays out a
logical, well-reasoned argument, impeccable in its structure, stuffed
with facts…and nearly impossible to understand. Not because of its
complexity, but because she's speaking faster than an auctioneer,
blurting out torrents of words, occasionally gasping for breath.
Welcome to the world of competitive debate.
Edmund Zagorin and Maria Liu preparing for a debate. The duo has been U-M's
top debate team for the past three years, but 2011 was their year to contend
for the national championship. (Photo courtesy Maria Liu.)
It's an intense endeavor requiring hours of preparation, a compendious memory, a nimble mind—and a killer instinct. Debaters work in teams
of two; each debate season focuses on a common subject—for 2010-11 it was immigration reform and visas—and teams must be ready to
argue, basically at random, an "affirmative" or "negative" position on that subject. They make their case in a nine minute constructive speech
followed by a three minute cross-examination period and six minute rebuttal. Judges assess their arguments and declare a winner accordingly.
If your opponent speaks faster, and makes twice as many arguments, you'll be at a disadvantage, so debaters speak at speeds of roughly 600
words per minute. The judges, says University of Michigan head debate coach Aaron Kall, are former college debaters versed in this style.
"Their ears are trained to hear a higher rate of speed, so it's not foreign to them," he says.
The University of Michigan debate team is considered a perennial power, but a national championship has always eluded them. This year,
though, was shaping up to be Michigan's best chance to seize the title. Liu and fifth year senior Edmund Zagorin, 23, were "one of the best
teams around," said Jarrod Atchison, a director of debate at Wake Forest University, who judged them in a dozen debates. They had been
Michigan's top pair for the past three years, winning an amazing 20 debates—a feat achieved by fewer than 20 teams since 1946.
Atchison said they "demonstrate that to be extremely successful you need to be able to research, comprehend, and argue against a wide variety
of positions." He said it was often difficult for opponents to predict their strategy or pin them down.
Now their talent had been seasoned by experience. Liu was a junior and Zagorin a fifth-year senior. The upcoming tournament in Dallas would
be Zagorin's last, and perhaps U-M's best shot at the title for some time.
"We weren't favored to win,"said Kall, "but I thought we could."
Zagorin had been a top high school debater at Georgetown Day School, but college competition proved to be a far more "intense experience."
He said the amount of required research per debater "equals that which is done on a Master's thesis." But he has thrived under the pressure.
This year he was one of just two people selected for the American Debate Team.
Zagorin lives debate round-the-clock, co-habiting with five other teammates who understand each other's demanding schedules. A master
researcher, he says he typically spends 15 to 20 hours a week preparing for a major tournament.
A debater "can learn how to research and in a matter of days or weeks become the equivalent of most experts in terms of knowledge," he says.
He's intensely focused when he speaks, like someone absorbed in prayer, and in his passion he will occasionally allow an outburst of
profanity—ridiculing an opponent's point, for instance, as "bull__." Zagorin says unlike competitive sports, where you can lose points for
swearing, judges generally tolerate it. It's "a great way to add emphasis to the thrust of an argument," so that it better stands out. He adds that
since it's so much of an average college student's daily speech, there isn't an obligation to self-censor.
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When Zagorin was paired with Liu, she had just graduated high school after skipping a year, so she had substantially less experience, though
Kall was impressed with her potential after seeing her in action at a U-M debate camp. Kall says through her hard work, she quickly advanced
and the two developed a complimentary rhythm. "Her talent lies in technical policy arguments and I do more wide-ranging research that's a
little less organized," Zagorin says.
"We're polar opposites," says Liu. "We work well in that sense."
Their first big challenge this season came in a high-stakes tournament in Athens, Georgia, in January. The two were favored to win—against
teams from Harvard, Wake Forest and the University of Texas-Dallas—but despite their strength, no team from U-M had won a national-level
debate in a decade. This was the team's first opportunity to notch a major victory.
But after winning their debates on the first day, Liu spent that Saturday night vomiting after contracting food poisoning from a hamburger.
Bedridden and dehydrated, she was too sick to debate the second day, and Zagorin debated solo, winning all his matches. But if Liu didn't rally
and debate on the third day, they would have to forfeit the tournament.
Liu had until Sunday at 10:00 p.m. to make her decision. "I was concerned for her," Zagorin said, "and I was worried that we were going to
have to drop out of the tournament." Coach Kall spent the day hoping desperately that she would pull through. "That was one of our best
chances of the year to win a tournament in the last several years," he said. "And it would be wasted if they had to withdraw."
"I know Edmund needed me," Liu said. Resting in her hotel room, she said, "I drank a ton of vitamin water, ate saltine crackers and got
energy." But the team waited in limbo until two minutes before the deadline. Finally Liu told Kall she was feeling better and could debate in
the morning.
Their last match-up was against Harvard. The Harvard team made the affirmative argument, proposing a visa policy-reform plan that they said
propped up U.S. influence in the Middle East, and that this was important to prevent Russian influence within the Middle East.
Zagorin and Liu proffered a surprising and creative negative argument: that expanding Russia's sphere of influence was good—and that
attempts to restrict Russia's sphere of influence would make Russia angry and more likely to attempt to destabilize the world. David Heidt,
assistant director of Michigan debate, said that argument was fresh and hadn't been made previously by another team, so Harvard wasn't
expecting it, and therefore was less prepared to respond.
"We had a good strategy that we thought Harvard would not anticipate, and this gave us a fairly strong competitive edge," said Heidt. Kall
couldn't wait around for the verdict, since he needed to fly back to Ann Arbor with the rest of the students, so Heidt stayed behind to hear the
decision, which wasn't read until 10:00 that night, a half hour after the debate concluded. Then Heidt heard words that were music to his ears:
"The decision is 3-0 for Michigan." Liu and Zagorin had won the tournament, their biggest victory together. Heidt immediately texted Kall the
news, which he read while on the plane.
"With all the obstacles to overcome, to finish the way we did was very satisfying," says Kall. Said Liu: "It was definitely worth it to persevere
and debate through the sickness."
If that match in Georgia had been a big "regular season" game, the stakes were even higher at the national championship in Dallas.
Michigan's first match-up was daunting: Emory University had been ranked number one for the past two years. Zagorin and Liu had beaten
other teams in the tournament, but they had never debated Emory. When Liu heard Emory would be their first opponent, she was so nervous
she had to listen to soothing tunes on her iPod to calm herself.
They started out with an advantage, winning the coin flip that allowed them to choose to argue affirmative or negative. Liu said the affirmative
side often has the advantage, since they can present an argument that their opponents aren't ready for, and the affirmative has had time to
prepare and research the argument more fully. Winning the coin flip let Zagorin and Liu do just this: they launched a new affirmative argument
they'd been practicing the week before in the Michigan Union. In past competitions, they had argued that more highly-skilled immigrants in the
fields of business, science and technology should be allowed in the country. But in this debate they shifted the topic, contending that more
nurses should be let in the country due to the nursing shortage and the aging crisis in the U.S.
PAGE 2 of 3
10
The new angle, Kall said, caught the Emory team off guard. Even so, the
opponents recovered and made a strong start of their own. Under enormous
pressure, Kall said, Zagorin stepped up to deliver his rebuttal. It was "one of the
best speeches I've seen him give in his career," Kall said. Again, the Emory
debaters counter-punched; U-M needed Liu to deliver. "Maria's last speech
needed to be close to perfect and it was," Kall said.
The debate was so close that, after an hour of deliberations, the debate director
finally ordered the judges to reach a decision. They awarded the win to Michigan;
Zagorin and Liu advanced to the semi-finals to debate Northwestern.
This time, U-M lost the coin toss and was forced to take the negative position.
Then Northwestern pulled the same sort of surprise that Liu and Zagorin had used
to win their earlier debate with Emory: a new affirmative that the Wolverines
weren't prepared for, a complicated technical argument about certain kinds of
visas.
Liu and Zagorin responded with a daring gambit. Their "negative" was a
topicality argument: that Northwestern's affirmative position didn't fall under the
assigned debate topic. Arguing that an argument is off topic "is always risky,"
Kall said. "It's an all or nothing approach."
The entire Michigan debate team poses with their semi-finalist
trophy at the National Debate Tournament. (Photo courtesy of
Maria Liu)
But Kall and the team felt that Northwestern had successfully seized the initiative, and the odds of this debate weren't in their favor. The risk
seemed worth it.
A half hour after the debate ended, the judges announced the results. Zagorin and Liu had lost, placing third overall out of 75 teams. The
chance for a national title had evaded U-M once again.
Liu's emotions got the best of her, and she started crying. More than disappointment over the defeat," she said, "I was sad to see our partnership
end."
Still, Zagorin was pleased with the third place finish. "I was sad that it was over and I was happy at how good it had been," he said. Zagorin
also took home an eighth place persuasive speaker award—out of 160 students.
Over the season, U-M had beaten teams from such schools as Harvard, Emory, and the University of California at Berkeley. Though Kall had
pinned his hopes on a national title, "I was very proud of their efforts, " he said. This was the eighth time that the team made it to the "final
four," and the second time in four years. Only two other teams, Wake Forest and Northwestern, have made the semi-finals as often.
Zagorin graduated this spring, and he will serve as an assistant debate coach even as he works to launch a media production company called
Giant Eel Productions with other graduating seniors. He said the problem-solving required in getting the venture off the ground is a skill he
learned in debating. Though he's excited by this new chapter in his life, it will be tough to leave debating, which provided him "one of the most
amazing intellectual and social experiences" in his life.
Liu will find out who her new partner is this summer. Kall says she'll remain one of the country's top debaters, though it's unclear if she'll be as
successful when her partner is less experienced than Zagorin. But losing only two seniors on his team, he's optimistic about next year's
prospects. And he insists that U-M will be back next year: a national title "remains our number one goal," he says.
Julie Halpert is the co-author of Making Up With Mom. She is a freelance journalist with more than two decades of experience
writing for national publications, including The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post, Self and Parents. She has also
reported on the air for public radio. She teaches a journalism class in U-M's Program in the Environment.
COPYRIGHT © 2007-11 THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
PAGE 3 of 3
11
University Debate Team beats Harvard
By Kimberly Pageau
For the Daily On January 25th, 2011
Despite several hurdles, the University’s Debate Team recently placed among the top college debate teams in the country.
Last week, the University of Michigan Debate Team defeated Harvard University’s debate team at the University of Georgia Tournament, taking first place in what Aaron Kall, the director of the University’s team, said is “one of the most significant debate wins in a decade.”
Though the team faced challenges such as a top debater falling ill and a grueling schedule, LSA senior Edmund Zagorin and Public Policy
junior Maria Liu, both on the debate team, rose to the occasion to defeat Harvard in a 3-0 victory. During the debate, Liu became sick with food
poisoning, but persevered nonetheless.
“For them to bear down and fight those obstacles for the win was great, and I’m very happy to see that,” Kall said.
LSA Junior Omega Skeean, a member of the debate team, said while the group has experienced difficulties over the past few years, it is now on
a positive trajectory. She added that Kall has done a lot of administrative work to improve the team’s relationship with the University.
In the tournament, Liu and Zagorin’s topic of debate was the expansion of immigration visas worldwide.
“We talked about things like employment visas to increase U.S. competition (and) visas for translators in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Liu said.
Skeean commended the effort that Liu and Zagorin put into the competition, as well as the work of the team as a whole.
“I was extremely happy for Edmund and Maria, and they deserve any success they get,” Skeean said.
Whit Whitmore and Nick Miller, assistant coaches for the University’s Debate Team, also contributed to the success of the team, Skeean said.
“They’re there everyday to help us practice, doing things with us like speaking drills,” Skeean said.
Engineering freshman Akum Gill said the team began practicing in August 2010. Though they thrive in a competitive environment, all the
debate team members agree that they’re like a family.
“It’s a great, strong dynamic just like any other sports team that spends a lot of time together and working together,” Kall said.
Kall said the debate team’s competitiveness is just like a sports team. With 13 or 14 competitions a year, Kall said debate has about the same
number of competitions as a college football team. Members also compete against other Big Ten universities like Northwestern University and
Michigan State University.
Looking toward the future, Kall said the team hopes to recruit more talent.
“Our long-term goals are to improve the program,” he said. “Edmund, our top debater, is graduating. We need to find the next Edmund, or the
next Denard Robinson, in debate.”
Kall said University administrators are also working to recruit top debating students to the school and to the team. To achieve this goal, the
team has a summer program for high school students, and members of the debate team are in the process of setting up scholarships for the best
high school debaters.
The team also hopes to establish a scholarship fund with contributions from the extensive network of debate team alumni, Kall said.
“A lot of our competitors give them away as well, and we want to compete for the best students,” he said.
Kall added that last week’s win will help the recruitment process.
“When (recruits) see the success and tournament victory, it shows that Michigan is a place that they can debate at the highest level,” he said.
12
January 29, 2012 - 5:26pm
'U' debate team wins competition at IU
BY ALEXANDRA MONDALEK
After heading to Bloomington, Indiana, the University’s Debate Team won the 2012 Hoosier Invitational Tournament
hosted by Indiana University on Jan. 23.
The three-day tournament brought some of the nation’s most competitive universities, including Northwestern University,
Michigan State University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Iowa and Vanderbilt University, to the podium.
Aaron Kall, director of the University’s debate program and the Michigan Debate Institutes, said the win was most likely
the University Debate Team’s most significant tournament victory since winning the University of Georgia tournament
last year.
“The tournament victory was a tremendous achievement and I felt proud of all the hard work and preparation done by the
debaters and coaches,” Kall said. “The team worked extremely hard in advance of the tournament and it’s great to see this
rewarded.”
Kall said the Debate Team’s biggest goal is to win the National Debate Tournament in March. The team won third place
at last year’s event.
Kall said the Indiana tournament victory would help propel the team to the top of the National Debate Tournament Varsity
Rankings.
Looking to the future, Kall said the team wants to continue to recruit the top high school debaters in the country. Merit
scholarships awarded by LSA and the generosity of debate alums were both said to be reasons for high recruitment rates.
“We want to build upon the momentum from last year’s top recruiting class and ‘re-double’ these outreach efforts,” Kall
said.
LSA Sophomore Yao Yao Liu said she thought she grew as a debater as a result of the event.
“The UM Debate coaches listened to a countless amount of my practice speeches throughout this year, which was
monumentally helpful in facilitating my growth as a debater and definitely contributed to the Indiana tournament victory,”
said Liu.
LSA Sophomore Kevin Hirn said synergy and planning were responsible for the team’s victory.
“The combination of teamwork and preparation enabled us to win the Indiana tournament,” Hirn said. “It felt awesome to
win my first college tournament as a Michigan debater.”
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FEBRUARY 4, 2013 - 1:51AM
University debate team wins big in Pittsburgh
BY CHELSEA HOEDL
The University of Michigan Debate Team won the 2013 University of Pittsburgh
Tournament held in late January .
The University sent two teams, both of which made it to the finals. This allowed the
University’s delegation to win by default.
Business sophomore Ellis Allen, LSA sophomore Alexander Pappas and LSA junior Kevin Hirn
and LSA senior Ky le Deming debated against top-ranked teams from across the country.
Though the teams prepared themselves to spar with any of the possible opponents, there were
a couple of teams in particular they had their ey es set on to defeat.
“We had to be prepared for every one in our division but we spent a lot of time doing research
on the team from Georgetown and the team from Harvard,” Allen said.
Preparation and practice for these tournaments takes 30 to 40 hours a week, he said.
This y ear’s topic for debate was the U.S. federal government’s role in energy production.
“Policy debate is very research-intensive so there’s a lot of time gathering information,
finding library resources on the topic y ou’re debating and then organizing that so y ou can
use it in the round when y ou won’t have as much prep time,” Allen said. “Then there is also a
lot of day-to-day work, being on top of y our speaking and having the team practices.”
The University's team is also ranked number two in the country in the National Debate
Tournament Varsity Rankings. They are second to Northwestern University , against whom
they will debate in their next tournament.
Allen said the University ’s team owes its number-two ranking to a dramatic improvement in
performance over the past three years.
“We’ve had bigger recruiting classes than the team has ever had and as a result of that, when
we go to these invitational tournaments, there will be several Michigan teams in
competition,” Allen said. “If all of them do pretty well it sets a strong foundation for the entire
squad.”
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The team is preparing for its upcoming tournament at Northwestern on Feb. 9 by holding
practice debates and stay ing on top of their research, Allen said.
Team director Aaron Kall said the debaters will spend almost the entirety of their days
leading up to the event preparing.
“They attend all their class(es) but then immediately head back to work and prepare with
our coaching staff,” Kall said.
Kall continued: “After the positive outcome at Pittsburg, that’s going to give our debaters a
lot of confidence to win the debate at Northwestern. They are currently the number one
program, but I think we’ll have an excellent chance.”
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FEBRUARY 15, 2012 - 2:27AM
Campus Club: Detroit Urban Debate Education
BY CHELSEA HOEDL
While debate in the form of heated classroom discussions and formal competitions are a major
component of University life, Detroit Urban Debate Education — a student club and certified
non-profit organization — seeks to expand educational and debate opportunities for Detroit
high-school students.
The club travels weekly to high schools to teach students the fundamentals of formulating
and executing an argument. According to LSA junior Miray Karabulut, the club’s assistant
director, members act as assistant coaches by developing lesson plans, giving lectures,
creating interactive exercises, performing speed drills and teaching research techniques.
Karabulut said most members have a background in debate, however those without prior
experience are encouraged to take a suggested sociology course to learn the basics. She
stressed the importance of debate for all students.
LSA sophomore David Seidman, a club member, echoed Karabulut’s sentiments and said
being able to effectively articulate arguments is a valuable skill to have at both the high
school and college level.
“We want to make sure that every one of these kids that wants to go to college has the means
to succeed in terms of both presenting a strong application, but also, once they’re in college,
having the ability to build on the education they have from high school,” Seidman said.
Karabulut said coaching the students has been a memorable experience and that she was
surprised by how receptive the students in Detroit were to learning more about debate.
“I expected the kids to be stubborn and opposed to the activities, but what I found was that the
kids in Detroit who I was teaching were very engaged, very interested, very into learning,”
Karabulut said.
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Scholarships Attract Top Debate Recruits
Springtime on the high school
debate circuit can be intense. The
year’s top high school
championship, the National
Tournament of Champions (TOC)
at the University of Kentucky,
coincides with high school seniors
declaring their college choices.
No one felt the confluence of these
events more keenly in April than
Ellis Allen, of Sandy Springs, Ga.
“Two things that were very
important to me were going down
at the same time,” Allen said.
About three days before making
history by winning his second
consecutive TOC, Allen announced
Michigan as his college choice.
U-M Debate Team
More Stories
Global Blue
Scholarships Attract Top Debate
Recruits
Champion debater Ellis Allen of Sandy Springs, Ga.,
is one of two freshmen to receive inaugural
Michigan Debate scholarships.
“A debater of this caliber only comes along every 25 years or so,” said Michigan
Debate Director Aaron Kall. The last debater to win two national high school debate
championships in a row, in 1984 and 1985, likewise came to Michigan: debate alumnus
Michael J. Green (AB ’89), now an assistant professor of philosophy at Pomona
College.
Alumni honor their son with
support for bipolar research
Young alums go global
Fostering strong outcomes
Podcast: Inner City to
Outer Space
What attracted Allen to Michigan? “The idea of spending four years somewhere unique
and fun appealed to me,” Allen said, “and money was a major tiebreaker.” Allen learned
in April that Michigan would offer him a debate scholarship, established earlier that
month. He subsequently learned that he had also been selected to receive a meritbased Penny and Roe Stamps Scholarship.
“To be competitive with other schools, we needed to be able to offer scholarships,” said
Kall. With debate alumnus Lee Hess (AB ’68), Kall had convened a committee by
phone, and in a remarkably short period of time, the committee had created the
Michigan Alumni Debate Scholarship fund. They granted scholarships to Allen and to
Alexander Pappas of Northbrook, Ill., who placed third at the national TOC.
“Here was an opportunity to make Michigan the dominant debate team in the United
States,” Hess said.
Indeed, Michigan now has “the No. 1 incoming class of recruits in the country,” Kall
said, based on “how well our incoming class did at the TOC: Michigan Debate recruits
were four of the 16 quarterfinalists.”
The committee includes Hess, Kall and former debate coach, retired LSA professor and
onetime Alumni Association associate director Bill Colburn, along with Michigan Debate
alumni Peter Baldwin (AB ’95, MBA ’02), Michael Dickler (AB ’96, JD ’99), John
Lawson (AB ’74, JD ’83), Adriana Midence (AB ’02), and Matt Shors (AB ’93).
Numerous donors contributed to the effort.
Recent Engineering grad LaDante
Riley shares how a donor’s
scholarship has helped him reach for
the stars—literally.
Watch on YouTube »
Listen on iTunes »
(From iTunes, click on "Subscribe Free"
to download the podcast; under "Library"
click on "Podcasts"; then "Play"
LaDante's episode)
To help attract tomorrow’s top debaters, you can support the fund at
www.giving.umich.edu/give/mdebate
Last updated on August 9, 2011
The University of Michigan Office of Development, 3003 South State Street, Suite 9000, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1288
Copyright © 2011 The Regents of the University of Michigan
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STAFF SPOTLIGHT
Debate team wins William Colburn Award
Kim Smith, clinical nurse II,
East Ann Arbor Health and
Geriatric Center, on installing
rain collecting systems: “The
expression on people’s faces
when you are giving them the
gift of water … has been
priceless.”
EVENTS
Aaron Kall, (left) director of debate, congratulates U-M Debate Team members Maria
Liu and Edmund Zagorin as 2011 recipients of the William Colburn Award. The award,
presented April 7 during the 32nd Michigan Leadership Awards Ceremony at the
Michigan Union, honors the legacy of Colburn, former director of debate at U-M in the
1960s and 1970s. Colburn was a professor in LSA and the School of Business
Administration. He also was associate director of the Alumni Association from 198495. Photo by Eric Bronson, U-M Photo Services.
VIEW EVENTS
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FEATURES
Question of the Week
How do you feel about offshore
wind farms?
Campuses, units celebrate Spring
Commencement 2011
This year's U-M Spring Commencement will feature the
commissioning of ROTC cadets and pre-ceremony student
entertainment — both introduced at last year’s historic
commencement featuring the U.S. president.
National champion solar car team introduces
2011’s Quantum
“Crystalloid Columns” from
Life in Ceramics: Five
Contemporary Korean Artists,
presented through June 13 in
the Taubman Health Center
North Lobby, Floor 1, by Gifts
of Art.
Former first lady Betty Ford was
honored at a funeral Thursday in
Grand Rapids. Several from the
university attended to pay their
respects.
With its sleek 2011 car Quantum now built and ready for
testing, U-M’s No. 1 solar car team in America is preparing to
take on the world. The reigning champions of the North
American Solar Challenge will compete in the 1,800-mile
World Solar Challenge across the Australian outback in
October. The U-M team, which has been around for two
decades, has won the continental race six times and finished third in the global
contest four times.
Old school: U-M in History
Women’s tennis
Political scientist Inglehart wins Johan Skytte
Prize
U-M political scientist Ronald Inglehart and Harvard University
colleague Pippa Norris have been awarded the 2011 Johan
Skytte Prize in political science, officials at Sweden’s Uppsala
17
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S TAT E & H I L L
GR ow Th Ac c oUnT s
&
From Our Corner to the Four Corners of the Globe
The Magazine of T he
gerald r. ford School
of Public Policy
S p r i n g 2 011
Ford School
Spotlight
 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The Ford School welcomed development economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth
Institute and author of The End of Poverty, to
give a 2010 Citigroup Foundation Lecture.
 GOOD POINT
Ford School BA student Maria Liu (right) and
her partner, Edmund Zagorin (red sweater), led
the U-M debate team to a first-place finish, defeating Harvard 3-0 at a tournament in Georgia.
Pictured with teammates Kyle Deming and Bala
Sekaran.
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A debatable future
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MOST READ
By AUSTEN HUFFORD, Digital News Editor
Published March 26, 2013
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PRINT | E-MAIL | LETTER TO THE EDITOR
EVANSTON, Ill. — In a terraced lecture hall at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of
Management, Business sophomore Ellis Allen looks around the room at his teammate LSA
sophomore Alex Pappas and their two competitors from Concordia College. They’re competing in
the first round of the Owen L. Coon Memorial Debates last February. Allen — wearing a lavender
button down, khaki pants and sneakers — seems relaxed and lighthearted. He smiles and casually
asks the room “Ready?”
He looks at his laptop, takes a deep breath and starts his
timer.
LSAsophomore William Morgan
speaks during the Owen L. Coon
Memorial Debates in Evanston, Ill on
February 10. (Austen Hufford/Daily)
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Roses for Rapture
Allen begins speaking at a furious rate, his manner
completely changed: He’s intense and stressed. Some words
are heard —“anthropological,” “economy,” “prices,”— but his
diction is so fast that his sentences are literally
incomprehensible to the average ears. His head shakes back
and forth as his eyes move across the laptop screen. He takes
only ragged, gasping breaths. Everyone else frantically takes
notes, straining to hear every word. For the next nine
minutes he continues like this until four timers go off within
milliseconds of each other. He stops.
1. 31-year-old junior is first in line under
new ticket policy
2. General Admission: Take One
3. 'Fishbowl' computer lab to reopen after
renovations
4. Shrouded in switches, the defensive line
shines
5. Murphy, Vanslooten deliver in 5-2
victory over Loyola-Chicago
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against Central Michigan
The Game
Michigan will be without safety Thomas
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shows Michigan fans in North Dakota, Vermont
This is collegiate debate.
The Reward
Even though it dates back to 1890, the University Debate
Team has never won a national championship. The
competitors, the coaches and University administrators want
this to change. Their goal is for one of the University’s three
debate pairs to win the 67th National Debate Tournament
being held at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah the
weekend of March 30.
After 123 years, the 2013 tournament may finally be the team’s chance to win it all. The team as a
whole is ranked second in the latest national debate tournament varsity rankings and has two
pairings in the top 16. The University is one of six colleges to have three pairs go to the national
tournament.
Aaron Kall, director of the University’s debate team, said winning the national championship is the
“end goal” every year.
“We want nothing more than to be able to say that we were the first debate team to win the national
19
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championship for the University of Michigan,“ Kall said.
The debate team was a student club from the mid-1980s until 2002 when it was brought under
University Student Affairs. Since then it has expanded both in size and achievement. It now has
about 24 students and three full-time coaches. The team is entirely self-funded through a summer
high-school debate camp and alumni donations.
Laura Blake Jones, the University's associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students,
believes the team will soon achieve their goal.
“In March, while we might be cheering our basketball team in terms of a national competition, we
could also be cheering the debate team as they look at perhaps winning a national championship,”
Jones said. “I can feel it. If it’s not this year it will be sometime soon; we certainly got the talent on
the team, and our time is coming.”
Unlike the clearly defined rules of basketball, collegiate debate is filled with more traditions and
customs than inscribed regulations.
The Rules
Collegiate debates are fought between four people — two per team from each school — and last up to
two hours. Each person is given nine minutes for a “constructive” speech, three minutes for the
competing team’s questions and six minutes for a rebuttal speech. Teams are also given a short
amount of “prep time,” during which both teams are allowed to pause the debate in order to
prepare.
For each school year, a large overarching resolution about federal government policy is chosen to
be the subject of the year’s debates. For the 2012 to 2013 school year, students are debating on
whether or not the federal government should encourage various types of energy production.
The topic of specific debates, however, is determined completely by the team going first. They
usually present an argument — an “affirmative” in debate lingo — on a specific aspect of the broad
resolution. For example, this year’s teams have called for more offshore drilling on the East Coast
or subsidies favoring a specific type of nuclear energy. Regardless of the first team’s topic, the
opposing team must debate against it.
Choosing the topic for each debate is one the most important strategic decision of a debate pair.
Some pairs use the same affirmative for the entire competitive season while others change it up
every tournament or even every debate. Topics are decided depending on the opponents’ strengths,
new original research or even the judge’s supposed preference.
The team going first generally informs their opponents about the debate topic up to an hour before
it, leaving just enough time to quickly go over already collected research. This is not a rule, and
sometimes — especially in the case of a newly created topic — teams may not inform the
competition until the debate starts.
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Monday, September 2, 2013
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By AUSTEN HUFFORD, Digital News Editor
Published March 26, 2013
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Except for the strict time limits, there are few other formal rules, Kevin Hirn, LSA junior and debate
team member said. During a debate itself, teams are expected to freely share presented evidence.
This is not a rule; it’s a custom that is never broken for fear of offending an omnipotent judge and
becoming the ridicule of the debate community.
Similarly, competitors can say and argue almost anything in
their allotted time; it is up to the opposing side to discredit
the statements. Copious amounts of research are paramount
to compete in collegiate debate in order to fight this
phenomenon.
The Research
For the University’s team, having a lot of high-quality
research is viewed as the key to their national ambitions.
LSAsophomore William Morgan
speaks during the Owen L. Coon
Memorial Debates in Evanston, Ill on
February 10. (Austen Hufford/Daily)
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University debate team wins big
in Pittsburgh
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'U' debate team wins competition
at IU
Roses for Rapture
1. 31-year-old junior is first in line under
new ticket policy
2. General Admission: Take One
3. 'Fishbowl' computer lab to reopen after
renovations
4. Murphy, Vanslooten deliver in 5-2
victory over Loyola-Chicago
5. Shrouded in switches, the defensive line
shines
ON THE BLOGS
The Wire
Crime statistics from Saturday's football game
against Central Michigan
The Game
Michigan will be without safety Thomas
Gordon in opener
The Game
Facebook map of college football allegiances
shows Michigan fans in North Dakota, Vermont
“In some sense, your last debate of the year starts in the
preseason because so much of the process for debate now is
based on policy research and preparation that you do long
before the tournament actually starts,” Allen said.
The most active debaters frequently spend hours a day
researching, practicing and theorizing. Many are given
research assignments during weekly debate meetings or
spend time just reading up on the latest research.
Book excerpts, scientific journals and government studies
are all cited during debates, but they’re also commonly
challenged by the opponents for being misleading or biased.
Having good quality evidence is essential for preventing the
challenging side from discrediting it, Kall said.
Time is always the limiting factor for debate preparation because the amount of research is
essentially limitless.
In the weeks approaching a big tournament like Coon Memorial, some of the most dedicated
debaters do all of their homework on Mondays in order to devote the rest of the week to debate
research.
In the four-hour ride to Northwestern, the three vans transporting the team made sure to have
portable WiFi hotspots to keep research going on the road.
21
The Internet and portable tech has caused debate research to change in recent years. Evidence is no
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
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Monday, September 2, 2013
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SPORTS
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A debatable future
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longer carried around in large bins or physically shared between team members. Instead, it is stored
in large Microsoft Word files that are broken down by topic and is viewed and edited by all the team
members.
With a simple mouse click, evidence collected by the University’s entire team can now be
discovered and used quickly during debates.
Before a section of a debate starts, USB flash drives with the evidence to be used in that section are
exchanged between teams. Recently, teams, including the University’s, have started uploading all
evidence used to a debate website at the end of tournaments. The vast majority of evidence
collected is never used during an actual debate. Kall said the University uploads its research
because it creates higher-quality debates and helps new programs ‘catch up’ with the better ones.
Because of the amount of research in today’s debates, competitors have sped up their rate of
discourse, University debate alum Neil Wolf said.
MOST READ
The Rate
1. 31-year-old junior is first in line under
ticket policy
Wolf said the high rate of diction — which he witnessed for the first time duringnew
the Northwestern
2. General Admission: Take One
debate
—
is
much
faster
than
when
he
debated
in
the
1970's.
By AUSTEN HUFFORD, Digital News Editor
3. 'Fishbowl' computer lab to reopen after
Tweet
Published March 26, 2013
0
Like
0
renovations
| E-MAIL
| LETTER
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EDITOR of information
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MORE LIKE THIS preparing for the three debates later that day and four the next.
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VIDEO: A debatable future
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Roses for Rapture
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it, Kall
high.
Time is always the limiting factor for debate preparation because the amount of research is
essentially limitless.
« FIRST ‹ PREVIOUS
1
2
3
NEXT ›
LAST »
In the weeks approaching a big tournament like Coon Memorial, some of the most dedicated
debaters do all of their homework on Mondays in order to devote the rest of the week to debate
research.
In the four-hour ride to Northwestern, the three vans transporting the team made sure to have
portable WiFi hotspots to keep research going on the road.
0tech
comments
The Internet and portable
has caused debate research to change in recent years. Evidence is no
22
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
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No debate about it: U-M team finds success in 'Elite Eight'
Published on Apr 04, 2013
Contact Jared Wadley
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ATHLETIC NEWS
ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan's men's basketball team is reaping national praise for its upcoming Final
Four appearance, but another U-M team recently achieved its own success by making it into the "Elite Eight."
HEALTH SYSTEM NEWS
ARTS NEWS
The U-M Debate Team of Ellis Allen and Alexander Pappas, both sophomores, won fifth place in the quarterfinals at
the 67th annual 2013 National Debate Tournament in Ogden, Utah. Allen was the eighth-best speaker in the
tournament and Pappas won the 10th-place speaker award.
GLOBAL MICHIGAN
PORTAL EN ESPAÑOL
"This was a tremendous accomplishment by the team, and we look forward to them going farther in the
tournament next year," said Aaron Kall, who directs the debate team.
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The tournament, held March 29-April 1, featured 78 teams of two debaters.
MICHIGAN TODAY
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Another U-M team—senior Kyle Deming and junior Kevin Hirn—reached the "Sweet Sixteen." Deming also
received the 15th annual William J. Taylor internship, which offers a stint at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies in Washington, D.C. The last time a U-M debater won this prestigious internship happened in
1998.
POPULAR RELEASES
The debate team, which is part of the Division of Student Affairs, started in 1890. It first qualified in 1971 for the
National Debate Tournament and has since made 30 appearances. The team has won second place twice (1989,
1991), third place six times (1988, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2008, 2011) and fifth place seven times (1971, 1972,
1988, 1989, 1992, 2001, 2013). It has reached the elimination rounds (top 32) at the tournament for the last
seven years in a row (2007-2013).
This year's debate topic: the federal government should substantially reduce restrictions on and/or substantially
increase financial incentives for energy production in the United States of one or more of the following: coal, crude
oil, natural gas, nuclear power, solar power and wind power.
For more information about the program, visit www.michigandebate.com
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