Lafayette Tournament Update

The Penn Debate team had a highly successful weekend at the Lafayette College Invitation in Easton, PA. We brought three debaters to the eight round tournament attended by teams from across the country, and all three debaters won awards.

General Secretary Noah Rosenthal (W '13) broke to elimination rounds as the 4th seed, making it to quarterfinals (where he lost to Western Kentucky). He was also 7th speaker.

Tanay Mehta (W/EAS '14) broke to elimination rounds as the 6th seed, making it to quarterfinals (where he lost to St. Anselm). He was also 6th speaker. This was a phenomenal performance, considering that this was his first NFA-LD tournament ever.

Zaina Naeem (C '14) also took home some hardware, being named the 2nd Top Novice at the tournament.

Last, but certainly not least, Penn Debate took 2nd place in sweepstakes. Considering that the team taking first place, Western Kentucky University, was the best in the nation last year, that is a pretty spectacular achievement for our humble program.

We hope that the Penn Speech Team, who will be attending the West Chester tournament this weekend, enjoy at least as great of a success as the debaters!

Second General Meeting

The second general meeting will be held on Tuesday September 21 at 9PM in Williams Hall. We will either be meeting in the debate room or one of the classrooms; regardless, please meet in the lobby near the cafe.

Joining the Team

Thank you to all who came out to our first Central Committee meeting tonight.

If you weren't able to make the meeting tonight but are still interested in joining the team, please email noro at wharton.upenn.edu.

First General Meeting

The first general meeting for Speech & Debate will be held this TUESDAY (September 14) at 9PM in Houston Hall Room 314.

Info Session on Monday September 6

Penn Speech & Debate will be holding a joint info session with several other forensics organizations (Mock Trial, Penn for Youth Debate, Parliamentary) on Monday September 6 at 6:30 PM. PS&D will be the first group presenting, so make sure to be on time!

General Secretary Noah Rosenthal will be there after the info session to answer any questions.

2010-11 Resolution Announced

The 2010-11 NFA-LD resolution is:

Resolved: the United States federal government should substantially reform the provision of mental health services to the chronically mentally ill.

A few important notes about this year's resolution:

1. Once again, the resolution uses the word "reform" (*sigh*) which renders the topic bi-directional (*double sigh*). In other words, debaters have to be prepared to discuss both increases and decreases in the provision of mental health services.

2. Due to either a conscious decision (unlikely) or a severe oversight (likely) of the topic selection committee, this year's resolution does not specify that mental health services have to be provided in the U.S. Foreign aid cases are fair game.

The bottom line: It is a good year to be aff.

Info About Penn Debate

For all incoming Penn freshmen (and upperclassmen who may be interested in joining our debate team):

The Commissars (Officers) of the Penn Debate Team are happy that you have taken time to visit our blog. Here is some basic information for any and all who are interested in joining the Penn Debate team:

Type of Debate

Penn Debate competes on the national NFA-LD college circuit. NFA-LD is similar to both high school policy debate (in that resolutions deal with a policy issue that should be addressed by the United States federal government) and high school Lincoln-Douglas debate (in that NFA-LD is a one-on-one debate activity).

Over the course of the debate season (running from September to April), we travel to tournaments in such diverse locations as

• Columbus, OH (with beautiful Ohio State University and its hundreds of identical red brick buildings)
• Easton, PA (home of the Crayola factory and unnecessarily complicated traffic patterns)
• St. Louis, MO (where you can see that big metal arch thing)
• Manchester, NH (what? you haven't heard of that city before? really? it's like the biggest city in New Hampshire? it has an airport and everything! still no? never mind.)
• Boston, MA (where you can make fun of Harvard kids)
• Omaha, NE (there isn't really anything to say about Omaha)

Tradition of Success

The Penn Debate Team has a long history of success. Over the past ten years, numerous Penn debaters have reached elimination rounds in the NFA national tournament, and we have even racked up a national championship.

Becoming a Member

Individuals of all levels of debate experience are welcome and encouraged to join. Individuals with high school debate experience (either in policy, Lincoln Douglas, or public forum) have found it easy to make the transition to NFA-LD, and individuals with no debate experience whatsoever have found the activity easy to learn.

Benefits of Joining

1) Academic Enrichment

As anyone who has done debate in the past will tell you, debate makes you a better speaker, a better writer, and, overall, a better thinker. Many Penn debaters have enjoyed considerable academic success; for example, former Penn Debate Captain Joyce Meng is now a Rhodes Scholar studying at Oxford.

2) Research Experience

Penn places a huge focus on conducting original research, both inside the classroom and independently. Penn Debate can teach you the skills and give you the experience you need to become a successful researcher (and impress potential employers).

3) Exciting New Friends

Of course, most clubs at Penn will give you the opportunity to meet new people. But very few will give you the chance to really get to know these people by collaborating with them on research projects and traveling around the country to compete against other schools.

4) Natural Male Enhancement

Not really.

---General Secretary Noah Rosenthal