Free Agent Debate?

[kikimal13]

Is there any way to debate without being officially affiliated with your schools debate team?

Kiki

(I posted this in offcase as well because I wasn't sure what forum this fit in....please forgive the redundancy)

[DreinCali]

Hi Kiki,

I'll take a crack at this one...

The short answer is, mostly not. You must have a school affiliation to debate. So you could theoretically enter yourself and another Regis student at a tournament (you've read the invites, entries are easy), but you would officially be part of the Regis entry, and it gets tricky from there. Your DOF could ignore you and let you compete as long as you provided your own half-a-judge, and the tourney could let it slide. Or, the tournament hosts could freak out and demand that your DOF okay your entry. Or the tournament could be fine with it, but your DOF could get pissed and demand they pull your entry because he didn't authorize it. You would have no recourse because he's officially (incl. legally) responsible for everyone who debates under the Regis name.
I don't know much about your coach. I know that with one who doesn't always pay attention, like mine, I wound up being the DOF and doing the entry and by the time he figured it out (and I had done well) it was too late for him to say anything. Dena and I, and Owen and I wouldn't have gone to the Claremont RR and tournament the last two years had I not done the bid and entry myself. Same for our 4 teams at Fullerton this year. But that's just for tournament the team wouldn't have gone to. It would be a whole new ball game if your team was ALREADY planning to go to a tournament, and you also wanted to go, but not affiliated with them.
You could hybrid with someone from a different school a couple times, and get on that school's entry, judges, and fees, but you couldn't do it forever.
Hope that helps. Sorry it's not more optimistic. I guess it's getting pretty bad over there.

Love,
Andrea

[USC MissingLink]

Ouch. Sorry to hear that Kiki...

You could look into APDA debate... you'd go to fewer tournaments, but it's a purely student run thing...

jEd

[NonEcdicus]

Hey there, Kiki,

You know I totally sympathize with your situation, and would always be willing to help or provide any information that I can. Aside from that, I think that on this particular question, Andrea's response is pretty right on. There really aren't any specific "rules" that address the situation. The only thing is that at NPDA Nationals, the procedures are currently written such that only "member schools" may enter teams to the tournament director (whatever that means, but I think it at least means the person designated as the DOF when the school becomes a member probably is in control of that power). During the rest of the year, the only restriction is on student eligibility (must be a student at an accredited school, pursuing a degree with enough current credits, etc.)--NPDA the organization doesn't have any other specific control over what happens. So, it seems as though, like Andrea said, it ends up being up to individual programs, schools, tournament directors, etc. and their personalities, views on liability risks, etc. I know that sucks and makes things more complicated than they ought to be. Uggh!

-Brian

[Trojan Tau]

Jed opens up an interesting door by mentioning APDA. It really depends on what you mean by "debate" (no Clinton jokes, please). NPDA, APDA, CEDA ... they're all "debate." So is that email tournant, a debate class, or the "teledebate/edebate" concept. What are your priorities and what do you want to do as a debator? Going to NPDA nats sounds like a no. That could be the only thing you'd miss out on, but then again you probably wouldn't be that luky. The only way to anwer that question is to know what elements you want (competition with certain schools, large national program, debate format, level of competition, the tournament experience, whatever).

The only new question I have is how NPTE might look at it. Anybody know the bylaws?

-Adam

[USC MissingLink]

it is sad that someone who wants to debate would be prevented from doing so in NPDA. I guess that's the politics of the situation, but it seems to me that personal conflicts shouldn't prevent a good debater from competing...

my idealistic opinion

jEd

[NonEcdicus]

Especially after Adam's post, I really want to clarify, too, that before counting NPDA Nationals or anything else out based on interpretation of NPDA rules or things NPDA officers may or may not have been heard to say, etc. . . . Kiki or anyone else should totally feel free to talk with me about working something out. Not because I have special magic powers, or whatever, but I say that here just because no one else--at this time--who might know, as comprehensively as I do, the history of how complicated situations have been dealt with, rules interpreted, personality conflicts worked out, and so on, seems to be as easily and willingly accessible to communicate with anybody.

That was a mouthful. But, it's genuinely important to me to be available to help a continuing effort to make this organization more flexible in these situations and more communicative and egalitarian generally. There are others and things are improving, I really believe that.

-Brian

[USC MissingLink]

<img src=http://www-scf.usc.edu/~link/netbenefits/emoticons/hearhear.gif ALT=":hear">

oh Brian...

why you always denying your special magical powers? :)

jEd

[NonEcdicus]

Oh, I guess I don't always, Jed. (See the Eminem discussions.)

-Brian ;)