Western Connecticut State University’s Roger Sherman Debate Society hosts the annual Hat City Debate Tournament on Feb. 22 and 23 on the university’s Midtown campus in Danbury.
More than 400 student debaters and team coaches from colleges across the Northeast will compete for the District 8 Cross Examination Debate Association Championship.
The tournament also will feature competition in the National Debate Tournament District 8 qualifier round and the Parliamentary/Worlds Debate regional.
All debates will address the 2013-14 CEDA/NDT topic, which poses the resolution that the U.S. federal government “should substantially increase statutory and/or judicial restrictions on the war powers authority of the President of the United States” in one or several of six specified types of operations.
The public is invited to attend the debate rounds and admission will be free.
Information on locations of the debates will be available at the Warner Hall registration site.
Saturday: Round 1, 8 a.m., round 2: 10:30 a.m. Round 3, 1:30 p.m.; Round 4 4 p.m.; round 5, 6:30 p.m.
Sunday: Round 5 and 6 8 a.m.;
11 CEDA Elimination Debates; 1:30 PM: Lunch and Award Ceremony; 2:30 PM: CEDA East meeting during elimination rounds; 2:30 PM: Elimination Rounds for CEDA; 2:30 PM: NDT run-offs as necessary; 4:30 PM: Elimination Rounds (as necessary)
This year’s Hat City Tournament will include six rounds of cross-examination debate by student participants at the novice and junior varsity levels.
In 2013, Hat City debaters Kylah Broughton, of Newark, N.J., and Eugene Ben Allen, of Naugatuck, became the first Western team to win a regional championship and Broughton captured the top individual Speaker Award for the tournament.
In addition, Western students Colleen Mair, of Milford, and Leon McIntosh, of Bridgeport, reached the quarterfinals and Mair achieved third top speaker for their division in the society’s most recent competition at Rutgers University.
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