The 12th Annual Dartmouth College Winter Invitational celebrates twelve years of excellence as a staple on the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) tournament series. American Parliamentary debate focuses on the art of rhetoric, persuasion, and impromptu thinking by challenging contenders to five "in" rounds of debate; in each round one team presents a topic for debate and the other opposes. Teams of two take turns debating in a sequence, and alternate proposing and opposing cases until the bracket leaves a single victor. Broken into a varsity and novice league, APDA tournaments allow for debate between new debaters and veterans, helping to holistically improve each member's ability to think quickly and critically.
Dartmouth Parliamentary Debate proudly hosts the Winter Invitational, with co-sponsorship by the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences, in the hopes of fostering the development of well-rounded thinkers who will go on to use these skills in the workplace and in the public sector. Spanning January 14-15, 2011 at Dartmouth College, the tournament will have students from the Dartmouth Parliamentary Debate Team judging over forty teams from across the nation.
-- Jacob Hickson '13
EDITED TO ADD on 2/3/11: Summary of event from the student organizers
Event Name: 12th Annual Dartmouth Winter Invitational
Sponsoring Organization: Dartmouth Parliamentary Debate Team
Co-sponsored by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences
January 14-15, 2011 in the Rockefeller Center, 61 teams from 22 schools: American University, Bates, Brandeis, Brown, University of Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, Middlebury, NYU, MIT, UPenn, Providence College, Rutgers, Smith, Swarthmore, Tufts, UVA, West Point, William and Mary, Williams, and Yale teams; participated in paired debates. Debaters were judged primarily by Dartmouth students, alums, and visiting judges from other schools. Rounds operated under the regulations of the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA), with the first place team from Yale winning over the Harvard/Brandeis hybrid team by a 7-0 decision.
American Parliamentary Debate encourages participants to think quickly, analytically, and critically. The event synthesizes understanding of current events, philosophy, and constitutional and international law with public speaking and rhetorical strategies. These skills reflect qualities desirable in a well-educated citizen and foster participation in political discourse and civic engagement, as well as facilitate the intellectual growth of debaters and judges who must embrace challenging viewpoints and make complex value judgments.
Overall satisfaction from visiting participants and hosting Dartmouth students was high. Several members of the Dartmouth Parliamentary Debate team received compliments on the coordination of the event.