October 1, 2019

Dear Forensics Community;     

The University of Mississippi Forensics Team, now the Ty R. Warren Debate Union within the Trent Lott Leadership Institute,  invites you to join us November 22 - 23 for the Fall 2019 University of Mississippi High School Forensics Tournament hosted by the Trent Lott Leadership Institute and the University of Mississippi Office of Outreach and High School Competitions.  We are pleased to have the NIETC Bid Qualifying Tournament designation. We will also be offering the World Schools Debate format for the first time in our tournament history. 

Also, we will continue a tradition started two years ago, and offer the third annual Dr. Barbara Lowe Excellence in Forensics Award.   Congratulations to last year’s recipient, Cooper Thomason from Oxford High School, Oxford, Mississippi. The award is made possible through a generous endowment provided by Mr. Martin Dunagin of Houston, Texas.  Mr. Dunagin is a native Mississippian and University of Mississippi alumnus.  As a high school debater in Mississippi, Mr. Dunagin understands the value of this activity in our state.  Dr. Lowe and Mr. Dunagin were debate partners in High School.  Mr. Dunagin wants to recognize Dr. Lowe's years of dedication, hard work, and overall competitive speech excellence.   We encourage you to nominate those students who exemplify Dr. Lowe’s spirit of commitment. Each attending school may nominate up to two students for the award.  Students must be a Junior or Senior in at least their second year of competition.  

The letter of nomination should be submitted to tournament director, JoAnn Edwards, via email (jedwards@olemiss.edu) by Thursday, November 14, midnight CST.  The letter should be submitted by the team Coach and should not be submitted by a parent or student.  A committee consisting of University faculty and students will select the recipient.  

• Schools may enter up to 7 entries per each Individual Event; 5 entries in Congressional Debate; 5 entries in team and LD debate. We will provide a waiting list will also if we can accommodate more entries. 
• Students entering Debate may enter only 1 event in Flight A and 2 events in Flight B. 
• We would like to remind competitors and coaches that the distance between buildings on the Ole Miss campus is quite large.  Do not over-extend your abilities to move between the events in a timely manner.  It is the responsibility of the student to make it to the rounds within the time allotted.   

We look forward to having you here. 

Sincerely,  

JoAnn Edwards                                                         Debra Yancy