Santa Clara University

Philalethic Society

Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament

Saturday-Sunday, March 28-29, 2015

Melan Jaich, Director of Forensics, mjaich@scu.edu

Mariel Cruz, Assistant Director, cruznmariel@gmail.com 

Dear Coach:

Santa Clara University Philalethic Debating Society invites you and your squad to our annual Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament to be held on Saturday-Sunday, March 28-29, 2015. The tournament is designed to foster interscholastic communication and reasoning activities outside the classroom in a supportive, educational atmosphere.  Middle schools and home schoolers are very welcome to attend and compete fully in the tournament 

Debate will have 5 preliminary rounds. All individual events and debate formats will have a Novice and Open Division.

We will use both the January/February and March/April LD topics plus the March and April PF topics for both divisions.

Parliamentary debate will be given 3 topics per round; each team allowed one strike each.  All Individual Events will be combined into one pattern.  Double entries in Events are allowed.  We will offer two divisions of Student Congress.

Web Based Entry Procedures:

Entries will only be accepted on-line at tabroom.com. It will take you a few minutes to set up your school's account, but once that is done the system is a breeze.  Plus, the system will enter all your judges and competitors - so when you enter the next tournament that uses this system you will not have to type the judges and competitors names again.  You will also be able to make changes to your entry up to noon Monday, March 23, 2015 with no additional fees. To enter go to tabroom.com. If you are new to the online system, you will need to first "Set up a new account" for your school.  After the account is set up, go to "View Tournament Calendar" and it will let you click on "Entry." Please note that high school tournaments and college tournaments are separated. Congress is listed under IE's. 

Please contact me at mjaich@scu.edu if you cannot get the website to accept or change your entries.

Make drops and adds on the web page.  Judge names must be entered by Monday, March 23, 2015 or you will be charged for penalty fees.

As of noon Wednesday, March 25, 2015, fees will be set.  Please note that drops after fees assessment will be charged.  There is a fee computation sheet to figure out how much you will owe at registration.  Changes or drops after Wednesday, March 25, 2015 will be charged a $10 nuisance fee. All space in debate and events will be allocated on a first come, first served basis; register early. We will also be implementing caps if the tournament entries become too large.

Judging

Schools should bring qualified judges. One judge for every two debate teams (Parli or Policy); four Public Forum teams/ four Lincoln Douglas debaters/duo entries or five event entries in each pattern. Please call if you have questions about your judging requirements.

Schools will pay a judging penalty fee per event slot, Congress entry, Lincoln Douglas/Duo Interp or debate team not covered by school judges.  We will allow senior high school debaters to judge novice division debate.  Judge names must be posted by Monday, March 23, 2015 or we will assume you are not bringing judges and penalties accordingly will be assessed.

Tournament Hotel

The San Jose Airport Garden Hotel will be the designated tournament hotel with a special rate for Dempsey participants with rooms for up to four people at a $104.00 rate. Please contact the eservations at 408.793.3300 to arrange housing. Our contact person is Stephanie in Sales.  The hotel also has free shuttle service to/from SCU and the San Jose Airport via the VTA #10 bus shuttle.

FEES:

____ School fee X 1 = $50

____ number of Event entries /Congress entered X $15= _____

____ number of Parli/Public Forum/ LD/ entered X $35 = _____

____ number of Policy Teams X $45 = _____

Judge Penalties

____ Event entries/Congress/Duos uncovered X $25 = _____

____ Parli/Public Forum/ L-D/ uncovered X $50 = _____

____ Policy Teams uncovered X $75 = _____

Total Fees = ____________

Please make checks payable to "Santa Clara Debate".

C/o Communication Dept., SCU, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053

Topics:

L/D Debate January/February OR March/April Topic:

2014-2015 Policy Debate Topic:

Public Forum: March OR April Topics.

Divisions:

Novice and Open Division in Debate, Congress and Events.   Novice is normally defined at the first year of competition.

Patterns:

Debate Pattern: Policy, Parliamentary, Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas Debate plus Congress.

Events Pattern: Extemporaneous/Dramatic Interpretation /Expository/Original Prose Poetry / Oratorical Interpretation/ Impromptu /Persuasive /Humorous Interpretation/Thematic Interpretation and Duo Interpretation.

General Rules:

School registration in part or whole may be rejected due to space considerations. The tournament will consist of five preliminary debate rounds and the three preliminary rounds of events.   All divisions will receive awards.  We reserve the right to combine divisions if the entry warrants.  Sorry, we don’t do sweepstakes awards for the Spring Tournament.  

Events Rules:

Students may double enter in Events.  Generally we use CHSSA rules but not in all cases.  Exceptions include: Persuasive will include both advocacy and other "persuasive" speeches. Extemp is combined national and international.  Semifinals will be held in individual events with 50 or more entries or at the discretion of the tournament director. Under subscribed events may waive finals. 

Debate Rules:

We will accept hybrid teams in debate.  We do not accept single person teams. Team debate must be two person. Brackets will be broken to avoid teams from the same school hitting each other.  Debate will hold octofinals if entry warrants.  Check the schedule at registration to determine divisions going to octofinals. In Parliamentary Debate we provide 3 topics each round with one strike per team.   There are speaker awards in team debate events only. 

Changes to Parliamentary Debate:

This year, due to concerns about our Fall tournament, we will be implementing a cap on Varsity Parliamentary debate at 48 entries. This will allow a more appropriate break to octos of one third of the field. We are hoping to single flight parli to better fit the event within the schedule. 

This year, the Parli topics will be written by a committee of local coaches, and former and current college Parli debaters. The following people have been asked to be part of this committee to create fair and educational topics for the SCU tournament. Topics for the tournament will be written and reviewed by the committee members, and the tournament directors will give final approval for all topics.

-Julie Herman - SCU Alum and former NPDA debater

-Sarah Botsch-McGuinn - Coach for Notre Dame High School

-Stephan Brooks - Coach for Archbishop Mitty and Brooks Academy

-Hamda Khan - Coach for Prospect High School and current NPDA debater for SCU

Computers:

Computers are allowed in Extemp Prep, LD, Public Forum, Policy Debate and preparation for Parliamentary Debate prep.  Computers are not allowed during the speaking time in Parliamentary Debate.

Congress Rules:

Congress will have open and novice division.  Please designate the PO's with a 'po' for every five entries.  PO’s should emailed to me at mjaich@scu.edu.

2015 Spring Invitational Speech & Debate Tourney

SCHEDULE

(Parking is Free on Saturday & Sunday)

Saturday, March 28, 2015

7:00-8:00 a.m. School Registration & Fees  (Daly Science Center Room 206)

8:00-10:00 am Debate Round 1 Congress Rd 1 Bills 1-2

10:00-12:00 p.m.  Debate Round 2 Congress Rd. 2  Bills 3-4

12:00-12:30 pm Extemp Prep

12:30-2:00 pm Events Round 1

2:00-4:00 pm Debate Round 3 Congress Rd 3 Bills 5-6

4:00-4:30 pm Extemp Prep

4:30-6:00 pm   Events Round 2

6:00-6:30pm Extemp Prep

6:30-8:00pm  Events Round III

10:30 pm  Events/Congress Breaks Posted Online

Sunday, March 29, 2015

8:30-10:30 a.m.  Debate IV Congress Finals Bills 7-8

10:30-11:00 am Extemp Prep

11:00-12:30 p.m. Individual Events Finals

12:30-2:30 pm  Debate Round V

2:30 pm Awards for Individual Events/Congress/Debate Speakers

4:00 p.m. Debate Elimination 1

6:00 pm Debate  Elimination 2

8:00 pm Debate  Elimination 3

10:00 pm Debate  Elimination 4

CONGRESS BILLS can be found in full tournament invite found on the right side of the webpage.