Important Reminders/Equity Statement

Important Reminders: 

•         Competition is open to 9-12 grade students in their first year of competition (novice) representing the school in which they are officially enrolled and doing so with the permission of their school administration and/or coaches.

•         We will use NSDA rules for all events, including the updated guidelines on virtual competition.

o   Duo will be split screen for submissions.

•         Students MUST have a Tabroom account for the tournament.

•         Students/Coaches will upload speeches by Friday October 23^st 9pm for recorded events

•                     Events can be record with NSDA campus. Students/coaches will be able to upload videos for team.

•         In CX, no kritiks or counterplans are allowed.

•         In CX, we will employ the NFHS Novice case limits, meaning that all teams should limit themselves to these case areas:

o   Forensic Science: Limit use of facial recognition software

o   Policing: Abandon federal efforts to force local police to assist in immigration enforcement

o   Sentencing: Abolish mandatory minimum sentences

o   Sentencing: Drug decriminalization In Original Oratory and Informative, scripts are optional

o   Awards: the current plan is to mail them out to the schools after the tournament finishes

Miscellany:  A responsible coach must be present on site (reachable for their team via call or email).

Equity Statement:

University School committed to further developing equity, diversity, and inclusion in this activity. To that end, we have tried to remove some of the economic barriers that prevent teams from competing at tournaments. Below are recent steps we have taken to increase access and affordability.

1. The 2020 University Novice Meet will not be charging any drop fees.

2. Any school with a Free or Reduced Lunch rate of 60% or more is entitled to a discount on their entry fees. Please email us directly to receive the discount.

 In addition to working towards affordability, we want to create a competitive environment that welcomes all narratives, and combats sexist, classist, and racist macroaggressions that have resulted in varying student experiences in this activity. Below are recent steps we have taken to address inclusiveness:

1. An anti-bias judge virtual training required for all judges before ballots are released to them.

We want to encourage coaches to be proactive in the event an inappropriate comment is made on the ballot that they believe was part of the judge’s decision. Being asynchronous helps facilitate rectifying this issue. Below are the steps we are committed to taking:

1. We will make ballots available to coaches regularly. We want to encourage coaches to review ballots and notify the tournament directors of any problematic ballots.

2. If a problematic ballot is discovered in rounds, an additional judge will adjudicate that round. If the judge’s rank would have resulted in that students higher rank, they will receive the higher rank. This may result in (two “1^st” or “2^nd”; we are fine with that). In out rounds, only the student whose ballot was challenged will have the potential to receive a different rank.

Finally, we realize these steps that we have committed to are only part of a larger conversation on the issues of equity and diversity in our activity. Any suggested updates to our equity statement are welcomed to be shared at our Coaches’ Meet & Greet. Details will be sent out in a separate email.