INVITATION

September 15, 2021

Dear Forensics Community:

 The University of Mississippi Forensics Team, now the Ty R. Warren Debate Union within the Department of Writing & Rhetoric, invites you to join us October 15-16 for the Fall 2021 University of Mississippi High School Forensics Tournament hosted by the University of Mississippi Office of Outreach and High School Competitions.  We are pleased to offer an in-person, on-campus tournament experience. We are also pleased to have received NIETOC bid tournament designation (see: http://nietoc.com/bid-school-by-state ).

Also, we will continue a proud tradition by offering the annual Dr. Barbara Lowe Excellence in Forensics Award. 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 the Magnolia 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 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, Jacob Justice, via email (jacob.justice.debate@gmail.com) by Monday October 4, 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. 

We look forward to having you here. 

Sincerely,  

Dr. Jacob Justice

Assistant Professor of Speech Communication and Director of Forensics

The University of Mississippi

CONTACT INFORMATION

Jacob Justice (jacob.justice.debate@gmail.com)

Mrs. Rachel Clapper-Davis - MHSAA Coordinator of Speech and Debate (rclapper@madison-schools.com)

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION 

COVID-19 Policies

Effective August 5, 2021, the university will require face coverings in indoor public spaces on campus for all people, regardless of vaccination status. This includes public office spaces, classrooms, conference rooms and other academic spaces like laboratories and libraries. Additionally, masks will be required while traversing public spaces in residence halls, dining facilities, the Student Union, Campus Recreation, and retail spaces. Face coverings are not required when outdoors.

Competition participants, students, and employees should follow CDC guidelines for how to wear a mask so that masks can be as effective as possible.

Here are some housekeeping notes:

• 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. 
• The tournament will use a flighted schedule. Preliminary debates will be held on Friday. Debate elimination rounds and Individual Events preliminary and elimination rounds will be held on Saturday.
• 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.   

Making Payment 

• Please Make Checks Payable to University of Mississippi (in memo line write Speech & Debate Tournament).  
• We cannot make immediate change if paying with a check over the amount of entry.  We will issue refunds via mail.  
• We will not register a school that does not have the entry fees or Purchase Order (PO) for us to use to issue an invoice to the school.

Judging fees   

• $20 for uncovered IE entry

• $25 for uncovered debate entries (includes all forms of debate) 

Entry Limits 

• Students entered in all forms of Debate (including Congress) may enter only 1 event in Flight A and 2 events in Flight B. 
• Students may enter only one type of debate event, including Congressional debate.
•  IE students may not enter more than 2 events per flight. 

Judges 

• Each school must provide one judge for each two LD debaters or Policy/Public Forum/Worlds Teams.  Schools that cannot provide adequate judges must pay an additional $25.00 for each LD debater or Public Forum/Policy or Worlds Team.  
• Each school must provide one judge for every 7 individual events slots.  Each uncovered slot will cost $20 
• Note: Coaches should plan to judge.  Each school should provide at least one judge. 
• Note: Judges hired the day of the tournament are subject to availability and will have a double fee. 
• Note: Schools with a judge that does not report for a round must pay a $15 per late round fee if the judge cannot be located in a legitimate area (lounge, judging a round, etc.) No other person can cover for that judge.  Make sure that your judges understand the commitment they make for the tournament day.  

   Awards 

• Trophies awarded to finalists in all events and to the schools and individuals earning the best record at the tournament.
• We will award Top Three Schools in Individual Events and Top Three Schools in Debate. The school earning the best overall record will win The Glen Menna Traveling Championship Trophy.
• In addition, The Rose Bui Memorial Award is awarded to the top performer in 3 or more events with a debate entry counting as 1 of the three events.   

Competitor Rules 

•  Students may not use a selection they have used prior to the 2021-2022 school year 
• No student may be a member of more than one duo or duet team.  
• No student may enter the same selection in more than one event.  
• Any student violating one of these rules will be disqualified in all events involved. 

 Rules For Judges

No smoking. The University of Mississippi is a non-smoking campus, both in buildings and outside. 

No disclosure. Judges should not disclose or provide oral critiques. We ask judges instead to focus on writing a clear and concise reason for decision on the ballot(s) and returning them as promptly as possible to the tab room.

No conferring. Judges serving on panels are not to confer with other judges on the panel about the result at any point before all ballots for that round have been handed in at the ballot table.

No cell phone/device use in rounds.  Any device capable of connectivity should be disabled in competition rooms. Usage of disabled devices as timers is permitted.

Sign the ballot.  All ballots must be signed and the judge's code must appear on the ballot.

Stay one round past elimination. Judges are required to stay one round past the round their team's last entry is eliminated.

Be constructive on the ballot.  Written comments should always be made in a constructive manner. 

Please review the event rules.  Judges should read the rules for events in which they are called to judge, and critique according to the rules. Guidelines will be on the ballots used at the tournament.

No judges should leave the tournament without being cleared by TAB ROOM personnel.

The University of Mississippi High School Speech and Debate Tournament Schedule

October 15-16, 2021

FRIDAY – October 15, 2021

4:00 – 4:30 pm                   Debate Registration (3rd Floor Lamar Hall) Worlds (topic announce round 1)

4:30 pm                                   Round 1 – Policy; Preliminary Session – Congress,

5:00 pm                                   Round 1 – VLD, NLD, VPFD, NPFD, Worlds 

6:00 pm                                   Round 2 – CX, VLD, NLD, VPFD, NPFD, Worlds (prepared)

7:00 pm                                   Round 3 – VLD, NLD, VPFD, NPFD, Worlds (prepared)

7:30 pm                                   Round 3 – Policy; Congress Preliminary Session Ends

8:00 pm                                   Round 4 – VLD, NLD, VPFD, NPFD – Congress Finals Begin, Worlds      

                                                  (topic announce round 4)  

9:00 pm                                   Round 5 – VLD, NLD, VPFD, NPFD; Round 4 – Policy, Worlds (impromptu)

10:00 pm                                Congress Finals End

SATURDAY – October 16, 2021

8:00 am  Registration for Individual Events (Third Floor Lamar Hall)

                 Round 5 - Worlds (prepared)                  

                 QUARTERFINALS – VLD, NLD, VPFD, NPFD

                 SEMIFINALS – CX

9:00 am                               Round 1 – FLIGHT A  (OO, DI, VProse, NProse, Imp, POI, Duet, Expos)

10:00 am                            Extemp Draw

10:30 am                            Round 1 – FLIGHT B  (HI, Duo, Info, VExtemp, NExtemp, Inf, VPoetry, NPoetry, Dec, Story)

12:00 noon                        Round 2 – FLIGHT A  (OO, DI, VProse, NProse, Imp, POI, Duet, Expos)

                                             SEMIFINALS – VLD, NLD, VPFD, NPFD

                                         FINALS - CX

1:00 pm                               Extemp Draw

1:30 pm                               Round 2 – FLIGHT B (HI, Duo, Info, VExtemp, NExtemp, Inf, VPoetry, NPoetry, Dec, Story)

3:00 pm                               SEMIFINALS – FLIGHT A (OO, DI, VProse, NProse, Imp, Duet, Expos)

                                              FINALS – VLD, NLD, VPFD, NPFD

3:30 pm                               Extemp Draw

4:00 pm                               SEMIFINALS – FLIGHT B (HI, Duo, Info, VExtemp, NExtemp, VPoetry, NPoetry, Dec, Story)

5:00 pm                                FINALS – FLIGHT A (OO, DI, VProse, NProse, Imp, POI, Duet, Expos)

5:30 pm                                Extemp Draw

6:00 pm                                FINALS – FLIGHT B (HI, Duo, Info, VExtemp, NExtemp, Inf, VPoetry, NPoetry, Dec, Story)

7:30 pm  Virtual Awards Ceremony