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April 11-12, 2026 CARD Tournament and Conference of Scholars

We are happy to invite you to the 2026 CARD Tournament and Conference of Scholars, hosted by Weber State University. Please join us in Ogden, UT, for a weekend of good debates and conference presentations on collective bargaining and labor movements, and a celebration of the 2025-2026 debate season.

Mode: This is an in-person event that will accommodate online participation for judges, students, and guests who cannot join in Ogden.

Tournament + Conference Structure: This is a debate tournament and undergraduate research conference with 5 rounds of competition, two elimination rounds, and 1 round of presentations, where students can either share their own work or serve as audience members for panelists, including opportunities for Q&A

Conference Submissions: Debaters are strongly encouraged to submit proposals for inclusion in the conference by Friday, March 13th. Students could consider presenting research they have prepared for debate rounds (such as an affirmative case, or a set of negative “off-case” positions). We also welcome creative, original, and artistic work.

Awards: The event will include two award ceremonies. Saturday evening will celebrate the 25/26 season (overall top speakers, seniors, and critic of the year). Sunday evening will conclude with an award ceremony recognizing student performance in debate (three speaking categories for varsity and junior varsity, overall top speakers in each division) and awards to honor creative and engaging conference performances.

Fees: Fees will be charged to schools participating in the debate tournament to offset the costs of tabulation and shared meals. $80 per each in-person attendee for provided meals, $50 per school (in-person or online) to cover trophy/tab costs. https://secure.touchnet.com/C20249_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=137

If there are questions, do not hesitate to contact the event organizer, Director Lauren Johnson (laurenjohnson10@weber.edu)

FULL TOURNAMENT INVITE : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g8ZuDB17u19oPqNh8yFfH5KLzenmDPdmlwkChCFOOtI/edit?usp=sharing

Tournament Schedule (MST)

Schedule of events in Elizabeth Hall WSU

Saturday, April 11 (tab in EH 111)

Breakfast 8:00 am

Round 1 pairing 8:30 am

Round 1 starts at 9:00 am

Round 2 pairing 10:45 am

Round 2 starts at 11:15 am

Lunch 12:30 pm

Round 3 pairing 1:30 pm

Round 3 starts at 2:00 pm (CARD Business Meeting Part 1)

Round 4 pairing 3:45

Round 4 starts 4:15 pm (CARD Business Meeting Part 2)

Banquet Dinner and End of Year Award Ceremony 6:00 pm

Sunday, April 12

Breakfast 8:00 am

Round 5 pairing 8:30 am

Round 5 starts 9:00 am

Semi Finals pairing 10:45 am

Semi Finals start 11:15 am

Lunch 12:30 pm

Showcase pairing 1:30 pm

Showcase starts 2:00 pm

Snack break 3:45

Research presentations 4:00 pm

Banquet Dinner and Awards Ceremony 6:00 pm

Registration and Entry Fees

Schedule for tournament fees:

$80 per in-person attendee for provided meals, $50 per school (in-person or online) to cover trophy/tab costs. Uncovered judging fee $200

Fees Payment Link: https://secure.touchnet.com/C20249_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=137

Tournament entries: Debate programs can register for the tournament on http://webertacos.tabroom.com

Deadline- initial entries and party size: April 3rd, 2025, 5 pm MST

Deadline- judging and entry adjustments (fees locked): April 8th, 2025, 5 pm MST.

Conference Individual Submission and Registration: Program directors are responsible for directing their participating undergraduate students to submit their individual research via Google Form. The form outlines the specific parameters for research submissions.

Submission Form: COMMING SOON

Proposal Submission deadline: Friday March 13th

Final Paper/Project Submission deadline: Friday April 10th

Conference Event Description

Conference Individual Submission and Registration: Program directors are responsible for directing their participating undergraduate students to submit their individual research via Google Form. The form outlines the specific parameters for research submissions.

Submission Form: COMING SOON

Proposal Submission deadline: Friday March 13th

Final Paper/Project Submission deadline: Friday April 10th

Conference Theme: We will include any student presentation that is connected to the broader topic of labor and union policy. Submissions are not limited to the context of the United States, nor are they confined to formal questions of law or public policy. We are especially interested in submissions that respond to the conference theme:

What is to be done in the face of growing economic inequality and the changing nature of work?

For more than a century, labor movements and trade unions have shaped wages, working conditions, and democratic participation across the globe. Yet union density has declined in many countries even as worker precarity, corporate concentration, and technological change have accelerated. From gig work and automation to global supply chains and migrant labor, workers today face profound challenges to collective action and economic security. CARD seeks to develop student skills in practicing democratic citizenship. This year’s topic invites students to examine the role of labor and unions in addressing these challenges and to consider how workers, institutions, and citizens can respond at local, national, and global levels.

Submission Parameters:

Presentation Overview:

• Total session time is 2 hours (an hour for presentations, and an hour for discussion and feedback).

• Presentations should last 8-12 minutes maximum. Visual aides or powerpoints are welcome but not required.

• Q&A, discussion, and feedback to presenters held between each presentation

We aim to encourage diversity and creativity in approaches, as scholarship comes in a variety of forms. Submissions should adhere to one of the following options.

A. Short Research essay: A brief essay (7-10 double-spaced pages) that responds to the topic prompt in some manner (arguments in favor, arguments against, critical analysis of assumptions or gaps in the topic prompt, etc.). Students could consider converting debate speech materials into written materials as one example of this work. Essays should be double spaced with 12 point font and 1 inch margins, include a sources cited page and use any recognized academic formatting style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.). With the author's permission, these essays will be published online as a digital collection on cardebate.org

B. Creative research proposal: A short (1-2 double-spaced pages) proposal for original student work that engages in original, creative, performance and/or artistic methods of analysis of the topic prompt in some manner (for example, presenting original photographic work, a spoken-word testimonial, a research poster, etc.). The proposal submission should include a description of the project, its significance, and your plan for presenting the work within an 8-12 minute time frame at the conference.

Debate Tournament Event Description:

Collegiate Advocacy Research & Debate (CARD) uses a format that seeks to produce a student-centered debate experience rooted in evidence and rigor, yet accessible and realistic for students with increasing demands on their time, resources, and attention. There are four major goals the format hopes to achieve. First, it seeks to immerse students in scholarly literature related to pressing social and political controversies. Second, it seeks to develop students' skills in building, testing, and critiquing arguments synthesized from that literature, and to hone their ability to do so before diverse educated audiences. Third, it seeks to develop skills related to critical and strategic thinking. Finally, the format emphasizes the educational and social benefits of forensics through community-building and deemphasizes some traditional facets of tournament debating.

The event uses a collectively sourced article library of scholarship cultivated by participating students and coaches, traditional policy debate speech sequences with shorter time limits, and a communicatively centered theory of argumentation to guide debates. A full description of the event and its theoretical norms are located at www.carddebate.org. It is worth noting that the norms described therein are not intended as exhaustive rules governing what students may or may not do, but rather as aspirational norms that reflect the goals of the activity.

Resolution:

The CARD 2025-2026 resolution focuses on the issue of labor policy reform to promote unionization in the United States. WSU TACOS will use the most recent topic and library at the time of the event, published at https://www.carddebate.org/card-library

Article Library Details & Guidelines:

CARD debates utilize a collectively built community library as the sole sources of quotable evidence. The library, including links to full-text articles, can be located at:https://www.carddebate.org/card-library

Participants can utilize any portion of any article listed in the established article library.

Awards

Awards: The event will include two award ceremonies. Saturday evening will celebrate the 25/26 season (overall top speakers, seniors, and critic of the year). Sunday evening will conclude with an award ceremony recognizing student performance in debate (three speaking categories for varsity and junior varsity, overall top speakers in each division) and awards to honor creative and engaging conference performances.

Honor our Seniors Form

If you have a graduating senior/s attending TACOS please fill out this Google form so they can be recognized at the Saturday award ceremony

Critic of the Year Award Form

We like to recognize the outstanding critics who give their time and talents to judge rounds and provide productive feedback. The Student-Choice Critic of the Year Award is given to the top critic, as selected by the students. Students can nominate critics for this award until Saturday, April 11, at 4:15 pm. One nomination per student. Nominate your top critic here!

Hotel Information

Hotel block booked through Hilton Garden Inn downtown Ogden $135 a night. Block close date is March 15th

Hilton Garden Inn Ogden- Room Block

https://www.hilton.com/en/book/reservation/deeplink/?ctyhocn=OGDWBGI&groupCode=910&arrivaldate=2026-04-10&departuredate=2026-04-13&cid=OM,WW,HILTONLINK,EN,DirectLink&fromId=HILTONLINKDIRECT

Tournament Provided Food

To help reduce costs for participants traveling to Ogden, the tournament will be providing breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Saturday and Sunday.

Parking

Parking on campus is free in lot A2 on weekends. The tournament will be hosted in Elizabeth Hall which is right next to the parking lot. An Uber or Lyft from downtown Ogden to campus is around $9-12 and a 8-10 minute ride.

Transportation to and from the airport

For teams flying into Salt Lake City, the light rail to Ogden is $15 dollars. With a 10-minute walk (tops) to the hotels in the area downtown.

Renting a car is also very convenient at the SLC airport.