Invitation for the 2018 Hoosier Invitational Tournament

Date: January 20th – Jan 22nd, 2018

Dear Policy Debate Community,

Indiana University and the Hoosier debate team cordially invite the policy debate community to our beautiful winter wonderland of a campus. Our tournament aims to hold three divisions with the goal of seven rounds of competition in each. We will provide the best hospitality in delivery of good eats, the use of our convenient facilities, and our witty personality.

We will continue with our “Breaking Away Theme.” The bike racing tradition in Bloomington has made our campus world famous for its Little 500 spring race. Like the biking marathon, you are only as fast as your slowest rider. Each school will have all of their participant’s speaker points in each round averaged. The average will be added each round as the teams race around the track (R1a+R2a+R3a…). Highest team wide points wins! Divisions are irrelevant to this award, consistently high average squad speaks will determine the winner of the race. We will have a model of the Little 500 field with bike icons for each school. We hope the drama and will keep things exciting.

Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help make your return to Bloomington enjoyable.

Best wishes,

Brian DeLong

SPEA Lecturer

IU Director of Debate

Brdelong@indiana.edu

Office: 812-856-7585

Cell: 307-214-4189

Reasons to attend:

*Simplicity and Ease: The tournament is hosted large classroom buildings (most likely one) located next door to the Biddle Union tournament hotel. We will keep you well fed with three breakfasts, two lunches, and two dinners. During the winter months, it’s always nice to stay in from the cold!

**IU is centrally located. Flights to Indianapolis, the shuttle service, and the low cost of Indy rental vans make this tournament a cost effective option if you plan on bringing several teams. Plus, you can avoid a van rental entirely from Indy if you utilize the airports highly reliable and low cost shuttle services. The two shuttle services are Go Express and the Star of America Shuttle. Both are about $15.00 a ticket each way. The latest departure time from Indy to  Bloomington is 10:20 PM. The earliest flight you can catch is about 7:30 AM with departure from Bloomington at about 4:30 AM. The drive to and from Indianapolis is about 50 minutes.

Hotel Information

We will once again be using the very convenient Indiana Memorial Union hotel and conference facilities.
Nightly Rate:   $112 + tax per double queen rooms
Group Code:   HICT18
Block Release date:     January 1, 2017

Why stay at the hotel? 

1) Convenience: You are a one-minute walk from the building where debates are held. 2) The hotel is located in the student union which has several amenities including restaurants and a Starbucks. 

2) Flying? Use the Bloomington Shuttle Service to Indianapolis. It is cheap. The shuttle has never been late in the several years that our team has used the service. 1hr to/from the airport. 

3) Free internet & free parking. 

Internet Instructions: 

1) AT&T network is free and easy to access. Connect, accept the terms and conditions. 

2) If you are at a participating university, EDUROAM is also and easy way to connect. Use your university ID and password and connect like you would at your home institution. 

3) If you need help just ask. 

Fees: 

The entry fees will be $70 per person in attendance regardless of division. The fees will cover 7 meals including three breakfasts, two lunches, and two dinners plus awards and snacks. Snacks include Sunday night freshly “Baked!” Cookies! While these costs are on par with “major nationals” please notice that we do cover more meals which should save you on per diem side. 

Payment and Registration: (No Cash, Checks must be mailed)

You will be able to pay by check or credit card. Due to Indiana University Conference policy, cash at registration will not be accepted. We would rather you deposit the cash and write out a check and send it to IU conferences. A personal check would be much easier for us to process. An online payment/registration system will become active soon. I will send out the link via email as well as a link on tabroom. We highly suggest that you PAY PRIOR to your arrival. If this is not possible, please let me know. Upon payment a confirmation email with a receipt will be sent to the tournament administrator to verify payment as well as your registered email account. 

Water bottles: 

Coaches should spend more time encouraging their teams to bring personal water bottles to tournaments. We will purchase less of them this year in hopes to encourage less waste. Sodas will be provided for lunches and dinner. Our water fountains work and refreshing! 

Topic: 

The tournament topic will follow the 2017-2018 CEDA policy debate resolution. Resolved: The United States Federal Government should establish national health insurance in the United States.

Judging Requirements 

*One team entered will require 4 rounds of judging. Two teams will require 7 rounds of judging. Uncovered teams will accrue an additional $200 charge. All judges are committed for the first full elimination debate and one round after their teams have been eliminated. **All coaches are expected to make themselves available for at least some judging and will be on the preference sheet. ***Prelim rounds must be decided within two hours and thirty minutes of the posted start time of the debate. The tab room will flip a coin to determine the winner when the judge cannot decide.****Judges must vote for one and only one team in each debate and must assign speaker points and ranks in prelim rounds.

Speaker Points: 

We will be using a speaker point scale of 0 – 30 tenths points with tenths of points allowed. Ties in speaker points are allowed.

Tournament Administration Details: 

The tournament will feature seven preliminary rounds of two-person cross-examination style debates on the 2016-2017 CEDA debate topic in the standard 9-3-6 format with 10 minutes of preparation time. We will attempt to offer three divisions, Open, JV and Novice. In the event of a division collapse JV will move into open. JV teams will be eligible for a JV breakout. JV eligibility for breakout will be determined by division entries before the end of registration on Friday. We will not collapse novice into open. If seven rounds of novice competition are logistically not possible without same-side debates we will move into the direction of a round robin. Please use CEDA/ADA eligibility standards to place your teams in the appropriate division. 

We will break all teams with a winning record to outrounds or to a full doubles (maximum). 

Teams: 

Each team should be comprised of two debaters. Hybrid teams will be allowed to compete and break. Maverick “teams” in the event of an illness or partner drop can compete but will not be awarded points or the win. Points will be averaged from other eligible rounds for the maverick team. Teams who become maverick in the event of an illness who have a winning record will be allowed to break. 

Preferences: 

We will use ordinal rankings of judges to determine mutuality in preference.

Audio and Video Recording: 

All rounds (defined as student speeches and judging critiques) should be considered open to the public. As a public activity these debates may be electronically recorded for private educational use by any tournament participant (registered coaches, debaters and helpers). Those who record are encouraged to receive permission from participants before anything is posted to a public space. The debate rounds are open to the public and Indiana University employees and student body. 

Conduct: 

All participants debating at the Hoosier Invitational Tournament at Indiana University will follow tournament and Indiana University rules as well as any rules of their sponsoring institutions. We abide by all rules and norms of ADA, CEDA and the AFA, including but not limited to CEDA's sexual harassment policy. Property damaging activities and Illegal conduct by participating students will not be tolerated. 

Non-Smoking and Alcohol Free Campus: 

IU is a non-smoking campus. The smoking ban includes electronic cigarettes. Alcohol is not permitted in public spaces on campus. This means alcohol is allowed in the private spaces (hotel rooms) of the Biddle hotel, but not in classroom buildings or campus walkways. 

Tournament Schedule: 

*Friday: 

5:00 PM: Judge preferences are due to Tabroom 

5:00 PM: Registration deadline, confirm that your party has departed and will arrive on time for Saturday morning rounds. If you will not make it or you have changes to your entry, please send them to Brian DeLong an email (Brdelong@indiana.edu) or text/call (307-214-4189) 

**Saturday: Ballantine Hall (Likely 2nd Floor) 

7:15: AM:       Breakfast

7:30 AM:        R1 and R2 pairings released 

8:15 AM:        R1 start time 

11:15 AM:      R2 start Time 

1:15 PM          Lunch Served

2:15 PM:         R3 released 

3:00 PM:         R3 start time 

5:30 PM:         Dinner 

6:00 PM:         R4 released 

6:45 PM:         R4 start time 

***Sunday: Ballantine Hall 

7:15 AM:        Breakfast

7:30:                R5 pairing release 

8:15 AM:        R5 start time 

11:30 AM:      R6 Start Time (Not lag paired)

1:30 PM          Lunch 

2:15 PM:         R7 released 

3:00 PM:         R7 start time 

5:15 PM:         Dinner 

6:00 PM:         First Open Outround released (If judge availability exists other outrounds as well)

6:45 PM:         First Open Outround start time

****Monday: Tree Suites in the Memorial Union 

7:15 AM – Breakfast, awards and outrounds will be in the tree suites of the IMU on Monday. Pairings, judging lists, and the bracket will be released Sunday night. Awards will start at 7 AM, outrounds will start at 8:30 AM. 

Breakfast: University Catered Breakfast, fruit, drinks etc. and Coffee.