UCONN BA in Political Sciences

QVCC Associate's Degree in Human Services and General Studies

Keiser U MSE in Teaching and Learning

Policy Debate Background:

Attended NU’s NHSI of Speech in 1981, TOC in 1982. Judged at Northern Virginia District NFL qualifiers in late 80s. Judged at Bronx-Science, Edison, Wake Forest tournaments in early 90s. Judged at DDI summer camp 1992. Attended UVM’s Policy Debate Teacher/Coach’s Workshop in 2004 and UVM’s Workshop Debate Across the Curriculum in 2009. Judged at UVM's summer debate camp tournaments those years. Judged at Yale U. policy debate division at HS Invitationals in 2004, 2009, and 2012. Judged at UDL Nationals in 2013. Judging at 2023-2024 Springboard Series NSDA policy debates.

Given my home state of Connecticut’s lack of a policy debate division I am overjoyed to be able to participate in the policy debate community on-line. It is an honor to judge policy debates and I feel strongly in the education policy debaters receive from debating their rounds.

For negative arguments I must say I like Disadvantages a lot. Labeling and tagging the parts of the DA is important such as for example:

A. Uniqueness: - Economy is good now.

B. Link/Brink/Threshold/Internal Links:

Patents give companies monopoly power over drugs and increases drug prices

leads to Inflation/wage/price spiral/interest rate hikes etc.

C. Impact: Economic crash leading to global war.

For affirmative arguments I appreciate turning the disadvantage.

It is important to reestablish your affirmative ground in the round in the rebuttals by extending the case harms/advantages once you take out or turn the negative arguments.

Advantage Counterplans in my opinion need to solve the case harms presented by the affirmative and not stray to far from the harms presented by the affirmative.

T and critiques are okay along with debate theory arguments. Lean toward policy making paradigm.

Please provide a roadmap of arguments at the beginning of speeches. Signposting and numbering are appreciated. Do not be afraid to persuade by slowing down to emphasize more important points such as weighing arguments and impact calculus. Never underestimate the power of clarity by slowing down and varying speed. Policy debate is fun!

Hey guys!

I'm so glad that you guys have decided to participate in such an amazing curriculum. I started to debate my junior year and got the fantastic opportunities to compete at state in policy and congress, as well as NSDA nationals for Original Oratory! I currently get to compete on an amazing Parliamentary team at UT Tyler with the most incredible coach who has raised several national title holders. I love debate, and you should too. As for my paradigm here it is!

Policy; I think the most important thing in the debate is education, Don't focus on winning or losing but what you take away from the debate, I think it is the affs job to prove that the world is worse than the status quo and if this is successful I will vote aff. However, if the neg proves otherwise, I would vote there. But other than that, I am open to any debate, I love K's as a parli debater, showcase what you have!

Congress; Congress can be aggressive, passionate, confident, and reasonable and you will succeed.

Extemp; Really focus on your movement and language throughout the speech, it really gets my attention, but also be organized in your speech and stances.

speech events; the more passion the better

LD: I would consider myself a traditional style LD judge. I enjoy listening to argumentation on Value, Criterion, and other Framework arguments. If I feel like the Framework debate is a wash I look to the impacts of the Affirmative and Negative worlds. The team that shows me the strongest impact arguments using Time Frame, Magnitude, and Probability will get my vote.

CX: I weigh stock issues and T arguments first. If the Aff loses on any stock issues or T they lose the round. After that I look to the impact calculus at the end of the round. I will flow DA, T, CP, and Ks from the Negative.

Effective communication which shows in a student's manner, preparation, performance, and substance. In debate events, it is important to offer evidentiary analysis and specific clash with either policy issues (CD/CX) or values/criterion (LD) without games. Pretty basic.

I really like policy. Common sense policy. Counterplans are great if you can sell it to me with the skills mentioned above.

Kritiks, no. Conditional arguments only if you are clear where you are going with it. I just don't exist in a world where we debate with those strategies. Does not mean I will vote against you, but I just may not understand where you are going with them. Be clear and persuasive, and I'll be more inclined to give you the ballot. Please don't be jerks in the round--I do like some decorum. Not asking you to be phony nice. Win the round with your policy and your ability to communicate that to me.

For larger school circuits whose debate style includes speed/spreading, I will adapt but not a fan. This is TFA and not UIL, so I respect what you are accustomed to on this circuit. I would ask the same courtesy of your coaches if they were judging UIL.

Jack Black rules. Be like Jack.