Policy Debate
Located in Gainesville, the University of Florida has
supported a competitive speech and debate program for well over 100
years. Although small, the University of
Florida Speech and Debate team is committed to open access and
competitive excellence. We are well funded
by Student Government and we are open to all students regardless of
debate background.
The University of Florida competes in
policy debate on the national and regional NDT/CEDA circuits. Our squad is normally comprised of 4-6 active
debaters. The team travels to approximately 12 tournaments per year on
both the national and regional level. These
include Wake Forest University, Georgia State University, West Georgia,
Northwestern University, University of Alabama, University of Miami,
Las Vegas Round Robin , Pepperdine University, CEDA Nationals and the
NDT. In most years we travel 1-2 teams on
the national circuit and additional teams in the region. While
membership on the team is open to any undergraduate, maintaining that
membership requires hard work in debate and hard work in the classroom.
The team has a coaching
staff of 2 full time faculty/staff members who direct the program and
coach and an assistant debate coach. The
current coaching staff is Kellie Roberts, Director of Forensics, Frank
Irizarry, Policy Debate Coach, and Marissa Silber, Graduate Assistant
Coach.
Background on Policy Debate
What is policy debate?
Two teams (two persons per team) debate on opposite sides of an agreed-upon topic. The topic is decided nation-wide (all debaters in all states use the same topic), and it remains in force for an entire school year.
This years topic is:
Resolved: the United States Federal Government should establish an energy policy requiring a substantial reduction in the total non-governmental consumption of fossil fuels in the United States.
The two sides in a debate are the Affirmative and Negative. In general, the Affirmative team supports the statement of the resolution (in this case, they would feel that the government should mandate a substantial reduction in the total non-governmental consumption of fossil fuels), while the Negative argues that a new program or new action in this area is either unnecessary or undesirable, or both.
Both sides support and defend their arguments with research (evidence, sometimes referred to as ≥cards≤ by the debaters) from published sources (books, periodicals, newspapers, etc.), and with logic and reasoning. Good debaters are always on the lookout for new and better evidence to support their arguments, but they are also always thinking about the logic of their arguments and the arguments made by their opponents.
Coaching Staff
Frank Irizarry, Director of Debate
Frank Irizarry has
been involved in policy debate as a competitor and coach for twenty
years. Frank debated for Marist College where he won the 1991 Pi Kappa
Delta National Championship, the 1991 and 1992 CEDA East Regional
Championship and he was Top Speaker at the CEDA East Regionals in 1990,
1991, and 1992. Frank received his MA from Northern Illinois University
in 1995 and is currently finishing his PhD. At The University of
Florida. Frank has been a Director of Debate at Pace University,
Syracuse University and currently at The University of Florida. Frank
has qualified teams for the NDT at both Florida and Pace and in 2000,
while at Pace University, Frank was a coach for the fifth place
finishers at the NDT and the CEDA National Championship. Frank spent a
number of years working for CDE as a camp instructor and handbook
researcher.
Marissa Silber, Policy Graduate Assistant
Marissa Silber is the Graduate Assistant for Policy Debate at the University of Florida while pursuing a graduate degree in Political Science. She is a former debater at the University of Southern California and Assistant at Notre Dame High School in Los Angeles. She was the two-time District One Champion (2003, 2004) and an elimination round participant at the Cross Examination Debate Association National Tournament, Wake Forest, Georgia State, Fullerton, and several other national tournaments. This summer will be her third summer teaching at the University of Michigan High School Debate camp, and she formerly taught at the Southern California Urban Debate League Camp. She has been writing for Victory Briefs handbooks for five years.
Links
