The American Debate Association

Abstract

The American Debate Association, founded in 1985, is an organization that is committed to a balance between educational and competitive goals in an atmosphere of expanded opportunities for participation. Within the community of policy debating, the ADA maintains a necessary and unique function. My experience as a novice and junior varsity debater, coach and now president of the organization is but one representation of the opportunities the ADA offers to entry level debaters and programs. The ADA attempts to maintain a balance between competition, education and equitable opportunity through a set of rules that governs the conduct of debaters, tournament administration, and debater eligibility. The ability to offer debate to individuals who have never participated in the activity, prior to the collegiate level, has significantly increased the pedagogical focus of debate within the ADA. The ADA's mission of increasing participation, maintaining a balance between education and competition, and ensuring an equitable and fair activity for all programs, regardless of their size or experience is facilitated by the ADA's rules and is premised on the following assumptions: 1. Debate is a controlled discussion which analyzes the substantive issues raised by a particular policy proposition. 2. Debate is a persuasive, oral communication activity in which debaters assume the obligation to communicate reasons for positions taken in a manner that is coherent, intelligible, and consistent with the limitations on human speech and listening. 3. Debate tournaments will be run efficiently, honestly, and in a manner which promotes the educational values of debating for all participants. 4. Coaches and judges are educators whose job it is to effectively prepare students to debate, to objectively and fairy evaluate rounds of competition to which they are assigned, and to behave in an ethical and professional fashion. 5. Debate is an educational activity to be engaged in by undergraduates who are officially enrolled full-time students in good academic standing at the colleges and universities they represent in competition. While many of the rules that grow from these assumptions have been controversial to the debate community both inside and outside of the membership of the ADA, the rules generally demonstrate the organization's commitment to debate at the novice and junior varsity levels and in many ways support a theoretical atmosphere that has yielded consistently healthy participation in these divisions. The eligibility rules and rules governing debate practice not only articulate in detail the philosophic underpinnings of the ADA's commitment to debate at all levels, but also serve the pedagogical role of the organization which is to create a theoretical atmosphere that allows entry level debaters to learn basic debate skills and theory while advancing successfully through the junior varsity ranks to the varsity division. Many of the ADA's varsity teams are composed of individuals who began their debate careers as ADA novices. Their ability to advance competitively and educationally is a result of the ADA placing the novice division on the same plane of importance as the other divisions. Decker and Morello argue that the rules support this advancement, particularly at the novice level: By setting minimal, uniform expectations of the debate game, the ADA defines the rules of debate and enables competitors to get on with the task of playing. This avoids some of the inevitable frustration resulting from learning the conventions of the activity through trial and error, thus addressing perceived barriers to the entry of students who have not had the opportunity to debate prior to college. (59) The ADA believes strongly in its pedagogical function of providing an arena for competitive and educational debate in all divisions. …