Collegiate debate has two major national championship tournaments, the National Debate Tournament and the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) tournament. A pair of Idaho State University debaters qualified for a trip to the National Debate Tournament, and ISU will be hosting the CEDA tournament over spring break.
Matea Ivanovic and Roger Copenhaver were undefeated at the Northwest qualifying competition at Whitman College. Ivanovic was awarded the title of Most Valuable Player at the competition, according to assistant debate coach Lindsay VanLuvanee.
“A lot of hours spent researching and strategizing” went into Ivanovic and Copenhaver’s success, said VanLuvanee. She said the pair and their coaches will spend countless hours preparing to compete at the National Debate Tournament.
While the National Debate Tournament has qualifying rounds in order to determine who will compete, CEDA is often referred to as “the people’s tournament,” because of its open enrollment policy, according to ISU Director of Debate Sarah Partlow Lefevre.
Over 150 teams of two debaters will compete for the CEDA championship at ISU March 22-26.
“It’s the largest national championship with the greatest diversity,” said Partlow Lefevre.
VanLuvanee said the prestige of the CEDA tournament is matched only by the National Debate Tournament.
Schools with at least one team competing in the tournament include ISU, Cornell, Dartmouth, Gonzaga, Harvard and the United States Military Academy, according to the tournament’s information site.
In addition to the pairs of debaters, the coaches will travel to Pocatello as well. Parltow Lefevre estimates this will bring nearly 600 people to Pocatello for the five-day tournament.
“They’re staying here, they’re eating here,” said Partlow Lefevre of the tournament’s impact on Pocatello’s tourism economy.
Following hosting the CEDA tournament in 2009, ISU will be only the second school in recent history to host the tournament twice, said Partlow Lefevre. The logistics of organizing and bringing such large numbers of people to a university debate tournament more than once is often a deterrent to schools that have hosted in the past.
To prepare ISU for its second hosting stint, Partlow Lefevre created a student internship program for the tournament. Course credit and valuable experience will be given to the 25 student interns who organized this year’s tournament.
The students will have “experiential learning and events management” skills from this experience, said Partlow Lefevre. “They’re learning through doing,” which will give them practical skills, she said.
The interns were assigned specific areas to organize and carry out, such as transportation, hotel liaison, fundraising, public relations, graphic design and photography. The students will also staff the event.