Zimbabwe PAUDC 2011: DCA applications now open!

Applications are now open for the three Deputy Chief Adjudicator posts at this year’s Pan-African Universities Debating Championship (PAUDC). The tournament will take place in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe from 4th – 11th December 2011. The PAUDC 2011 organizing committee will work in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Debating Network and Contemporary Affairs Foundation in hosting the Tournament.

PAUDC is the largest debating tournament in Africa, attracting participants from several countries across the continent. It functions both as a regional tournament and a development project aimed at promoting all levels of university debating in Africa. DCA applicants should therefore keep in mind that, in addition to the usual organisational and judging duties of an adjudication team, they will be expected to be part of developing and running a comprehensive training programme.

We are looking for 3 DCAs for PAUDC 2011. In keeping with the regional nature of the tournament we are committed to regional diversity in our selection. We are also committed to expanding PAUDC as a tournament of international standards and quality. Non-African applicants are therefore welcome. There is also a strong possibility of travel grants for DCAs.

The following commitments and criteria will guide the selection of our DCAs:

A commitment to quality adjudication at PAUDC, with a focus on developing debating in Africa.

A commitment to introducing and maintaining international judging standards in regional debating (WUDC experience would be an advantage).

A solid background in BP debating and/or speaking (WUDC experience would be an advantage).

Organisational experience is a must, but it need not be related to debating.

Applicants should plan to be in Zimbabwe up to a week before the tournament (i.e. from the 27th November 2011). In the months leading up to PAUDC, each DCA will work on a specific aspect of the training programme. It is therefore a requirement that applicants will be easily contactable and ready to work on planning the training programme in this period.

The application process:
Application Phase: 10th May – 15th June
Each application should send a debating CV and a completed DCA application form to the Chief Adjudicator via e-mail (cweley@gmail.com). Applicants will receive e-mail notification upon receipt of their completed application.

Review Phase: 16th June – 29th June
Applications will be reviewed by the CA. If necessary, applicants may be contacted to provide additional information. If candidates are particularly closely matched, the CA may ask for feedback from the wider debating community on two or more applicants (to aid the decision making process).

Announcement: 30th June
Successful applicants will be notified and their names announced on the tournament facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=201169549917040&ref=ts) as well as other online debating forums.

Please feel free to contact me (cweley@gmail.com) with any questions about your application.

Kind regards

Clive Eley
Chief Adjudicator
2011 Pan-African Universities Debating Championships

 

Cornell Debater’s Story: Change What You Can

Leah Salgado is a top debater with the Cornell Forensics Society, and she teaches those skills to incarcerated teens.

Sitting in the library watching Leah Salgado approach, I note a confident and attractive young woman, like many other college students. But her story proves me wrong. Leah’s mother, a Yaqui Indian, was part of the third generation to grow up on the impoverished Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation outside Tucson, with rampant substance and alcohol problems and high rates of incarceration. Leah’s mother was 15 when Leah’s oldest sister was born, and she had seen enough men go to prison for heroin while the women raised kids who grew up barely knowing their fathers. Leah’s mother, determined that her children not be raised in an environment drenched in drugs and alcohol, moved her family to a poor minority community outside of Los Angeles.

Before Leah’s parents met, Leah’s father had been incarcerated for non-violent crimes. Just at the point he felt he had reached rock bottom, he had a brief but eventful interlude with a prison guard, who handed him a Bible. Reading from the Bible daily, Leah’s father began the long, arduous process of transforming his life, which he steadfastly pursued until his death.

Without high school diplomasLeah’s parents juggled many minimum wage jobs while managing to create a spiritual home where curfews and homework were givens, but so were close, loving, supportive relationships. Leah’s parents often attributed their successful family life (and their five children attending college) to their spiritual underpinnings.Leah’s community in Southern California was dominated by minorities — Hispanic, Mexican, Samoan and African-American. Families were poor and kids were raised to fend for themselves. Being poor correlated with understaffed schools, single-parent homes and scant supervision. Leah’s sophomore chemistry class was so crowded, with kids sitting on counters, there was not enough room to do experiments. The few who had money opted to go across town to a school with more resources. Leah was not one of them.

After the family moved, Leah was singled out by two high school teachers who coached her to pursue a college education. A strong student and athlete as well as a very successful debater, Leah chose Cornell University out of an array of college acceptances. Now a junior at Cornell, Leah is one of the top debaters with the Cornell Forensics Society, coached by Sam Nelson. Female debaters, it turns out, are few and far between.

In addition to the challenge of adjusting to Ithaca’s long, cold winters far from her family, Leah jokingly describes rubbing elbows with much more privileged students everywhere she turns at Cornell. Yet once a week, Leah treks with her debate team to a maximum secure facility to teach debate skills to incarcerated teens.

Within the facility, Leah finds herself surrounded by inmates who remind her of her classmates growing up — kids from poor, minority backgrounds, tangled up early on with the criminal justice system: “He could be the kid I sat next to in middle school who went to prison, or my friend who was killed because of the group he chose to associate with.” In her Cornell classes, Leah has reflected on how our environment structures how we react in our struggle to survive. Leah notes that many incarcerated teens have lacked the stable, supportive community and family that provide opportunities to use language and reason in interactions: “I’m a big believer that the environment that these young men grew up in shaped the way these young people interact. The typical reaction that they have is aggression, if only to provide themselves with the ability to protect themselves. When you grow up being told that you must be aggressive, it seeps into every aspect of your life — friendships, romantic relationships, physical encounters, sexual encounters. These young men are a product of the environments that they grew up in.” Why teach debating skills to incarcerated kids? Leah points out that as we speak, we also learn to think in an orderly and logical manner. “When we learn alternative ways to see a situation, we learn that we can challenge norms in a constructive manner. We don’t have to use confrontation; there are other ways to solve problems. “Debate forces us to examine the root cause of problems. Once we figure that out, we can structure a plan that changes the negative situations around us. What we learn in debate, we can apply to other situations in our own lives.”

In the facility, the young men are taught to communicate in a way that doesn’t rely on aggressiveness, but rather rhetorical skills and argumentative value. It won’t and doesn’t change everything, but it’s something.

“In these situations it’s better to change what you can, to help when you can. If you sit idly by because you don’t believe you can change everything, you lose sight of the big picture, the long-term goal, and the ones who are hurt are the individuals who needed your help in the first place.” http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011104230301

Source–

Mr.Alfred Sinider

Lawrence Professor of Forensics, University of Vermont.

http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/