Cornell Speech And Debate Program

The Cornell Speech and Debate Program is the only university-sponsored debate organization at Cornell. We compete in Policy debate, Worlds (British Parliamentary) debate, Spanish-language Worlds debate and Individual Speech events. The organization is one of the largest of its kind in the United States, boasting over 100 members from diverse backgrounds. Competition History The Cornell Speech and Debate Program had a successful 2020-2021 school year despite pandemic challenges. We entered competitors or hosted competition for a record number of tournaments during Fall 2020 and Spring 2021, taking advantage of increased opportunities for students to compete online. Below is a summary of individual teams: The Cornell Worlds Team competed in over 20 tournaments, with teams advancing to elimination rounds at over a dozen of them. We advanced to quarterfinals and beyond at the North American British Parliamentary Championships, the Princeton IV, the Yale IV, the Oxford IV, the USC IV, the 2020 United States Universities Championships, and the Tilburg Women and Gender Minorities IV. We also hosted the Novice National Championship online, where 80 teams from all over the United States and world competed. The Cornell Policy Debate Team had teams reach semifinals at the Binghamton University tournament and novice debaters won the novice championship at Georgetown University. The 2020-2021 topic considered whether alliance commitments in international relations should be recalibrated. At the end of the season, the team wrote a topic proposal paper for 2021-2022 school in collaboration with the United States Naval Academy and Trinity University suggesting the policy community debate U.S. policies for mitigating income inequality in the United States. The Spanish Debate Team focused its efforts this year on recruiting new members and on expanding its international presence. The team competed in online tournaments and had members participate as Chief Adjudicators.