Monday, June 27, 2005

And We're Off.....

It's the first day of the Miami Debate Institute.

The first day of a debate workshop always seems really, really long. There are usually a high number of lectures, always some orientation-type sessions (library, computers) and introductory lab meetings.

We had our share of those today.

We had two introductory lectures this morning - one by Sherry Hall (Harvard) on the "detention without charge" part of the topic, the other by Steve Mancuso (Miami) on the "search without probable cause" half.

There were a number of great questions by students - no doubt future criminal masterminds who were trying to figure out how easy it would be for the police to foil their plans.

Sarah Spring, graduating senior from Miami, gave a very helpful lecture on "How to Research at Miami."

The four affirmatives that we are working on in the five-week workshop are:

Enemy Combatants - Chris Lundberg (Northwestern)
Border Searches - Sherry Hall
Korematsu - Kenda Cunningham (Georgetown)
DNA Databases - Steve Mancuso

Tonight, most of the debaters are in the library working on the topicality file or their affirmatives.

We suffered through a GINORMOUS rain storm right around the start of the library session tonight, so many of us are soaking wet, but still working at our research. Apparently the rain also caused the postponement of the first ultimate frisbee game.

Tomorrow, we have a lecture on "Topicality Arguments on the Topic" by Ed Lee (Alabama, now Emory) and "Disadvantages on the Topic" by Steve Mancuso.

Everyone arrived at the workshop as scheduled, with little travel difficulties (well, maybe a lost wallet on an airplane - way to go Spencer).

We're off to a great start. Comments?

Steve Mancuso

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

There should be no more lectures about researching.

Anonymous said...

I think that it was a good idea to have the classes on researching.

Anonymous said...

Yeah but do we really need to have two lectures on the same thing in one day?

Anonymous said...

who are you anyway?

Anonymous said...

My name is Kevin Gao, what about you

Anonymous said...

Cool I dont even go to this camp my name is Eric Wright

Anonymous said...

eric u need a life

Anonymous said...

You all should just stay quiet