The College Policy workshop kicked off today with a bang. Students gathered inb the Royall Tlter Theatre for the opening session. This was immediately followed by two hours of background topic lectures by Prof. Snider, who has been to China several times in recent years and was an undergraduate major in Asian Civilization while at Brown. He covered geography, 4000 years of Chinese history with a focus on post revolutionary China, the philosophies of Confucianism andf Chinese Buddhism, government structure, economy, and minority populations. Following lunch Joe Schatz of Binghamton lectured for an hour on China's relations with other nations and then Jackie massey of Oklahoma gave a historical review of China's relations with the USA. All of these, and all other topic lectures, are videotaped so that students can take home versions of them on CD to share, and they will also be archived on the Debate Central website [debate.uvm.edu].

Students then had a social break that also involved a task -- finding a debate partner. When people found partners they came before a tribunal and declared their willingness to debate together. After that, it was off to dinner.

Following dinner all policy students attended a panel discussion on debate ethics where numerous difficult scenarios were presented for open discussion. Following this advanced debaters heard a presentation on non-counterplan theory argumentation while basic and beginner debaters attended a workshop on flowing.

An important part of the College Policy Debate workshop is the NFA LD Debate Workshop. These students, who debate in the NFA LD format (one-on-one policy debate) also will have an Asian topic area so the research will dovetail nicely. This growing format is well-represented by excellent students.

The International Debate program continued with practice debates and lectures about argument construction and refutation. Reports indicate that the attendees are rapidly improving andf will soon be ready to join American debaters arriving on Friday.

The College Policy attendees arrived today. Many had no problems but some were detained by bad weather while on their way. Their program begins on Friday and the national debate topic will be announced Friday around midday.

International students got a chance to familiarize themselves with Burlington, the campus as well as the library. John Meany and Bojana Skrt began a three day program designed to prepare the international students to work with the college parliamentary debaters who arrive on Friday.

The WDI faculty took some richly derserved time off while the staff started gearing up for the arrival of College Policy Debaters on Thursday.

Today was move out day for the High School Policy students. Many sad goodbyes, exchanges of contact information, and a few last times together. It was sad to be leaving each other and Burlington, but there was a positive feel for having made new friends, and many will return to Vermont.

Bad weather delayed some airline departures and two students even had their flights cancelled so they had to stay over in Burlington, but they were looked after and safely housed.

International students began arriving for the program beginning tomorrow. The group will move over to Patterson Hall for the college portion of WDI.

The final debates took place at 9:30 AM and 1:30 PM. There was strong competition as the undefeated teams were meeting each other. Even those teams who had not fared so well were giving it their all to scratch out another win.

The students were given the late afternoon off so that they could say goodbye to each other and enjoy the campus a bit without any work hanging over them.

At 7 PM the awards assembly was held. After filling out evaluation forms the team and speaker awards were presented. Three teams emerged with 4-0 records. Raya Harris was the top speaker. TYhe most important awards are the "hats" given out. Six hats were given to those thought to be the "most valuable members of the intellectual community," and not necessarily the debaters swho won awards. Faculty made short speeches about each student to receive this honor. After that it was back to the dorm for final goodbyes and long talks into the night with new friends they had met here at WDI.

At 1:30 PM Sunday the tournament began. Four debates would yield tournament winners and top speakers. Debates came one after the other, with a 3:30 PM debate and then a 7 PM debate after dinner. The competition was fierce but friendly, and students got to experience the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Many thanks to those who helped judge, especially James Ahern and Jen Knops.

Students got some sleep because the fourth and final round would be the next day.

The HS Policy workshop arose early to get the day started -- a day of work and fun. In the morning the faculty were located in individual classrooms and were available for students to come and ask questions about arguments and the evidence sets they had received the day before. The back and forth was intense and informative.

In the afternoon the students were bused to North Beach for an afternoon of sun, swimming, and play. All students attended as did att RAs, as well as the ever popular faculty member Jillian Marty.

In the evening students returned to preparation because the tournament would begin the next day on Sunday.

HS Policy workshop students finished research assignments in a flurry of activity. The copiers were humming as evidence sets were produced for each student. Research projects were concluded on prison searches, school searches, national id cards, topicality, critical race theory, politics and the 4th amendment, and many other assignments. By afternoon students were picking up their evidence sets and the evening practice debate was cancelled so that students could spend more time reading and absorbing the new research and arguments. This seemed justified since in six previous practice debates every student had shown up and debated, so they had shown their determination.

The Coach & teacher workshop concluded with more specific qork on team organization and management. The teachers presented Kate Shuster with a paid of teddy bears they called "Plan" and "Counterplan." The teachers all seemed confident in their nw abilities and all received certificates for completing the program.

The HS Policy workshop continued their struggle of research and practice debates. Many groups feel they are close to completion while others feel they are a bit behind in the research process. The small instruction groups continue, today the advanced students worked on last rebuttals while the intermediate students worked on prep time and decision making.

The Coach & Teacher workshop spent today learning about the gamut of advanced negative arguments, then after lunch they learned about argument briefing, research coordination, and how to troubleshoot for squad problems. In the evening they accompanied an experienced judge to watch a high school practice debate.

The HS policy workshop has been debating since the second day of the program, but now those debates are starting to show dramatic improvement. Students are learning about the topic and their arguments, so the quality of argumentation is improving. Likewise their public speaking and cross examination is improving. They seem encouraged and there have been some upset wins as less experienced debaters show their new skills.

The Teacher workshop had a busy day, as high school and college teachers were separated for instruction. Profs. Snider & Meany tooks the college coaches while Kate Shuster took the high school coaches. These small groups allowed a lot of direct interaction and the questions were fast and furious.

At the HS policy workshop students had small groups and a practice debate, but every student is in a research group and they are in the library, reading thick books, searching the Internet, reading law journals and coming face to face with the 21st century information landscape. Debatijng about constitutional rights concerning search and detention is not an easy task, but they seem to be pouring themselves into it. They seem to realize that in order to know more you have to learn more. The goal is to have the research assignments done by Friday so everything can be studied for use in the tournament coming up.

The Coach & Teacher workshop had a heavy day of debate basics, covering the affirmative, the negative, evidence use and evaluation and judge training. In the evening they watched a practice debate with a trained judge.

The HS Public Debate Workshop and the Middle School Public Debate Workshop came to an end today as instruction and debating characterized a flurry of activity for these students. An awards assembly was held for them where they were recognized for their individual achievement and received certificates for completing the program. John Meany, who directed the HS Public program, and Kate Shuster, who directed the Middle School program, were both effusive in their praise of the students and their hard work.

The Policy Debate Coaching Workshop began today as high school and university teachers gathered to learn the coaching art and to improve their current abilities. Kate Shuster is the director of this program. After an orientation period in the AM the teachers received instruction from Alfred Snider about how to teach effective speaking techniques for different debate formats, as well as specific drills to improve speaking. After lunch Steve Llano presented a lengthy program about recruiting and training new debaters. In the evening the coaches met informally with WDI faculty down at Sweetwater's for a jolly meal and good conversation.

The HS Policy Debate Workshop continued its steady work. Small group activities involved advanced disadvantage and critique techniques for the advanced students, while intermediate students worked on affirmative preparation and negative case attack techniques. Research groups continued working and a lot of students were seen lugging heavy books around with titles that are not usually on youth reading lists. Everyone had a practice debate in the evening.