The Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) (/ˈsiːdə/ SEE-də) is the largest intercollegiate policy debate association in the United States. Throughout the school year, CEDA sanctions over 60 tournaments throughout the nation, including an annual National Championship Tournament that brings together over 175 individual debate teams from across the nation to compete on the basis of research, persuasive speaking, argumentation, and philosophy.
| Company type | Nonprofit organization, policy debate |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1971 |
| Headquarters | United States |
Key people | Scott Harris, President[1] |
| Website | cedadebate |
For a number of years, CEDA employed a two-person team value debate format. CEDA utilized two topics each year, one governing the fall semester and the second governing the spring semester. For the spring 1996 topic, it was voted[2] to continue debating the fall topic about Mexico. Beginning with the 1996–1997 season, however, CEDA has employed a single, year-long policy debate topic.
Controversy
editIn the 2013 tournament, the winning team from Emporia State University was criticized for using personal memoirs and rap music to criticize white privilege during the debate, while failing to address the stated resolution.[3][4] CEDA President Paul Mabrey points to the value of limited actual formal rules in CEDA debate and the ways that a variety of forms of debate raise the educational value of the activity and call these objections "nothing other than thinly-veiled racism."[5] Other teams participating in the debates have said "the pedagogical goals of policy debate are not being met-and are even being undermined."[3]
In 2014, despite winning the tournament, the team from Towson University was criticized by observers for referencing racial slurs, failing to adhere to standard debate practices and arguing a topic unrelated to the proposed resolution. These types of debate strategies "[have] received mainstream acceptance, sympathy, and awards", despite objections and complaints from tournament participants, labelling the strategies as offensive.[3] In the wake of this controversy, CEDA President Paul Mabrey stated in an official CEDA video of that the accusations of poor preparation and incomprehensibility "...[R]epresent the worst of our human bigotry. These attacks on Towson, Oklahoma, and others in our debate community are motivated by racism and fear."[5]
National Tournament results
edit- 2013 - Champion: Emporia State University (Ryan Walsh and Elijah Smith) [3]
- 2014 - Champion: Towson University (Ameena Ruffin and Korey Johnson) Runner-up: University of Oklahoma (Rashid Campbell and George Lee) [3]
- 2019 - Champion: University of Oklahoma (Jazmine Pickens and Darius White) Runner-up: University of Kansas (Azja Butler and Kenny Delph)[6]
- 2020 - Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic[citation needed]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Officers". Cedadebate.org.
- ^ "Re: Spring 1996 Topic". Archived from the original on 2016-10-25.
- ^ a b c d e Carew Kraft, Jessica (April 16, 2014). "Hacking Traditional College Debate's White-Privilege Problem". The Atlantic.
- ^ Ferlanda Fox Nixon (March 28, 2013). "Collegiate Debaters Win Two National Championships".
- ^ a b CEDA Announcement Video. Cross Examination Debate Association. May 12, 2014. Archived from the original on 2021-12-22.
- ^ "CEDA Nationals Long Beach: Results". www.tabroom.com. Archived from the original on 2019-04-11. Retrieved 2019-04-11.