December 7, 2013
Dear Friends:
Let’s have some fun together!
The University of Texas Forensics Union cordially invites you to the University of Texas Open Debate Tournament, to be held on the Austin campus of the University of Texas, February 710, 2014. Registration will be on Friday evening, February 7th at the Radisson Hotel. We thank the Wildcats of Northwestern for alternating with us and we hope to get you out of the cold every other year, but we can’t promise that, as the weather in Texas can be wildly unpredictable.
A few items of note:
1. All coaches are expected to make themselves available for at least a three round judging commitment. To request an exemption, see below. 2. We have tightly scheduled the tournament. We will enforce strict time limits for judge decisions in elims as well as prelims. As Dallas Perkins eloquently notes, “Courtesy demands and we insist, that rounds start on time and be adjudicated punctually.” 3. The tournament will feature eight preliminary rounds of twoperson, switchsides, crossexamination debate on the national topic in the standard 936 format. Elimination rounds will start with doubleoctafinals. Brackets will not be broken, sides will not be equalized. 4. We will be employing some form of mutually preferred judging and will attempt to increase diversity in the available pool of judges. We have yet to decide the method for this. We will post all relevant information on CEDA Forums. 5. UT is now a smoke free campus. Full details below.
TOURNAMENT HOTEL
We are happy to once again be at what is affectionately known as the “Bat Hotel”, the Radisson Hotel & Suites Austin Downtown; a terrific property adjacent to the Colorado River (AKA Ladybird Lake) and the largest urban bat colony in the United States. You will find a Starbucks located in the lobby. The TGI Fridays has left, but there will be ample dining options in walking distance to the hotel. We urge all of you to stay at the Radisson since the Sunday night banquet as well as Monday's elimination rounds will be held at the Hotel. Travel to downtown on Monday morning will be quite difficult, so we encourage you to stay here if your budget permits.
Reservation information: The CutOff date for taking reservations is January 7, 2014, but we anticipate filling our block earlier than that, so please make arrangements soon. The group code is : utdebate14. The Radisson has a new booking tool for taking reservations I have included a web link here. This web link will allow you to book your hotel room online from any web or mobile device 24/7. The CutOff date for taking reservations is January 7, 2014, https://resweb.passkey.com/go/utdebate14 The Group Room Rate is $108.00 + 15% Occupancy Tax ($16.20) = $124.20. Cutoff date: January 7, 2014. We anticipate filling up quickly, so make your reservations now!!! Email: Ms. Natalie Cohee [email protected] and her number is 5124731513. Email her contact name, major credit card, and phone number. Call the hotel directly: at 5124789611 and ask for InHouse Reservations . The hotel prefers this to your calling the national line. Call the National Reservation line: 18003333333. It is open 24 hours a day seven days a week.
We anticipate filling up quickly, so make your reservations now!!!
Radisson Hotel & Suites AustinDowntown 111 Cesar Chavez at Congress Austin, TX 78701 Hotel Main: 5124789611 www.radisson.com/austintx
The group rate is $108 a night for up to 4 in a room, including complimentary internet in the sleeping rooms. All rooms will be available for checkin no earlier than 3PM and check out at 12PM. Luggage storage can be arranged with the hotel, if you come in early.
GENERAL LOGISTICS
Tournament Debates:
Preliminary debates will be held in University buildings and elimination debates will be at the Radisson hotel.
Transportation:
You can access Austin easily by air via AustinBergstrom International Airport (AUS). The travel time from the airport to the tournament hotel in ideal conditions is 20 minutes, yet traffic congestion can significantly alter that, making it over an hour.
Transportation from the airport to the hotel can be obtained by contacting Super Shuttle (www.supershuttle.com/htm/cities/aus.htm, 5122583826). Roundtrip fare is about $25 per person but you may be able to get a discounted rate if you tell them that you are staying at the Radisson. Yellow cab is your best bet for Taxi service: 5124529999.
Austin is also served by Amtrak, and it drops off near downtown. Amtrak—Texas Eagle Austin Station 250 N. Lamar Blvd. Austin, TX 78703
Parking: It’s expensive
On Campus: There will be free open slots if you come early enough. Your second best option is to use nearby parking garages that will charge $9 a day.
At Hotel: $16 a night self, $23 valet. $6 for a day pass.
Free parking in downtown Austin is becoming more and more scarce as the city searches for revenue, but there are some free spaces after midnight.
Hotel Bus and large vehicle parking: There is parking available on the Brazos CuldeSac next to the hotel; however this is a first come, first serve basis. To reserve parking space for a bus, please contact LAZ Parking directly at 5124724261. This is a flat parking lot located at Cesar Chavez and Red River.
ENTRY DEADLINES, LIMITATIONS, PROCEDURES, INTERNET
Entry Deadline: January 24, 2014.
Use www.tabroom.com to enter. There is no limit to how many teams from one school can participate. We will be able to accommodate up to 200 teams. Please complete your entry by noon CST January 24, 2014.
To finalize your entry do the following on tabroom.com by NOON February 3, 2014:
(a) double check the teams entered (b) make sure your judges are entered along with number of rounds (as per the invitation schools with more than two teams owe 5 rounds for each subsequent team, and, All coaches are expected to make themselves available for at least three rounds of judging. (c) Make sure your judges have a philosophy entered at tabroom.com (d) Enter the TOTAL NUMBER in your party (all debaters, judges and observers, scouts, hangers on) (e) make sure all attendees’ dietary preferences are in the system (f) Double check your school's contact info at tabroom.com.
Entry Fees:
Fees for the tournament will be $50 per team and $65 per person attending the tournament. We can take cash or checks for payment. Make checks payable to "UT Debate." Universities that require a fee invoice or a W9 form prior to the tournaments are encouraged to contact the tournament directors by January 24, 2014. Fees are due at the time of registration; but we will allow reasonable accommodations given institutional hurdles. If you need to pay after the tournament commences, please contact the tournament directors beforehand. NB: we will require a late fee of $50 if we receive your payment after February 24, 2014. We will seek to accommodate schools with financial difficulty; please contact me if your program would like to attend our tournament.
Your fees cover a variety of meals, including breakfast and lunch on Saturday and Sunday, and a tournament banquet on Sunday evening. It also contributes to internet access on campus and the hotel, other catering, the cost of appropriate team and speaker awards, room and building security and cleanup as required by the University, extra rounds of judging, tab room expenses and supplies required for tournament administration, and a 3.75% administrative charge we pay to the University on all expenditures.
All fees will be calculated on February 3, 2014 at NOON CST. Your school will be responsible for all people listed as of that time. Should you need to drop a participant, please do so no later than Noon CST on February 3, 2014. Drops are official ONLY if confirmed at the official tournament web site. Should your school need to drop one or more participants or observers after the aforementioned deadline, a drop fee of $65 per person will be assessed.
Tab personnel:
We are pleased to have Jon Bruschke and Martin Glendinning in the tabroom.
Judge Requirements:
Schools are required to provide four rounds of preliminary judging for each of their first two teams entered, and five rounds for each subsequent team. Per community practice, each judge is expected to be available one round beyond the elimination of the school with which they are associated.
If you are hiring judging from outside of your school’s staff/alumni, and the tournament cannot place your judges into the required number of rounds, the tournament reserves the right to: (1) adjust the judging obligations of your judges (adding rounds of commitment to those of your judges who are easier to place), and/or (2) charge your school $35.00 per round of unmet obligation.
Diversity: we will attempt to increase it. We may need to request information from your judges in order to implement optin policies.
All coaches are expected to make themselves available for at least a three round commitment. Anyone wishing to apply for an exemption to this rule should notify the tournament 1 week prior. Possible reasons for exemption include: health, familycare, unique travel situations, etc.
Judges must post philosophies on the www.tabroom.com website by noon February 3rd.
We will offer a schema for speaker points similar to Wake Forest’s. We request that judges abide by it.
Each judge will be REQUIRED to declare ONE AND ONLY ONE WINNER and ONE AND ONLY ONE LOSER in each debate to which they are assigned by the tab room. Compliance with this rule requires each judge to complete an official judge ballot as designated by the tab room. The side (affirmative or negative) and school affiliation must match the assignments made by the tab room. Judges will also be required to assign speaker points and speaker ranks to each participant in the debate, 30 point scale in 10th’s with no ties. No flipping coins and assigning high points; if we think no debate has occurred we will average or give zero speaker points at our discretion. Judges are also required to render a decision in accordance with the aforementioned criteria no more than 150 minutes beyond the designated start time of any debate that they are assigned by the tab room to adjudicate, with an extra 15 minutes allotted for elimination debates. Please do not submit judges unable or unwilling to fulfill these requirements.
Judge Conflicts: Judges are expected to disqualify themselves from hearing any team or school with which they may have a personal or professional conflict. Such conflicts include, but are not limited to: former college or high school debate colleagues, former students, students from schools with which you have been associated in the last two to four years, schools with which you have a substantial fiduciary relationship, and students from a school you plan to associate with next year. We urge judges to maintain a high standard of integrity on this question. The tab room reserves the right to restrict a judge’s eligible team field based upon our understanding of a judge’s past institutional affiliations. We will follow CEDA protocol for team initiated conflicts.
Topic:
Students are asked to debate the topic selected for the 201314 season by a vote of the Cross Examination Debate Association membership. The precise wording of this year’s topic is: Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase statutory and/or judicial restrictions on the war powers authority of the President of the United States in one or more of the following areas: targeted killing; indefinite detention; offensive cyber operations; or introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities.
Tournament Procedures:
We will not break brackets or have side equalization. Hybrid teams are permitted on a case by case basis; the tournament director will refer to the Council of Tournaments Directors and NDT standing rules for guidance. Prior to the tournament, maverick entries are NOT accepted. Once the tournament begins, maverick debaters may or may not be permitted to continue; the tournament director will evaluate maverick situations on a casebycase basis.
The tournament employs the now traditional 936 format with ten minutes of preparation time allocated to each team. Eight preliminary rounds are scheduled, followed by an appropriate number of elimination rounds, typically five. Pairing and criteria for teams clearing will be based on systems of Bruschke’s choosing. As mention previously, we are discussing the type of mutually preferred judging we will employ and will post on CEDA Forums.
Texas teams may compete in the tournament; they are eligible to receive speaker awards and to compete in elimination rounds, and judge assignments for Texas teams will be assigned by the computer and changed only by the option of an external tab room manager.
We subscribe to CEDA’s policies against Sexual Harassment and Discrimination. Caselist and Scouting:
Participating teams and schools are expected to contribute to http://opencaselist.paperlessdebate.com/bin/view/Main/ and should provide their most recent affirmative and negative information by the Tuesday before the tournament at latest. We ask that participants cooperate with Texas students and staff assigned to gather the material.
Internet access:
On the UT campus, internet access will be provided through AT&T. A conference code will be available to all registered competitors and coaches. AT&T and the University of Texas ITS promises to deal aggressively with DCMA violators.
Test your computers for malware and spyware before coming to the campus! Remove said malware and spyware. Do not download or fileshare those things that are illegal to download or fileshare.
Wireless access in the elimination round rooms will be spotty at best, but there will be wireless in the hotel lobby.
SMOKING POLICES:
On April 9, 2012, The University of Texas at Austin became a tobaccofree campus. The use of any tobacco products is prohibited in university buildings and on university grounds within the state of Texas, including parking areas and structures, sidewalks, walkways, and university owned buildings. The full text of the policy including the definition for tobacco products and approved exceptions is available on the University Policies website. Click the orange ink. For those of you with FAQs, there’s this: http://www.utexas.edu/tobaccofree/faq.php
We truly look forward to having you here in the ATX,
Joel, Teddy, Erik, Kirk, Ralph, JV, Jishnu, and the UT debaters
If you have any further questions, please email [email protected] or [email protected]