The Bard Debate Union is very excited to call the 2014-2015 season to a start!!! Not only is our team bigger than ever but we also have many exciting events coming up! We had over 40 people attend both our Language & Thinking Information Session on August 25 as well as our First Debate Meeting of the Year on September 1. We are super excited to be hosting the Bard College Invitational on the weekend of September 20-21, 2014. This will serve as the season-opening tournament for British Parliamentary debate teams in the Eastern US. The Friday before the tournament (on September 19) the Bard Debate Union at Eastern NY Correctional Facility will also be hosting its second public debate, this time against the University of Vermont, on the topic of NATO, thanks to all of the hard work of coach, David Register. We also have a number of big tournaments lined up at Yale, HWS, Vermont, and Brandeis. We have two exciting public debates scheduled: our Hannah Arendt Center Conference Public Debate with West Point on the subject of American Exceptionalism (October 7) and our Family Weekend Faculty/Student Roundtable on the subject of the US and ISIS (October 24). And, finally, we are excited to get to work on all of our outreach programs in the Red Hook and Rhinebeck Schools as well as our research fellowships with the Bard Prison Initiative. It’s going to be a great year! One could even say (since we are now entering our 11th year) that it is going to be a great era – a whole new era for the Bard Debate Union!!! Go Bard Debate!!!
