On the weekend of September 20-21, 2014, the Bard Debate Union hosted the inaugural Bard College Invitational. The weekend began, in fact, on September 19 when the Bard Debate Union at Eastern Correctional Facility hosted the University of Vermont for their second competitive debate at the prison for a debate on NATO. Bard was (again) pronounced victorious. Then on Saturday and Sunday, at our tournament in Annandale, we had 68 teams in attendance (136 debaters) and over 60 judges. Including the Bard participants, our tournament hosted well over 200 people. And everything went swimmingly. Our world-class adjudication team (Mary Nugent, Monica Ferris, and Ben Kornfeld) did an exceptional job selecting motions and judging debates, and our tab director (Steve Llano) ran the tournament like a pro! Topics included: the assigning of baby names, cap and trade Carbon, Aboriginal art, boycotting the NFL, Scottish independence, the criminalization of HIV transmission, enemy insurgent groups, and police brutality. Everything ran on time, even ahead of schedule. The food was amazing (Chipotle was a serious hit) and everyone was in good spirits throughout the weekend. The Bard debaters did an awesome job debating, judging, coaching, cleaning, etc. We could not have asked for a better first tournament and could not be more proud of everyone in the Bard Debate Union for pulling this off. Looks like this might have to become an annual event. We hope to see you there next year! Go Bard Debate!!!
