On Friday, September 18 , the Bard Debate Union at Eastern New York Correctional Facility – now in its third year of operation thanks to the hard work BPI Faculty Fellow and Director of Debate, David Register – had a Public-Style Debate against the Harvard College Debating Union on the topic “Resolved: Public Schools in the United States should have the ability to deny enrollment to undocumented students.” These Bard students had been researching and preparing for this debate since July and their hard work paid off! They debated in front of three of the world’s most prestigious debate adjudicators – Mary Nugent (former Director of the Cambridge Debate Society and current PhD candidate in Political Science at Rutgers), Steven Penner (former Canadian National Debate Champions and current coach at HWS), and Lindsay Bing (former US University Debate Championship Finalist, European Debate Championship Semi-Finalist, and current coach at Cornell). After an awe-inspiring performance put on by both teams, Bard was pronounced the winner on a 2-1 decision. A story on the debate was featured in the Wall Street Journal later that evening and in the print edition on Saturday, Sept 19. Go Bard Debate!!!
