ATTENTION: This information relates to the 2009 Winter Session. Logistic and curricular information for the 2010 Summer Institute is forthcoming.
(And you’re right to be excited)
TEXAS DEBATE COLLECTIVE: Winter Seminar
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Post-camp reflections:
Well the winter session is over and went quite well. Forty-four students attended the first ever TDC Winter Revolution, with all 19 who applied for financial aid receiving full scholarships. We’ll leave the Winter camp info up a little longer so you can read about the curriculum, etc. in case it anyone might be interested. Also, we’ve posted some photos from the 2009 Winter Rev, so check ‘em out!
Location & Date:
Strake Jesuit High School.
December 27-30, 2009
Housing:
Hampton Inn.
6440 West Sam Houston Parkway South
Houston, TX 77072
Goals:
The Texas Debate Collective (TDC) is a non-profit organization and student organization at the University of Texas at Austin. Created in 2009, the non-profit and student organizations were designed to improve the educational opportunities of low-income students in Texas. To that end, we are proud to announce the first annual TDC subsidized winter seminar. As long as our enrollment permits, we welcome any student in need of financial assistance who wants to attend. At least 30 students will be subsidized by the Collective!
Our goals are two fold: first, to offer the benefits of an expensive, intellectually rigorous topic preparation to students who otherwise couldn’t afford to attend. Second, we hope to undermine ongoing segregation between the debate circuits in Texas, by fostering attitudes of mutual respect and friendship between students competing in different areas and competitive circuits.
Topic:
We will be using the 2010 January/February NFL LD Topic.
Curriculum:
After the January/February resolution is released, we will send out a topic analysis. It will identify interpretive and strategic issues that should be thought about and taken into consideration in one’s debate cases. In that topic analysis, we’ll ask several questions and suggest areas to research. Students are expected to arrive at camp with those questions answered and a robust outline for a possible AC and NC. This pre-camp work will ensure that you’re time with the instructors is more sophisticated and fruitful.
Practice rounds can be helpful at summer camps because there is so much time available to also spend on case revisions and in actual discussion of arguments and strategy. Though practice rounds can be very helpful, we believe they are less efficient and effective at developing well thought out responses, global strategies, and technical skills than rigorous and deeply probing dialogue about arguments and their interrelations. Since we only have 3 days for the winter camp, the focus will be on the most fruitful camp activities. For that reason, we will not have scheduled practice rounds. Instead, students will attend drill sessions on in-round strategizing and execution. The camp philosophy is to out think your opponents well before the round or even the first tournament. The curriculum consists of four types of activities:
- Labs focused on argument construction, specifically the development and refinement of cases, off-cases, and global in-round strategies.
- Philosophy-oriented modules: Aimed at reflecting on and applying philosophy in debate, these are closer to themed activities than traditional lectures. They combine an interactive lecture and a work session on applying the ideas that emerge from the student-teacher dialogue. Topics will vary but all can be directly applied to the January/February topic, so that students leave each module with both an understanding of the theory and ideas for how to use it in rounds.
- Issue-oriented modules: These modules are organized around dealing with discrete arguments or strategic/interpretive issues. Through these modules, students will have an opportunity to work with staff other than their lab leaders to construct topic specific arguments, consider how to effectively respond to them, and then how to decisively defend the arguments in light of the best objections. Possible topics might include: Defeating “net benefits” standards; Theoretical objections to necessary but insufficient burdens—defending and defeating those objections; and Counter-conceptualizing fairness—what should it mean in relation to an activity like debate?
- Drills modules on Execution/In-Round Strategy
Housing, Transportation & Food:
Students who stay at the camp, rather than commute, will be housed at a hotel near the Strake Jesuit campus and will be under the supervision of Murvin Auzenne, a teacher at Strake Jesuit with many years of experience chaperoning debate students and serving as dorm director at debate camps. Students will be expected to pay for their own food and all other costs associated with their stay in Houston. There are many restaurants within walking distance of the camp, which is being held at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory.
Explaining Admission:
We hope to accept and house any student who wants to attend, but will be forced to limit admissions depending on how many students apply: we will not accept more than 30 tuition paying students, so as to reserve sufficient space for students in financial need. No less than half of the admissions are reserved for students receiving subsidization from the Collective.
This camp is only made possible by coaches who volunteer or work for every little, individuals’ financial donations, and families willing to open their homes to fellow debaters. We at TDC are asking for the support of the debate community to aid us in offering this educational opportunity to students who cannot afford the enormous travel and tuition costs of the an intellectually rigorous debate camp.
Costs & Donations:
For 20-30 students, the camp is absolutely FREE. For those campers who are not in financial need, here’s the pay rate:
- commuters: $200 (tuition only)
- boarders: $325 (tuition + hotel)
We will gladly accept donations to our non-profit group, Texas Debate Collective, which will be spent on improving the camp experience for students this summer as well as fund our vision for future summers.
Our vision for next summer’s institute:
In future summers, we want to make several improvements while still keeping TDC free: our goal is to make TDC an experience that rivals the intellectual rigor of the nation’s most elite LD camps. We want to extend the camp to two weeks and offer free room and board at one of Austin’s private dorms near the University campus. Donations from individuals, debate programs, and business across Texas will be instrumental in bringing this vision to life. For more information on how you can help, please email Kris Wright at wright.kris@gmail.com or texasdebatecollective@gmail.com
