Lectures & Electives for 2011

We are excited to announce our camp lectures and elective modules for 2011!

Lectures

All students will be required to attend a skills-based lecture most mornings, which will be presented based on experience level.

Here is the list of covered subjects:

• Establishing Ground: Dissecting Resolutions
• Argument Construction: Claim-Warrant-Impact
• Improving Your Research
• Affirmative Casing & Strategies
• Negative Casing & Strategies
• Debating Standards: The Value & Criterion Clash
• Flowing
• The 1AR
• Crystallization & Weighing
• Building Your Ethos: Professionalism, Confidence, & Ethics
• Judge Adaptation

Electives

In addition to the required skills-based lectures, all students will be allowed to self-select elective modules to attend over the course of camp. Our electives are planned to cover an array of philosophers and trends in LD to recognize the dynamic nature of our activity across the country. We believe our electives this year offer something for everyone, meeting the individualized needs of students with diverse backgrounds, styles, and experience levels from various regions and circuits.

**Course descriptions for each of the elective modules will be posted as comments to this thread. Students also will be given a printed course packet that includes all of this information at camp registration.**

Here are the choices:

PHILOSOPHY & POLITICS ELECTIVES

These electives are all content based to help students deepen their knowledge of the ethical, moral, and political ideas that are used in LD rounds and to introduce them to authors they may encounter in their debate careers.

• The LD All-Stars by Stacy Thomas
• International Relations, Part 1: The Basics by Tyler Cook

• International Relations, Part 2: The Specifics by Tyler Cook
• The Social Contract: But I Didn't Consent! by Tyler Cook
• Immanuel Kant by Garner Lanier
• Utility vs. Deontology: The Crucial Debate within Debate by Shawn Tuteja
• Communitarianism by Perry Beard
• Traditional Conceptions of Justice: A Discussion of Rawls & Nozick by Josh Aguilar
• Alternative Conceptions of Justice: A Discussion of Iris Marion Young by Chris Castillo
• Capitalism & Its Critics by Garner Lanier
• Introduction to Contemporary Philosophical Literature by Garner Lanier
• The Morality and Politics of Violence by Garner Lanier
• Agamben & the State by Tyler Sullivan

• Identity Politics, Part 1 by Kristen Ray

• Identity Politics, Part 2 by Kristen Ray

ARGUMENT STYLE ELECTIVES

These electives will focus on different types of argumentation, including (but not limited to) the trends that have become prevalent in some LD areas, even if controversial. This section of electives is meant to help students gain deeper insight into different approaches to resolutions or different styles of debate that they may encounter in rounds. When choosing these electives, students should consider what is acceptable in their regions and the styles they are likely to come up against at the tournaments they attend. Electives pertaining to presentation and preparation are also included in this section.

• LARPing in Debate, Part 1: Introduction to Policy-Style Crossover Arguments by Paul Gravely & Jared Woods

• LARPing in Debate, Part 2: The Affirmative (Plans, Advantages, & the 1AR) by Paul Gravely & Jared Woods
• LARPing in Debate, Part 3: The Negative (Counterplans & Disads) by Paul Gravely & Jared Woods
• Theory, Part 1: Policing Debate Borders by Ben Clancy
• Theory, Part 2: Making the Laws & Learning to Challenge Them by Ben Clancy

• Theory, Part 3: Weighing the Law & Doing Something with It by Ben Clancy

• Theory, Part 4: Putting It Together/Laying Down the Law by Ben Clancy & Shawn Tuteja
• Kritiks & Performance, Part 1: Putting the K in Debate by John Lewis
• Kritiks & Performance, Part 2: Removing the K from Debate by John Lewis
• Kritiks & Performance, Part 3: Targeted K'ing by John Lewis
• Answering Confusing Positions by Chris Castillo
• Steps for Decreasing Judge Intervention by Chris Castillo
• The UIL Advantage by Perry Beard
• Perceptual Dominance by Josh Aguilar
• Zen & the Art of Debate by Josh Aguilar
• Coaching Yourself: How to be a Successful Lone Wolf on Any Circuit by Shawn Tuteja

DRILLS-BASED ELECTIVES

Every year on our end-of-camp evaluations, some students say they want to do more hands-on drills, some say they did the right amount, and some say they want to do less. To accommodate these different preferences, we are offering a selection of hands-on, activity-based electives for students who want to focus more on execution of their skills. All electives in this section will include only brief lecturing, if any at all. The large majority of the time will be given to drills. This is also a chance for students to work in a drill environment with instructors other than their lab leaders to experience a diversity of teachers. While it is expected that student will be doing a variety of different drills in lab and will cover the subject areas below during that time, as well as many others, these electives let students increase the attention they are giving to specific skills in which they want to see even greater improvement.

• The Lost Art of CX by Tyler Cook & Tyler Sullivan
• Word Economy by Garner Lanier

• Evidence Comparison by Paul Gravely & Jared Woods
• Improving Your Extensions by Kristen Ray
• Turns by Josh Aguilar
• No Warrant by Tyler Sullivan
• Case & Research Tutorials by Perry Beard

Main Session Resolution

We will be working with the following resolution during our main session of UTNIF for the LD students:

Resolved: Targeted killing is a morally permissible foreign policy tool.

This resolution is taken from the NFL list that was released at Nationals in June. It is a potential topic for next year.

We also think this topic will be highly educational for camp instruction. It is very timely in terms of current events with the death of Osama bin Laden. It also raises several classic LD questions in terms of legitimate government actions, as well as introducing students to many important concepts in international relations that they will encounter throughout their debate careers.

Students are not expected to arrive at camp with cases completed. Part of the camp experience is learning to write cases for beginners or to improve casing skills for experienced students. However, being familiar with the topic is always helpful. We highly encourage students to begin reading on this resolution so that they can familiarize themselves with the topic.

Happy researching!

Lab Placement Survey 2011

Hello UTNIF campers for 2011,

This is Ms. Thomas, the director of the Lincoln-Douglas program at the UT-Austin debate camp you have enrolled in for this summer. The survery below is needed to gather information so that we can best determine lab placement for our LD students. Your answers will be provided to your lab instructors to help them get to know about you and your goals. The more detailed and accurate you are, the better your camp teachers will be able to serve you. So, please be thoughtful. For those of you who are new to camp, labs are the classes you will be divided into for instruction. Please answer the following questions and email them back to me ASAP at stacyannthomas@sbcglobal.net. I would like all lab placement surveys returned by June 30. But, sooner is better.

This survey was sent via email to every student enrolled. If you didn't get it, you might want to check your spam blocker and set up your email so that you can receive messages from me. Coaches are also welcome to send information regarding lab placement.

This is the lab placement survey:

Please fill out this survey to the best of your ability. The more information you can provide, the better we can help you.

1. Student's Name:

2. Coach's Name:

3. School and Location (city and state):

4. Grade you will be entering for the 2011-2012 school year:

5. Have you previously attended any debate camps? Please tell us which camps, when you attended, and who were your lab instructors.

6. Please describe your debate experience. Tell us how many years you have competed in LD and approximately in how many tournaments in novice, junior varsity (some tournaments in different parts of the country have this division), and varsity. It is very important that you are clear as to if your experience was novice, JV, or varsity to help us best understand your background. Also describe to us any experience you have in other forensics events. Please be clear and detailed so that we can get an accurate picture of your experience.

7. Please give us your record at your five best LD tournaments this past year. Please tell us your preliminary record, elimination round reached if it applies, and division (novice, JV, or varsity). Here is an example: Lamar TFA Tournament, 3-1 prelims, octofinals, varsity LD.

8. Describe the debate style in your region. If you are from Texas, tell us if your team focuses more on TFA or UIL or both. Does your team travel or stay in its region? Also, tell us if you plan to compete at TOC tournaments next year. If you plan to travel, please tell us where you hope to go.

9. Describe your strengths as a debater. If you have previous debate experience, please tell us what you think are the primary reasons you are winning rounds and describe the types of judges in front of whom you are most successful.

10. Describe your weaknesses as a debater that you hope to improve upon at camp. If you have previous debate experience, please tell us what you think are the primary reasons you are losing rounds and describe the types of judges in front of whom you are least successful.

11. What are your competitive goals for next year? What do you hope to achieve? Are there any specific types of arguments or skills you want to study at camp that aren't discussed above?

12. Place yourself in one of the following categories and explain why you placed yourself there.

BE HONEST in answering this question. The goal is for you to learn and improve this summer so that you are more successful next year. You don't want to be in a lab that is either below your skill level or over your head, making it difficult for you to follow instruction. You will get the most out of camp and improve the greatest if you are properly placed and don't feel overwhelmed. Every year, we have some kids who insist on being in a higher level lab than is appropriate. These students don't get as much out of camp and usually don't do as well the following year as students placed below them with more appropriate instruction. Our teachers are highly qualified from top to bottom at UTNIF. We do not only put our best people at the top. I strongly believe that younger debaters often need the strongest teachers. So, don't be shy about telling us your accomplishments but also be truthful about what you need so we can best help you.

In making your choice from the options below, remember to explain why you placed yourself where you did. These descriptions are guidelines:

A: Advanced, Level 1 -- You have qualified for championships before, such as your state championship (TFA State or UIL State in Texas), NFL Nationals, or TOC. At these championships, you have accomplished a winning record or made it into elimination rounds. You've competed in LD for 2-3 years already, attend tournaments often, and make it into late elimination rounds most weekends.

B: Advanced, Level 2 -- You have qualified for championships before, such as your state championship (TFA State or UIL State in Texas), NFL Nationals, or TOC. Once at these championships, you've struggled and haven't acheived the record you hoped. You've competed in LD for 2-3 years already, attend tournaments often, and make it into early elimination rounds most weekends and late elimination rounds some weekends.

C: Varsity, Level 1 -- You've competed in debate 2-3 years already. You have an average to winning varsity record. You make it into elimination rounds on some weekends but are not consistent about it. If you are from Texas, you may have come close to qualifying for TFA State, such as getting 5-9 of the needed 10 points. If you are a UIL debater, you may have advanced to UIL Regionals. You are right on the cusp of qualifying for state and national championships.

D: Varsity, Level 2 -- You've competed in debate 2-3 years already. You have an average to losing varsity record. You make it into elimination rounds on occasional weekends but are not consistent about it. If you are from Texas, you may have earned some TFA points, such as 2-4 of the needed 10 to qualify for TFA State. You have a lot of experience attending tournaments but are not getting the results to match the efforts you are making.

E: Intermediate -- You've competed steady for at least a year. If you've competed for more than a year, you've attended tournaments infrequently. Most of your prior debate experience was as a novice. You have been a successful novice debater, regularly reaching elimination at this level, and are read to make the transition into competing varsity next year. You might have a few varsity competitions under your belt, but you most likely struggled when debating higher level kids. For the most part, you feel comfortable with the foundational skills.

F: Beginning -- You are a beginner with little to no experience in LD prior to coming to camp. If you have competed before, it has been at only a few competitions (maybe 1-3) at the novice level, and you have struggled in terms of your win-loss record. You feel you still could benefit from learning the foundational skills to build upon them. Even if you have debated some before, if you feel like you still need work on the foundational skills (such as understanding case construction, the function of the criterion, learning to flow, etc.), then you should place yourself in this category.

13. Please look over our staff list on our website (http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/debate/UTNIF//staff-ld.html). Are there any staff members with whom you specifically would like to request to work? Are there any staff members with whom you know you do not want to work? This information will be kept confidential. Only Ms. Thomas will see it. The staff list at the above website is mostly complete, but changes are possible.

14. Do you have any other concerns or information you would like to share? If you are a repeater to UTNIF, are there any changes you hope to see at the camp?

15. Should I continue to use this email for contacting you, or would you prefer a different email address be used on the UTNIF mailing list?

Thank you! We look forward to meeting our new campers in July and to seeing our repeat campers again this summer.

Stacy Thomas
UTNIF LD Director