Logistics and Operations for the 2013 Chicago Debate Championship

These are the official announcements pertaining to tournament logistics and operations for our 16th annual city of Chicago high school debating championship.

Registration

Coaches should use the T6 Official Registration to make changes and to confirm your registration. Communicate about your registration with Christine (christinehorst@resources.chicagodebates.org) until Friday, April 5th, 5:00pm.

After that time, and on Saturday morning, Varsity changes and confirmation, and all judge registration information, should be sent to Les by email, text or cell (312-848-2271), and JV changes and confirmation should be sent to Vincent Bauer by email (vincentbauer3@gmail.com), text or cell (708-743-1674).

On Saturday morning, April 6th, all coaches, judges, and debaters should report to the Owen L. Coon Forum, in Leverone Hall, which is in the Donald Jacobs Center, 2001 Sheridan Rd.

On Saturday, registration for all schools (both divisions, all coaches, all judges) will be in front of the Owen L. Coon Forum. The Opening Assembly, beginning at 9:45am, will be in the Owen L. Coon Forum.

There is a parking lot just north of the Jacobs Center, on the east side of Sheridan Road, which we recommend as a drop-off and pick-up location, and (pending availability) parking.

Tournament Schedule

We revised the 2013 Chicago Debate Championship Schedule slightly, extending the day by 30 minutes on Saturday, so please review it. The Awards Ceremony Program will be 90 minutes (3:30pm – 5:00pm), as we are now very fortunate to have both State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and CPS Chief Officer of Teaching and Learning Annette Gurley speaking.

The Campus Map and the Division of Divisions

Color-coded map of Northwestern University, showing which buildings will be used by which Divisions in the 2013 Chicago Debate Championship.

(This map can be enlarged some if you click on it.)

After the Opening Assembly the tournament will essentially be split in two, by division. There will be one tab room for the Varsity division and one tab room for the JV division. Judges will be assigned to one division or the other, and will not judge cross-division.

The Varsity tab room will be the Coon Forum on Saturday and the Tech Institute, room L158, 2145 Sheridan Rd., on Sunday.

The JV tab room will be in Kresge Hall, room 2-359 (or possibly an office right next to this room), which is immediately through the doors we will most often use in Kresge, the west face of the building (facing “the rock” and University Hall).

The buildings that we are using on campus will mostly be assigned to one division or the other, as the color-coded map above indicates, where yellow buildings are JV-only, blue buildings are Varsity-only, and green buildings are Varsity on Saturday and JV on Sunday.

On Saturday, we are not in the Tech Institute, so the Varsity division is spread among the following buildings: Lunt, Annenberg, 2122 Sheridan Rd. (this is the name of a building), University, Fisk, and Harris. On Sunday, however, almost the entire Varsity division will debate in Tech, with some debates also in Annenberg (and, if need be, but unlikely, 2122 Sheridan Rd.).

Meals

On Saturday we will be serving lunch and dinner (but not breakfast). On Sunday we will be serving breakfast and lunch (but not dinner — although the CDL Alumni Reunion on Sunday evening will be serving a delicious Middle Eastern dinner — contact Mary Penn if you have any alumni interested in attending, marypenn@resources.chicagodebates.org). On Monday we will be serving dinner.

On Saturday, JV debaters and judges will be served their meals from the McCormick Tribune Center atrium. The entrance to the atrium is through doors at the northwest section of the building (i.e., toward Kresge). Meals can be eaten in the following locations: the McCormick Tribune Lobby and outdoor patio, Kresge 2-410, Kresge 2-415, Kresge 2-430, and Kresge 2-435. Varsity debaters and judges will be served in the Owen L. Coon Forum, where they will also eat.

On Sunday morning for continental breakfast, the JV division will once again pick theirs up from the McCormick Tribune Center atrium. The Varsity division will all be moving up to Tech on Sunday and will have its continental breakfast served in Lecture Room (LR) 3. Then, after Round VI, the JV division comes up to Tech for lunch, which will be served in LR3, and will be eaten in both LR3 and LR2.

Those who will be joining us for the semi-finals and final round on Monday evening, at the Loyola Law School, 25 E. Pearson St., will have dinner at 6:30pm in their choice of Chick-Fil-A or Potbelly’s, both at the corner of Chicago and Wabash.

We received favorable feedback on Chicago Debate Championship meals last year, and hope and anticipate that you and your students will enjoy them again this year.

Qualitative Assessment, Student Surveys, and Byes

The Chicago Debate Commission will be performing its late-season qualitative assessment, as part of the SY2013 Qualitative Assessment Project, throughout the tournament.

Additionally, between Rounds II and III the CDC will administer out-of-round benchmark assessments to all debaters at the tournament. These are paper-and-pencil assessments on the following CDL Debater Development Benchmarks:

First-Year Debaters —
2 – Debate round adjudication
3 – Tournament scheduling
4 – Tournament metrics of success

Second-Year Debaters —
35 – Electronic and Library Research
36 – Targeted Research
39 – Reading key articles and book sections
40 – Understanding broader themes and contexts

Third/Fourth-Year Debaters —
62 – Rebuttal Re-do
63 – Formulating an intellectual position on the topic
64 – Overall strategic view of the topic

Varsity debaters will all report to the Owen L. Coon Forum at 2:30pm to take their out-of-round qualitative assessment. JV debaters will all report to Fisk Hall, room 217, to take their out-of-round assessment.

We will need the cooperation and assistance of all coaches to ensure that all debaters at T6 report to their required assessment location at 2:30pm. The biggest risk of tournament delay on Saturday is if we have to wait for or round up straggling debaters. On the plus/incentive side, students who complete their out-of-round qualitative assessment will be entered in a gift card (Burger King, Starbucks, iTunes, Walgreens) raffle to be conducted during lunch on Sunday. We have 20 gift cards of $10-$15 each to raffle off for those who complete the assessment.

When students turn in their assessments (they will be due at 3:00pm), debaters will be asked to complete a short student survey anonymously, providing us with feedback on their experience this season, and ways that we can improve the CDL next year.

There will be no bye round at the 2013 Chicago Debate Championship. All debaters will debate in all six preliminary debate rounds on the schedule.

Elimination Rounds

After the prelim rounds are over, the entire tournament will be in the Tech Institute, 2145 Sheridan Rd., for the remainder of Sunday.

There is parking across Sheridan from the Tech Institute, both on the street and in a lot immediately west of Tech.

The octo-final round announcements will be made in the Tech Auditorium, and all octo’s and quarter-final rounds will be held in Tech. The Awards Ceremony will be held in the Tech Auditorium.

For all schools that have a team or teams in the octo-finals but that do not advance any farther in the tournament, we will likely need you to provide us with one judge for the quarter-final round (4:30pm – 6:30pm).

Internet Acess

We will have guest access to the wireless network at Northwestern this weekend for the Chicago Debate Championship.

From Northwestern: “When a guest arrives on campus and attempts to access the Internet using a computer or other mobile device, they should choose the “Guest-Northwestern” in the list of networks presented. During registration, guests are required to accept the University’s acceptable use policy and provide their contact information and the name of the individual or organization sponsoring their University visit — i.e., the Northwestern Debate Society.”

More information and a FAQ page is on the Northwestern University website.

Monday Elimination Rounds

On Monday, for the semi-finals and the final rounds, at the Loyola Law School, 25 E. Pearson St., the tab room will be in the lobby of the 2nd floor. The rooms will be as follows:

Semi-Finals
JV: 105, 209,
Varsity: 205, 211;

Chicago Debate Championship Rounds
JV: 209
Varsity: 211

Announcement of the 2013 Chicago Debate Champions in the JV and Varsity divisions will take place on Monday, April 8th, at 9:30pm, in room 211.

Judging

We have now divided the judge pool into Varsity and JV. The Varsity and JV judge lists are on our Judge Strike Form. Please check to see in which division you and your school’s judges have been assigned. Note: this assignment is subject to change on Saturday, and even again on Sunday and Monday. It is not binding. But it is what we believe the assignment will be, at this stage.

This is also a reminder that you should complete the Judge Strike Form for each of your teams — that’s each team, not one for all of your teams, though you can strike the same judges for all of your teams in each division, if you’d like — and submit your strikes to Christine (christinehorst@resources.chicagodebates.org) by the deadline of 11:59pm, Thursday, April 4th. We are not able to accept judge strike submissions after this deadline.

On Monday, we will give each team’s coaches a judge card, and they can each strike one judge before the semi-finals and final rounds, as long as we have sufficient judges present to allow for this.

Looking forward to a truly outstanding culminating competition in academic debate this weekend!