Bard Debate Union

11/19/2025

Our fall travel has ended, but we want to look back a week and a half to when we sent teams to the Rochester IV. The BDU had a great showing. We had two teams in the novice final!! Congrats to Damian and Raahim as well as Ruhee and Madi! Madi also placed as the 5th overall novice speaker, while Annaliese and Chris tied for 8th in the open division. Congrats to all who attended and represented the Union. And thanks to Rochester for hosting. Go Bard Debate!!!

11/17/2025

Bard wins the Huber Debates!!
This weekend, the BDU attended the University of Vermont's Huber Debates. Olya and Valeriia made the rookie final, Alex and Liz made the quarterfinals, and Annaliese and Tom were the tournament champions!!! Annaliese was fourth speaker, Tom was eighth, and they took first in every round but one! And Aine was selected to judge the novice final! Thanks to UVM for hosting and congrats to all, especially Tom and Annaliese! Go Bard Debate!!!

11/03/2025

The BDU is in the middle of the fall tournament schedule. So far we’ve attended both the Hart House tournament at the University of Toronto and the Yale Intervarsity. We haven’t won trophies yet but the team is growing and thriving. Here’s the group who just returned from Yale. Go Bard Debate!!!

09/26/2025

Last Saturday, members of the BDU gathered for a novice-focused day of debates. The day included three full debates, pizza, and a fire pit gathering in the evening. We have around 25 active members this semester and it was great to see so many turn out to support new debaters. We’re looking forward to an amazing year! Go Bard Debate!!

03/28/2025

After a year hiatus, we were so excited to host our annual High School Debate Tournament again today! We welcomed dozens of debaters from five area schools, many of whom were attending their first ever debate tournament. Huge shout out to our winning team from Arlington High School, and to our top speakers Aadya, Alexa, and Elspeth.

Also a huge thank you to all of the Bard Debate Union team members who helped make this event a massive success! We couldn’t do it without your incredible judging skills.

We hope to see everyone back again next year!

02/28/2025

The BDU had a great start to the semester last weekend at Cornell’s Novice Nationals! Since it’s built entirely around new debaters, Nov Nats is always one of our favorite tournaments of the year. We sent four teams- Alex and Liz, Anna and Magdalena, Carissa and Natalie, Dmitriy and Jonah - all of whom managed to win some rounds (even though it was some folks’ first ever tournament!!) Also huge thanks to our returning debaters who came as judges and mentors for our new students - Aine, Annaliese, Lisa, McKenna, and Tom - and congratulations to Annaliese for breaking to judge outrounds!

Our biggest shout out though goes to Carissa and Natalie, who advanced to compete against Dartmouth, Rochester, and HWS in the rookie final round! We are so proud of them!

We’re headed out again this weekend to the US Universities Debating Championship at Dartmouth - wish us luck!!!

01/30/2025

Welcome back Bard! Our weekly meetings start again tonight at 7 PM in Olin 204! All are welcome to join at any point in the semester - no experience is necessary.

For more information, feel free to message us, visit our website at debate.bard.edu, or email us at [email protected].

12/28/2024

We’re in Panama! Opening ceremonies for the World Universities Debating Championship start soon. Wish Annaliese and Tom luck as they spend the rest of 2024 debating against hundreds of the best teams from around the world.

11/11/2024

The BDU had another strong showing this past weekend at the University of Vermont's Huber Debate Tournament! The biggest highlight was Carissa and Natalie breaking to rookie finals, where they only narrowly lost out to the home team (but got some sweet vermont maple syrup for their efforts). It was also great to see Annaliese and Tom do so well as judges, with Annaliese ultimately even getting selected to judge the novice final round. Huge shoutout though to all of our debaters, Aine, Carissa, Dmitriy, Jonah, Lachlan, Magdalena, Natalie, and Yale, for all the hard work they all put in (especially to Dmitriy and Jonah, who only narrowly missed the novice break by a single team point)!

We seriously can't think of a better tournament to close out our main Fall schedule - the University of Vermont is always so incredibly welcoming, and the opportunity to compete against debaters from schools like Gallaudet University and Tanzania's University of Dar es Salaam is truly reflective of debate's potential to bring people together! Can't wait to return next year to see what you all have in store!

11/05/2024

Members of the BDU learned a lot at the Yale IV this past weekend! Topics ranged from the future of climate change activism, to the rise of neobanking, to the role of art in social justice movements. While we didn't have any teams advance to the elimination rounds this time, spirits remain high! We're incredibly proud of how hard Annaliese, Brendon, Dmitriy, Lachlan, Lisa, Liz, and Tom all worked this weekend (especially considering it was a few folks' very first tournament!)

Wish us luck this upcoming weekend at the University of Vermont's Huber Debate Tournament! And if you can, remember to vote today!

10/21/2024

This past weekend, members of the BDU competed against over 200 debaters at the University of Toronto's Hart House IV.... and Carissa and Marriana advanced to the novice elimination rounds!

Carissa and Marriana ultimately made it through the Novice Semifinals to compete in the Novice Finals against teams from Princeton, the University of British Columbia, and Duke, who in the end clenched the novice champion title.

Considering the Hart House IV is widely considered one of the most competitive tournaments in the world, we are extremely proud of how well all of our debaters did, and we're sure everyone learned a lot as we debated topics from the allocation of opioid settlement funds, to the taxation of unrealized gains, to the future of social media, and many more. All of our debaters and student judges - Aine, Annaliese, Carissa, Lachlan, Marriana, Tom, and Yashar - deserve so much credit for the hard work they put in.

10/17/2024

Check out this article about our recent public debate! And thanks so much to the CCE media team for choosing to cover our event!

The Bard Debate Union recently debated whether American progressives should continue to work within the U.S. Democratic Party, or break away. A range of opinions were exchanged, including whether the party actually represents progressive ideals and the benefits of working within the two-party system...