Brown Debating Union

09/12/2022

THE WAIT IS FINALLY OVER - we got our first general body meeting (Monday 8pm at Jo's), demo debate & novice session all kicking off this week AND a tournament next weekend🕺

gcal these dates rn go go go 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

04/25/2022

After a scant 4 hours on Zoom, the BDU has a new executive board! (If this trend persists, the 2032 elections will take just 7.5 minutes. Impressive!)

The BDU has elected the following individuals in these roles:

President: Toby Arment
Vice Presidents for Recruitment and Training: Renny Jiang and Mac Hays
Vice President of Operations: Wesley Chiu
Vice President of Finance: Jay Philbrick
Vice President of Administration for APDA Tournaments: Roza Kavak
Vice President of Administration for the Hicks Tournament: Christopher Vanderpool
Vice President for Social Events: Gabriel Ritter
Vice President for Communications: Karim Zohdy
Vice President of Social Media: Ashley Ganesh

Congratulations to all, and we look forward to carrying the team forward as we expand our team's outreach, and return to in-person operations!

11/18/2021

This past weekend, five generations (loosely interpreted) came together for ProAms! We paired up varsity (and even alumni) debaters with our newly initiated novices to travel to Fordham/George Washington, virtually, of course. We made the much shorter commute to Barus and Holley instead. Congrats to Raymond Dai for being 6th novice speaker and to Karim Zohdy and Mia Stone-Molloy for breaking! Attached, see their beautiful faces!

08/01/2021

Members of the Brown Debating Union are fundraising for the Rhode Island Urban Debate League until August 16th!

RIUDL offers students in the Providence area the opportunity to build confidence, think critically, and excel academically through debate. RIUDL uses debate as tool for equity, justice, and liberation for Providence’s students.

To donate, send any amount to the BDU’s Vice President of Finance, Toby Arment (Venmo: -Arment). Donations will be matched up to $200 and all funds will go to RIUDL to support debate education. For more information, reach out to BDU President Mia Stone-Molloy (mia_stone-molloy[at]brown.edu) or Communications Chair Jay Philbrick (jay_philbrick[at]brown.edu)

02/09/2021

After resting up over winter break, and preparing for the first sanctioned semester in a while, the BDU hit the ground running to start the year, further proving that we need not be together in person to be bound a collective passion for debate and a knack for picking up some major Ws.

So, over the past three weekends, the BDU sent teams to host of tournaments, including Villanova/Amherst, Bates BP ProAms, NorthAms, and Rutgers/Yale

At Villanova/Amherst:

Renny was 4th Novice Speaker!

Mia was 2nd Speaker!
Jackson was TOP Speaker!!

Mia and Jackson WON THE TOURNAMENT!!!!

Mia qualified to Nats!!!!

At Bates:
Chris and Elaine broke to Quarters!!!

11/06/2020

Over the past few weeks, the BDU has continued to cope with our election anxiety by engaging in vigorous online debates , because nothing makes you feel better than time spent arguing with friends against other friends in an organized fashion. In fact, the BDU closed out the final three weeks of October by debating at the Hart House IV, the Penn/Tufts tournament, and the Hopkins/MIT tournament, the last of which did not quite deliver on their promise for “fun” motions on Halloween.

At Hart House,
Max and Roza made Novice finals!

Sandy and his hybrid dennis broke 4th to Quarters!

At Penn,
Renny was 7th Novice speaker!

Sai and Jayden won novice finals!

10/20/2020

On the beautiful sunny fall weekend of October 10th, the BDU sent teams to both the Harvard tournament and the North American Championship tournament, because what better way to spend a long weekend than debating with friends!

The BDU sent 7 teams to Harvard, and continued its streak of excellent results there

Chris was 2nd Speaker!
Jackson was TOP speaker!

Chris and Jackson tore through prelims, went 5-0, broke first, then proceeded to do the same in outrounds and WON the tournament

At NAUDC, Sandy judge broke!

10/01/2020

Last weekend, the youths of the BDU got their first chance to compete at the 2020 APDA Novice Tournament!! Despite the fact that it was all on Zoom, we had an awesome time playing trivia, engaging in intense games of Among Us, and welcoming the novices onto the team. We also picked up some Ws along the way.

Mac was 16th speaker
Renny was 13th speaker
Roza was 12th speaker
Max was 7th speaker

Alex and Anirudh broke to Octas
Max and Roza broke to Semis
Mac and Sai WON the tournament

07/25/2020

06/04/2020

To our members, followers, and the Brown community:

The BDU calls for justice in solidarity with Black communities across the country, who are protesting against the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and countless other victims of white supremacy and systemic racism.

We find it particularly incumbent upon debate teams like ours to fight for racial justice in light of our historical and contemporary complicity in white supremacy. The debate space is often hostile to Black debaters from recruitment to retention to representation in leadership roles.

We recommit ourselves, as an institution and a community of learning, to the work of anti-racism. If you possess the financial means, we encourage you to donate to mutual aid and bail funds. (Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X4-YS3vFn5CLL9QtJSU0xqmTh_h8XilXgOqGAjZISBI/mobilebasic)

If you live near Providence, we hope you will read up on protest safety and turn out to the June 5th rally at Kennedy Plaza organized by Sep Up RI

In solidarity,
The BDU

Edit: An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified the organizers of Friday's action. the group is Step Up RI, not the RI chapter of Black Lives Matter

Los Angeles (inc. Oxnard, San Clemente, Santa Ana, Long Beach, Victorville, Chino, Santa Monica): https://www.gofundme.com/f/peoples-city-council-ticket-fund ← bail, supplies, transport overall fund

04/07/2020

Over the past few weeks, the BDU has competed in not one, not two, but three online tournaments, because our passion for debate transcends the stress of quarantine. Rounds have featured apples in roads, body switches, impossible burgers, and lots of team support. We also won not one, not two, but all three of the tournaments.

(3/21)
Ann was 4th Speaker!
Sandy was 3rd Speaker!
Ann and Sandy were CHAMPIONS!

(3/28)
Chris was 8th speaker!
Ann was TOP speaker!
Chris and Ann were CHAMPIONS!

(4/4)
Monica was 10th speaker
Ann was 9th speaker!
Mia was 7th speaker!
Sandy was TOP speaker!
Jackson and Mia made semis!
Sandy and Monica were CHAMPIONS!