The 2010 Debaters' Choice Awards have named Mike Lacy (UGA '12) the Best Rising Junior in the United States.

The DCA is a result of student voting from all college debate teams and reflects the respect Mike has earned from his peers during his already highly successful career.

Senior Karen Harrison recently completed her college debate career at UGA. Originally from Celebration, Florida (home of Disney), she debated for Wake Forest University for two years before transferring to Georgia.

She finished with a very successful career, clearing at multiple national tournaments, capped off with wins over two first round at-large bid teams en route to the Quarterfinals of the 180+ team University of Texas tournament. Karen twice qualified to the NDT.

For those who haven't yet seen it, the Georgia Debate Union was recently featured in the New York Times for innovations related to paperless debate.

A full list of paperless resources is available after the jump.

Congratulations to graduating senior Brittany Cambre.

Originally from Alpharetta GA and the illustrious Chattahoochee High School, Cambre recently completed a 4 year career at UGA. Her senior year was highly successful: Brittany was in the Octafinals of the NDT, recieved the 10th overall First Round At-Large Bid to the NDT, was in the Semifinals of the University of Texas tournament, and reached the Quarterfinals of several other major national competitions.

Overall, this places Brittany at the top of her graduating class of seniors. Also, she was the first female UGA debater to recieve a first round, make an elim, and win an elim at UGA under the leadership of Dr. Panetta.

Please take the time to congratulate her!

Please congratulate Willy Zhang, this year's most improved debater in the Georgia Debate Union.

Willy, a freshman from Alpharetta, was given the title along with a handsome reward at Wednesday's squad meeting. He earned this distinction by being one of the hardest workers on the team and constantly seeking to contribute and improve.

Congrats, Willy!

*Not an April Fool's Day joke.

Notes:

1. Rounds will *START* at 8:00am. All debates will be in Park Hall. True of both Open and Novice.

2. Judges: report to Park Hall and pick up your ballot by **** 7:45 AM ****, or you may be replaced and your school charged for tournament-provided judging.

3. Open will clear to an Octa and Novice will clear to a Quarterfinal.

4. Awards will follow the first elimination debate.

Two University of Georgia teams will now be at the NDT.

UGA HL, senior Karen Harrison and freshman Austin Layton, have officially qualified to the 2010 National Debate Tournament, advancing from the tough District Six debate tournament.

After two days of competition, HL secured a solid 4-2 record, including wins over Emory and Wake Forest Universities. They will be joining UGA CL (Cambre and Lacy) at the NDT in Oakland, CA in mid-March.

The University of Georgia team of Brittany Cambre and Mike Lacy has been awarded a first round at-large bid to the 2010 National Debate Tournament, to be held in Oakland, CA in March. Recognizing UGA CL as one of the 16 top two-person debate teams in the country, recieving a "first round" is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious awards in policy debate.

Two links to Red and Black stories about the upcomming UGA v PETA Debate. http://www.

I’m happy to congratulated Dr. Ed Panetta, Director of Debate, for being a winner of one of this year’s Sandy Beaver Excellence in Teaching Awards.

The award is given annually to faculty members who demonstrate excellence in teaching, a sustained commitment to high-quality instruction, and who are particularly engaged in undergraduate teaching. The award is prestigious (only five are awarded in the Franklin College) and comes with a monetary prize!

A list of previous winners can be found here.

On October 15, the University Student Union at UGA hosted a public debate between Michael Waldman and Andrew Napolitano on the issue of abortion.  Waldman, who was Director of Speechwriting for President Clinton from 1995-1999, advocated abortion rights and Napolitano, former judge and law professor turned FOX News judicial analyst, advocated a ban on abortion.  As part of our public service and outreach mission, Dr. Ed Panetta, Director of the Georgia Debate Union, moderated the debate. Video after the jump.

We've launched a threaded comments system that will allow folks to have their own debates about our blog posts. You can not only post comments, but respond to the comments of others.

You can post anonymously if you like, or you can enter your name and homepage URL.  Those will display on the site.  If you enter your e-mail when you comment, it will not display on the site but we intend to deploy a notification system that will let you know when people have responded to your comment or the same blog post you expressed an interest in (or loathing for).

Coming a tournament near you! A new bumper sticker for the Georgia Debate Union. Like it?

Every year, the St. Mark's tournament has a College Fair that offers college debate programs a chance to showcase their program for prospective recruits. This year, mad genius Len Neighbors has created a very nice brochure insert for UGA.