Welcome!
The Chicago Debate Society is the parliamentary debate team of the University of Chicago. We compete on the American Parliamentary Debate Association and British Parliamentary Debate circuits and send debaters to tournaments almost every weekend. CDS has consistently met tremendous success on APDA, qualifying teams to Nationals every year and routinely winning Speaker and Team Awards at tournaments. Additionally, we are offering BP opportunities for the first time this year. We welcome prospective members of all experience levels to drop by our practices every Wednesday at 6pm, Thursday at 6pm, and Sunday at 2pm in Cobb. For more information, please browse this website or direct any questions to our friendly officer board.
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News
Langfan
Congratulations to Ellis Soodak and Neil Suri for winning the 2017 Langfan Constitutional Debate Tournament, and congratulations to runners-up Madi Norman and Sam Joyce!
Nationals
Congratulations to Emma Ashe, Paul Drexler, Zachary Lemonides, Adi Ram, Andrew Hamilton, and Kenny Loke for competing at this year's APDA National Championship!
Berkeley Results
We had a fantastic, nay, an historic weekend at Berkeley. In the varsity division we broke 4 teams. Jacob Blitz and his UCLA Hybrid reached quarterfinals, as did Andrew Harrington with Jay Gibbs and Maya Dutta with Steven Krawczyk. Emma Ashe and Kenny Loke reached semi-finals. Our finalists were Paul Drexler and Andrew Hamilton, and by reaching finals Andrew secured his qualification to the national tournament!!
In the novice division we did just as well, with Madi Norman and Joseph Wiltzer winning novice finals.
Unsurprisingly, we also spoke well with Emma securing first varsity speaker, Paul third, Steven fifth, Kenny sixth, and Andrew Hamilton eighth. Additionally, Maya was third novice speaker, Jacob was fifth, Joseph was seventh, Andrew Harrington eighth, Josh ninth, and Neil tenth.
On a meta level this weekend was the validation of a year of historic hard work and accomplishment by CDS. Even though the threshold for qualifying to nationals rose nearly 25%, we more then met the challenge, qualifying four individuals to nationals for the first time in recorded history, with another 3 who would be qualified if the threshold hadn't been raised!
Great job to everyone for all their hard work!
Temple Results
Spring break ended as strongly as it started, with CDS meeting massive success at the Temple debate tournament. Our teams closed out the novice division, with Adi Ram winning novice finals over Andrew Harrington, who was also 8th novice speaker. As varsity, Emma Ashe reached finals and won second speaker.
Georgetown Results
CDS Started off spring break strong, with a fantastic performance in Georgetown. In the novice division, Adi Ram and Neil Suri reached novice semis, with Adi winning 10th novice speaker and Josh Zakharov winning ninth. In the varsity division, Andrew Hamilton and Zachary Lemonides reached quarterfinals, and Emma Ashe reached Semi-finals with her hybrid Adrian, with Emma additionally winning 7th speaker.
Stanford Results
We had another strong showing at Stanford this past weekend. In the novice division, Neil Suri won tenth novice speaker, Madi Norman won ninth novice speaker, and Ellis Soodak won second novice speaker. Beyond that, Neil and Ellis as well as Julius Stuyn and Owen Eagen broke to novice quarters!
In our varsity division we pulled ahead in the rankings, with Kelton Anderson and Carson McKay as well as Emma Ashe and her partner from Penn Alex Johnson reaching varsity octofinals. In varsity quarter finals, and winning first novice team, we had Drew Harrington and Jay C. Gibbs - an impressive accomplishment for anyone, but especially remarkable since both are novices!! Liya Khan and Jakob Urda reached varsity semifinals, bringing Jake within half a point of qualling to nationals!
NYU Results
Fantastic work by Adi and Zach for reaching finals, and especially to Adi for winning first novice speaker!
Additionally, congratulations to Emma for winning 5th Varsity Speaker!
Yale Results
Andrew Harrington won 10th Novice!
F&M Results
Congrats to Emma Ashe for Quaterfinaling at F&M!
CMU Results
Great job to Adam for winning eighth speaker this tournament!
Washington University Results
This was a fantastic tournament for CDS, with many well earned awards.
Josh won first novice speaker
Maya won fourth novice speaker
Adi won fifth novice speaker
Jacob won sixth novice speaker
Andrew Harrington won seventh novice speaker
Ben won eighth novice speaker
Ethan won ninth novice speaker
Jay Gibbs won tenth novice speaker
UChicago closed out the novice finals, with Josh and Ben winning the tournament against Adi and Ellis
In the varsity division,
Sarthak won second speaker
Josh, on top of winning first novice, also won third varsity speaker
Zachary was fourth varsity speaker
Steven was fifth varsity speaker
Maya was eighth varsity speaker, as well as fourth novice speaker
Adi was ninth varsity speaker, as well as fifth novice speaker
Sagar was tenth varsity speaker
In varsity outrounds,Kelton and Zachary semifinaled, while Sam and Patrick made it to finals, bringing home UChicago's first full qual of the year and placing 8th TOTY!
Tufts Results
Huge shoutout to Jako and Emma for reaching octofinals at Tufts!
CMU Results
Great job to Adam for winning eighth speaker this tournament!
Williams Results
We'd like to congratulate our team on a very successful showing at Williams this past weekend! We won 6 debate speaker awards, and had 3 teams break into elimination rounds. Congratulations to Josh Zakharov for winning 10th novice speaker, Ellis Soodak for winning 9th novice speaker, Andrew Harrington for winning 6th novice speaker, Madi Norman for winning 4th novice speaker, Jay C. Gibbs for winning 3rd novice speaker, and Liya Khan for winning 5th Varsity Speaker! On top of their speaker awards, we'd also like to congratulate Ellis and Josh for being novice finalists, and to Andrew Hamilton and Daniel Goynatsky, and to Liya and Madi for being varsity quarterfinalists!
Wesleyan Results
Great job to Emma and Andrew for Semi-Finaling, and to Emma and Sarthak for winning speaker awards!
Fordham Results
Great job to Emma and Paul for Semi-Finaling out of a field of over 200 competitors!
CUNY and Brown Results
Another great weekend for the Chicago Debate Society- after our strong showing this weekend we made top ten schools nationally for the first time in three years. Thank you to all the debaters who made this possible!
Varsity Results
Semifinals: Emma and Andrew
Novice Results
Winners: Eitan, Ellis, Ethan, and Chad
7th Speaker: Vanessa
Moody Bible Results
Congrats to the entire Chicago Debate Society for our showing at Moody Bible this weekend. We were the top team at the tournament, and earned a total of 62 nats qual point this weekend.
1st Sam Lewis and Patrick Monaghan
2nd Jakob Urda and Danny Goynatsky
3rd Sagar Tikoo and Eric Greenberg
4th Nick Liu and Jack Kurila
5th Sarthak Agrawal and Jae Ahn
8th Kenny Loke and Zachary Lemonides
Varsity Speaker Results
1st Jakob Urda
2nd Danny Goynatsky
3rd James Gao
4th Jae Ahn
5th Paul Drexler
6th Sam Lewis
7th Jack Kurila
8th Sarthak Agrawal
9th Patrick Monaghan
10th Eric Greenberg
Novice Team Results
1st James Gao and Ethan Metzger
2nd Josh Zakharov and Neil Suri
3rd Ellis Soodak and Eitan Ezra
4th Adi Ram and Joseph Wiltzer
5th Chad Schmerling and Ethan Gelfer
Novice Speaker Results
1st James Gao
3rd Adi Ram
4th Ethan Gelfer
5th Neil Suri
6th Josh Zakharov
7th Joseph Wiltzer
8th Ellis Soodak
9th Eitan Ezra
10th Vanessa Ma
UNC Results
Congrats to Nick Liu and Jack Kurila for making it to the quarterfinal round of the UNC Invitational, and to Sarthak Agrawal for earning 10th speaker out of the entire field!
Novice Tournament
Congratulations to Ellis Soodak and Adi Ram, for winning the UChicago Annual Novice Tournament, as well as to all members who participated
Tufts Results
Congratulations to our only competing team, Jakob Urda and Liya Khan for breaking varsity at the Tufts debate tournament, and to Jakob Urda for earning 7th speaker!
Public Debate
In light of the controversy over Dean Ellison’s letter to the class of 2020, the Chicago Debate Society is proud to cohost and facilitate a public debate on the place of safe spaces in the University. Come join us in Saieh Hall 146 this Tuesday (9/27) for a lively debate, free Hyde Park Food, and a chance to see what our organisation is all about.
In-House Results
Congratulations to Eric Greenberg and Vishal Talasani, the winners of the 2016 CDS In-House Tournament!
Langfan Debate Tournament
Congratulations to Davis and Euirim for winning the 2016 Annual Langfan Constitutional Debate tournament!
Nationals!
Congratulations to Jing Chai, John Lee, Michelle Jiang, and Paul Drexler for representing CDS at the National Championship in New York!