Valdez top speaker; Fulton reaches finals at Northeast Regional Championship!

Noah Valdez, ’21, won top speaker honors in the open division of the Cross-Examination Debate Association’s (CEDA) Northeast Regional Championship Tournament held at The New School in New York City during 23-24 February 2019.

A partial list of schools competing in the tournament included Binghamton, Columbia, Cornell, Liberty, The New School, New York University, Rutgers, The University of Rochester and the United States Military Academy.

Competing in the CEDA Northeast regional championship with Noah Valdez was Claire Wortsman,’20, who returned this semester to Fulton Debate after spending the fall studying in Geneva, Switzerland.

During the preliminary rounds, Valdez & Wortsman were 4-2 defeating teams from New York University (3 teams) and Rutgers. Their 2 losses were to Cornell teams.

In the quarter finals, BC, who was the 5 th seed, met the 4 th seed from New York University. NYU won the coin flip and choose the affirmative side. In a unanimous decision, Valdez & Wortsman defeated NYU.

Fulton Debate’s next opponent in the semi-finals was Binghamton who upset the top seeded team from Liberty. BC won the coin flip and choose the negative side. Instead of advocating a plan of action by a U.S. policy maker, Binghamton advanced a general critique of how executive authority promoted white, masculinity. BC argued that Binghamton should lose for refusing to defend a topical plan. In a 3-0 decision, the judges voted for BC.

In the final round, BC faced Rutgers, won the coin flip and again opted for the negative side. Like Binghamton, Rutgers refused to defend a topical plan. Unfortunately, this time, the judging panel was inexperienced and not receptive to BC’s topicality argument and voted for Rutgers.

BC next travels to the American Debate Association’s national championship during March 8-10, 2019.

For information about Fulton Debate, contact John Katsulas at katsulas@bc.edu.