Debate 3: University of Rochester, NY

After a two hour drive to Rochester we were met by their debate coach Ken and taken to our motel - Rochester’s finest, with a great view of the truck stop/highway. After a short break we were taken through the rain to the campus where we were to debate the Iran topic again.

The debate took place in front of around 30 people in a large lecture hall - the Rochester team were both very good and had a lot of policy experience this combined with a good deal of prep meant they presented a comprehensive case against invasion. We attempted to counter with a great deal of principled human rights bravo (whist trying to side step the practicalities slightly). The format also included POIs which were new to the audience and were good fun. The audience also got into the debate having been told that parliamentary debate required a great deal of booing and clapping - unfortunately most of the claps were reserved for Rochester and the hissing for us. However we were both impressed with the quality of speeches form the audience during the floor debate. (Ali did have to explain at one point that debate was an intellectual game and possibly the British in a non-debate world didn't want to blow Iran of the face of the planet) - Despite the fact that we thought that we had no hope we were surprised that went managed to scrape a diplomatic draw 12-12 in the floor vote, leaving our 100% record in tact.

Rochester also highlighted for us the difference between British and American debate. Were we are used to small student run organizations. Rochester has a debate team office that could seat 40, a professional coach and 3 assistant coaches – we also learnt about some of the finer points of policy debating and realized that it was far more nuanced than some people can give it credit for. We were very impressed by the professional set up and the scale of the operation.

After the debate we were taken out for dinner (now sporting our new Rochester debate tee-shirts) and then on to a bar to sample the local beers - including a Blueberry flavored lager "It tastes just like pie" A. Just. Our pool record currently stands at 5-2, however we are 1-1 at darts.

Role on Vermont…