THIS IS A COLLEGE ONLY POLICY DEBATE TOURNAMENT

We will offer all three divisions of college policy debate, novice, junior varsity, and varsity. If you are a member of a high school team, you are NOT able to enter this tournament as a competitor.

Hired Judging

We are not hiring any judges. If you are currently affiliated with a college policy debate team, you can put yourself on the hiring exchange and we will approve you. If you are not currently affiliated with a college policy debate team, your exchange request will not be approved.

Novice Disclosure REQUIREMENT

This tournament will abide by a MANDATORY pre-tournament 1AC/1NC disclosure policy. All 1AC/1NC off-case evidence must be emailed to Jackie Poapst by Saturday, September 6th at 11:59pm. (Note: mandated disclosure of 1NC off-case arguments does not mean failing to disclose disads and then reading them on the case debate is acceptable. It also does not mean failing to disclose off-case positions and then instructing your debaters to just introduce those arguments in the 2NC. This is any off-case argument that COULD have been a 1NC argument. Off case arguments include disads, counterplans, kritiks, and topicality arguments) Those disclosure files will be emailed to all schools with novice entries on Sunday, September 7th at noon. Schools will have until September 8th at 11:59pm to email any negative 1NC changes based on the original disclosure files. Those updates will be emailed to all novices schools in the tournament on September 9th at noon.

All judges will receive a copy of the completed novice disclosure files prior to round 1. Any arguments that are introduced in the 1AC and 1NC that were not part of the disclosure packet must be disregarded by the judge in the debate. If you are judging a debate and unsure about whether an argument meets the disclosure standard, please text Jackie Poapst at 2673931604.

Answer to Complaints: We understand that disclosure is something many do not love for debate. However, this is the first tournament of the year. We do not think novice disclosure should be a universalized mandate for future tournaments, however we DO think there is distinct pedagogical value for novices competing in their first college tournament to have an idea of what they are getting themselves into in each debate. It prevents first tournament novice debates from being too large of a barrier to entry for new competitors and provides an equal playing field in terms of pre-tournament preparation in the last week prior to the Mason tournament. First novice tournaments can be overwhelming mentally for our new competitors. Our disclosure requirement aims to make the first tournament environment more welcome and hospitable for our new students. It is also the best compromise we could provide to schools who have distinct opinions regarding whether novice tournaments should mandate an evidence set. The pre-tournament disclosure option allows academic freedom for individual novice programs who are against mandated packets while maintaining a relative amount of predictability for those who are pro-constraints.

Online Registration Eligibility

We will allow a limited number of online entries. Programs can enter the tournament as an online entry if they are further than 500 miles from Fairfax, VA AND flying to Fairfax VA presents a significant budgetary obstacle. The distance requirement will be waived for new/emerging policy programs.

Fees

Per person fees are $50.

Payment can be made on touchnet portal:https://secure.touchnet.com/C20788_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=2644&SINGLESTORE=true

Airports

Mason’s Fairfax Campus is located near IAD-Dulles International Airport, DCA-Reagan International Airport, and BWI-Baltimore Washington International Airport. The closest is Dulles, closely followed by DCA. For those looking for cheaper flights with a bit more driving distance, BWI can often be significantly more reasonable, particularly for those coming from the Midwest. However, traffic can make the commute to the hotel from the airport a bit long.

More transportation information can be found here:https://transportation.gmu.edu/airport-transportation/

Parking

The closest parking location to on campus debates is the Mason Pond Parking Deck, located at4471 Aquia Creek Ln, Fairfax, VA 22030. Use this address, which takes you to the top floor entrance. If you input “Mason Pond Parking Deck” into maps it will take you to the bottom entrance of the parking deck. The best place to park is closest to the 3rd floor exit – which is closest to tournament buildings.

Campus Map

https://transportation.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/ParkingMapFX.pdf

Schedule (Anticipated)

Schedule can be found here:SCHEDULE LINK