Equality in Forensics' August 4th Newsletter

Coaching, Community, and Competition Made Accessible for All.

Welcome to Equality in Forensics’ first newsletter. We are a nonprofit student-run organization that stretches across the country seeking to provide an equitable Speech and Debate experience for all competitors out there. This biweekly newsletter is our newest step toward providing free online resources to the community. I’m the newsletter’s Editor in Chief Charlie Hui, and without further ado, welcome to our first newsletter and your last step to being in the know at Equality in Forensics!

In this week’s edition, we will cover the free coaching services Equality in Forensics has to offer in both Extemp and Congress. We will then move to our Utah Chapter’s fundraising success and the outcome of our Congress round-robin. Finally, we will wrap up with the latest updates from our blog and Red Folder before ending with closing remarks and an exit poll.

"The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress."

– Joseph Joubert

Award Winning Coaching

Equality in Forensics is proud to begin offering free extemp coaching starting this fall! You can expect masterclass-style instruction in labs of 10-15 students. Our coaching roster features all-star instructors, including Robert Zhang, the NIETOC champion, and Anthony Babu, the NSDA IX champion. On the other side of the coin, Equality in Forensics will also offer Congress coaching. Labs of approximately 15 students will meet once a week with qualified instructors to practice speeches, learn skills, and mock real Congress rounds! Our coaches consist of nationally successful Congressional debaters such as TOC finalists Omkar Marathe and Blue Key champion Nicholas Ostheimer. Extemp signups are open below, while Congress is soon to come!

Community Service

The Utah chapter of Equality in Forensics decided to host a bake sale on their state holiday (Pioneer Day). In total, the money they raised is more than enough to help two teams pay for their NSDA fees. The Utah Chapter is excited to reach out to them to inform the community about their success in funding.

Managing the Equality in Forensics Parade Bake Sale definitely wasn’t easy. It’s funny, but the most effective selling strategy we had that day was leaving the table we had originally set up. Me, Vall, Kaiya, and Will would walk by people on the parade route and offer our items. The best sellers we had were small, convenient goods like ice cream, popsicles, cookies or even brownies. We were very happy that our sale was successful, and will definetly consider doing it once again!

-Gavin Woodbury, Utah Chapter President

Competition Highlights

Equality in Forensics held its 1st Annual Congressional Debate Round Robin on Saturday, July 27. Sneha Khetan (of Andrey Kell HS, NC) won the event, which featured 16 of the best Congressional Debaters from across the nation, including 5 national champions. The entire round is posted on Equality in Forensics’ YouTube channel, including post-round analysis from 3 Congressional Debate coaches and individual feedback from the entire 6-judge panel. After checking out the competition, feel free to also check out the rest of the channel, comprised of topic lectures, competition strategy, and tournament rounds for all levels of Speech and Debate competitors.

Virtual Resources

The Equality in Forensics blog is the longest-running student-run speech and debate blog in the country. We're a weekly blog, and every single article is solution-based, which means that each article not only outlines an issue in the speech and debate community but also provides a solution to said issue. Anyone can write for the blog, regardless of age or experience in Speech and Debate: your voice deserves to be heard and the Equality in Forensics blog is a fantastic format for that! In this edition’s update, read up about the unintended consequences trigger warnings hold in Congress.

"A competitor at National Qualifiers shouldn’t have to worry about their qualification hopes being dashed because they missed an entire bill’s worth of debate for the sake of their own mental health. A competitor at the TOC or Nationals should be focused on their next questioning period, not questioning whether or not they should leave the room during their next speech."

-Yijar Ivy Lin, On Trigger Warnings in Congress

Moving on we have the Red Folder, Equality in Foresnics’ weekly publication on all things current events related in the world. In last week’s edition, read the team’s 6,000-word report on Biden’s withdrawal from the Presidential election. In this week’s edition, read about Arizona’s politics, RFK’s potential as a spoiler, wildfires in California, and an update on the election. Finally in international news, read about protests in Uganda and Kenya, free speech in Thailand, and an “election” in Venezuela.

The story of how it all went wrong for Biden is lengthy. No single event alone causes the fall of America’s most powerful man. Each day that passes reveals new skeletons in Biden’s closet. Today, we examine the past, present and future of Biden’s legacy.

Welcome to: The Red Folder’s Presentation of Biden’s Political Eulogy, and Kamala Harris’s introduction.

Closing Remarks

From community-led fundraisers to accessible tournaments, virtual coaching to physical resources, weekly news updates to blogs that address the state of the world around us, Equality In Forensics will continue to work hard to make Speech and Debate unarguably the best community one can be a part of. Thank you for your time, and we hope you will join us again.

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