SMU wins national championship in international public debate for 2016

SMU junior Jaden Waren won top varsity debater in the nation April 3, at the International Public Debate Association tournament in Houston, Texas.  The national tournament is the year long culmination season that begins in September and seeks to crown the most oratorically persuasive public debater in the nation.  Warren defeated 327 other varsity undergraduate debaters from across the nation to win the title for SMU.  This is the second major nationals speaking championship Warren has won— a rare feat in college forensics.  Two weeks ago Warren was crowned top speaker in the nation for debate by Pi Kappa Delta Forensics tournament— one of the nation’s oldest forensics organizations.  The IPDA national tournament was created 20 years ago by forensics professionals to seek out students who excelled at public debate.  For this type of debate, students are given a resolution 30 minutes prior to the start of the debate.  They have 30 minutes to research on the internet and prepare their remarks for the debate. 

In order to win this award, Warren competed in more than a dozen tournament competitions across America.  He debated in Washington state, San Diego, Tennessee, Arkansas, West Virginia, Kansas, Texas, Kentucky, and many other tournaments.   Warren’s award is based on his speaker point ranks from those tournaments throughout the year and show that judges rated him a better speaker than any of the other 327 competitors that went against him. Student speaker points are assigned based upon the rhetorical and communication skills of the student evident in their debate performances.  They are rated on a 40 point scale by judges where 36-40 is recognized as “superior quality.”  Skills include a variety of delivery skills such as fluency and refutation responsiveness.   Warren finished in fourth place nationally based upon his win/loss record and was presented with that award as well at the national awards assembly at Lee College on Sunday afternoon (April 3).  Warren also was a quarterfinalist in team debate at the tournament and a double octafinalist at the individual division of the tournament after completing a 5-3 preliminary round record.  This is the first national title in varsity level debate for SMU in more than 10 years.  Public debate is one of the fastest growing types of debate at the collegiate level nationally.  

“When he came to me in the fall of 2015 and said he wanted to win a national title in debate, I was skeptical.  But I said, let’s give it a try an see what happens.  It is an incredible story of personal tenacity, speaking ability, and perseverance,” said SMU Director of speech and debate, Dr. Ben Voth.  The Houston tournament at Lee College is the final culmination of the SMU debate season.  Warren will be part of an exposition debate with Wiley College on April 30.   SMU will debate the topic of affirmative action which is an important public policy on racism developed by the ‘great debater’ from Wiley, James Farmer Jr. The two debates will be Friday and Saturday night in Marshall, Texas at the campus of Wiley College where Farmer was trained in debate in the 1930s.  SMU was one of the few schools in the nation to attempt to break the racial barrier in the 1930s by inviting Wiley to debate at that time.

SMU debate is sponsored by the Provost office, Student Affairs, and Meadows School of the Arts.  

For more information about SMU debate and this event, please contact director, Dr. Ben Voth at [email protected]

For more information about this type of debate and official results see:  https://www.ipdadebate.info/mission--philosophy.html