The Williams College Debating Union (WCDU) hosted its annual debate tournament this weekend, bringing around 65 students from across the country to the College. The students spent their weekend debating a range of topics, spanning economic policy, the institution of marriage, musicals, and the Mongol empire. 

The two-day tournament began on Friday afternoon and lasted through Saturday evening. At an assembly meeting — spaces where students socialize in between debate rounds — WCDU unveiled the theme of the tournament: Frozen, the Disney film. 

As a result of a pick system, WCDU learned that they would be hosting this tournament at the parliamentary debate nationals last April. 

The tournament was specifically a Pro-Am tournament, which requires that experienced debaters (“pros” or “varsities”) be paired with amateurs (“novices” or “ams”)who have less than a year of debate experience to create teams. 

“It’s good to integrate the novices with the varsities and give them experience debating at a higher level,” WCDU Vice President Maya Sachs ’27 said in an interview with the Record. 

Niki Schrift, a junior at Northeastern, explained that her team, which primarily competes in the Boston area, was especially interested in this tournament because of its Pro-Am status. “There are only two [Pro-Am debates] a year, and Northeastern hosts one of them, which means we don’t get to compete in it,” she said. “For most of us, it’s our first time competing in a Pro-Am tournament, even if we’ve been on the team for years.”

Some students signed up for “crash housing” at the College, Schrift said, which meant sleeping in dorms on Friday night. The WCDU team hosted 12 students, with extra help from other students at the College who volunteered. 

“It’s a norm in our league that any school that’s hosting a tournament will put out a form that’s like, ‘Do you need to crash house?’” Schrift said. “All of the people who are from that school in the debating society will provide housing… I know some schools [put students in] a hotel, but the ones that are pressed for funds are able to stay for free, which is really nice.”

In addition to providing overnight accommodation, WCDU was tasked with providing participants with three meals: Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast, and Saturday lunch. The team catered food from Blue Mango and The Log and purchased bagels from Stop & Shop to keep everyone fueled up for the long hours of debating.

WCDU also worked with the Office of Campus Life and used social media in order to advertise the event. “In mid-December, we reached out to [Interim Coordinator of Student Involvement] Trevor Biggs, who reserved [rooms] for us,” Wyatt Smith ’27, the tournament director of WCDU, said. After that, they spread the word about the event through social media platforms.

Since WCDU was hosting the tournament, its members couldn’t compete. Instead, many stepped up to serve as judges, along with 11 judges from other schools. “The only qualification [to be a judge] is that you’re familiar with the format,” Smith said. 

For team members that cannot participate in the debates themselves, judging can be a great way to gain experience, according to Isabel Marks ’28, who judged multiple rounds. “Being on the other side of the round makes it easier to see what mistakes debaters are making and how you can make your arguments as strong as possible,” she wrote in an email to the Record.

The tournament had three stages of sessions, with everyone competing in the first five rounds, followed by the selective semifinals (also known as eliminations) and finals. “There are five rounds initially,” Kait Podlich, a first-year competing for Hamilton, explained. “If you win enough of the rounds, you go to eliminations.” 

Whether or not a team advances to the next round is determined by the judges. “We take notes throughout the round, and spend five to 15 minutes deliberating after the round before coming to a decision,” Marks explained. 

After the first five rounds of elimination, one team from Brandeis, one from Bates, and two from Boston University advanced to the semifinals. The teams from Brandeis and Bates won the semifinals, but decided to forgo the final round and share the tournament’s championship.

Sachs explained their decision to abstain from the final round. “If you make it to finals, you get around 12 points to qualify towards the nationals, and it requires 10 points to qualify for nationals,” she said. “When [the teams] got far enough that they got the amount of points they needed to qualify [for nationals], they agreed to co-champ.”

While one wouldn’t know from the outside, Science Quad and Schapiro were bustling with energy all of Friday and Saturday, as students engaged in invigorating debates and made memories.

Though the weekend was spent with lively debates on a variety of topics, big tournaments like this one also leave time to socialize. In between debates, students from different schools got to meet each other and bond over their shared love for debate. “The best memory from the tournament was after [our third] round,” Podlich reflected. “We chatted with the other team and they were so sweet and friendly.” 

During one of the General Assemblies between tournaments, WCDU catered Blue Mango and showed a rerun of the Super Bowl halftime show, bringing together the competitors to relax, get to know one another, and eat.