Greetings from the Northwestern Debate Society. I’m writing to announce that we will host the 55th Owen L. Coon Memorial Debates from February 2nd through 4th, 2019. We have agreed with the University of Texas to continue our practice of hosting our tournaments in alternating years; Texas will host in 2020 and Northwestern will resume hosting in 2021.
We will post an extensive tournament guide as we nail down our final plans in January, but for now we wanted to share the basic information you need to plan your travel schedule. Given the possibility of inclement weather, we will issue a snow-schedule in the final itinerary that will build in additional time for each debate if necessary.
Topic, Tabulation, and Team Numbers
We will debate the 2018-19 NDT-CEDA debate topic. We will use our traditional format of eight preliminary debates followed by elimination debates breaking to the double-octafinals. We will employ side equalization and will break brackets as per tradition. Gary Larson has again agreed to tabulate the tournament. Northwestern is a member institution of the NDT, ADA, and CEDA; we will administer the tournament accordingly.
At this time, we hope to be able to accommodate all entries. We may well have enough debating space on campus to do so. However, in the interest of prudence we will set the entry cap at 120 teams. Once we hit the cap your teams will be automatically added to the waitlist. By then we will have more accurate information about how many rooms will be available on campus and will begin the process of raising the cap and working with large parties to ensure folks can bring as many teams as possible.
Transportation to Chicago and On Campus
If you fly to Chicago, it is entirely possible to attend the tournament without having to rent additional ground transportation. Hired cars, ride services, and public transportation can get you to Evanston with ease from both O’Hare and Midway. Once you are in the hotel - which is immediately adjacent to campus - Northwestern Debate will provide bus and shuttle service between the hotel and the debates on campus as needed.
Further announcements regarding our accessibility program and contact information for participants with disabilities will follow in the official invitation and on this forum topic. For now, suffice it to say that we are determined to make an extraordinary effort to assist all tournament participants with transportation and unique accommodations during the event, all the more so if we have challenging weather conditions.
Hotel and Tournament Pricing
We have reserved a block of rooms at the Hotel Orrington. The tournament rate will be $109 per night for singles and doubles. The Orrington will provide free high speed internet for all tournament participants. The Holiday Inn and the Hilton Garden Inn are both perfectly reasonable alternatives to the Orrington if you so choose. Either one of those options are located in Evanston, close to campus, and easily accessible. We will include information regarding tournament fees in the official tournament invitation and we will provide an online payment option for those of you who would like to pay online.
Tournament Provided Food
We traditionally provide breakfast and lunch on Saturday, all three meals on Sunday, and Breakfast and Lunch for the remaining tournament participants during the elimination debates on Monday. We will provide the final details regarding tournament provided food in the invitation.
We are looking forward to see you in February! I know I speak for the entire Debate Society and its alums when I say that hosting this event is something we always look forward to; we are delighted that you will be joining us in Evanston again for a weekend of excellent debating. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.
Sincerely,
Daniel J. Fitzmier on behalf of the Northwestern Debate Society
