Announcements
The Season's Over!
The academic year is winding down, and the Harvard Speech & Parliamentary Debate Society has completed another successful season of debate! During the 2007-2008 season, Harvard saw more of its debaters win top speaker awards at tournaments than did any other school; congratulations to Lewis Bollard '09 (top speaker at Brown), Andrew Laing '08 (Tufts), Mark Samburg HLS '10 (MIT), Ben Belser '09 (Brandeis), and Matt Rubenstein '10 (Skidmore)! Additionally, Triangulars, a 100-plus-year-old tradition that pits debaters from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton against each other, recently occurred, and Harvard debaters defeated their opponents from both Yale and Princeton.
Just as importantly, members of the class of '12 have been admitted, and now is the perfect time to learn more about HSPDS and think about joining our ranks in the fall. If you are a prospective member of the team and you'd like to ask a question about joining HSPDS, please contact our Comp Director, Matt Rubenstein '10, at comp (at) hspds.org. We are always excited to welcome new members, whether they'd like to join us to compete in tournaments across the country, help us plan high-profile campus events, or simply attend our workshops and practice rounds.
General Meetings
Time: 7:00 - 8:00 PM, every Monday, followed by practice rounds
Location: Lamont Forum Room, 5th Floor of Lamont Library
Fall 2006 Newsletter Available
Check out our 2006 newsletter to find out more about last year's successes, both at home and abroad. The newsletter also contains updated information about our alumni outreach efforts and continuing fundraising drive.
The HSPDS Mission
The Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society is Harvard University's premier competitive debating organization, bringing students to American Parliamentary, British Parliamentary, and other tournaments across the US and the world. We have won more APDA National Championships than any other university and we consistently field one of the strongest and deepest teams year after year. In addition, we bring public debate and discourse to the Harvard student community, including last fall's wildly successful debate between Professors Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz.
We are proud of our constitution's purpose statement: "The intent and purpose of the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society (HSPDS) is to develop and pursue excellence in public speaking and oration in the Harvard community, and to represent Harvard University in intercollegiate speech and parliamentary debate competitions. In addition, HSPDS will seek to sponsor, organize, and run speech and parliamentary debate tournaments, public speaking events and demonstrations, and community service projects in the best interests of public speaking."
To these ends, we allow members of the Harvard community from any class, any school (including graduate schools), and any debating background to join our organization following the completion of a simple "comp" process. We put a high premium on training, practice, and commitment, but we strongly believe that unnecessary exclusion damages the potential of our organization.
If you would like to find out more, please e-mail our Comp Director, Andrew Laing, at comp (at) hspds.org.
Thanks to Our Sponsors
We would like to thank all our individual sponsors for their generous contributions! Their support will help us work towards creating an endowment for the team. If you are interested in learning more about making a tax-deductible contribution to HSPDS, please contact us at finance (at) hspds.org.
Congratulations to Alex Blenkinsopp '05 and Alex Potapov '05, 2005 National Champions!
Congratulations to David Kimel '05 and Jason Wen '05, 2005 American Parliamentary Debate Association Team of the Year! Read the story in The Harvard Crimson newspaper
Tournament Highlights 2006-2007
Winners
| Johns Hopkins University | Harvard BC (Mike Birnbaum & Zach Cafritz) |
| Boston University | Harvard BC (Mike Birnbaum & Zach Cafritz) |
| Wellesley College | Harvard CE (Zach Cafritz & Allen Ewalt) |
| Mt. Holyoke College | Harvard Affables (Allen Ewalt & Andrew Laing) |
| Brandeis University | Harvard KW (Kevin Kiley & Wong Shi Ming) |
Finalists
| MIT | Harvard BC (Mike Birnbaum & Zach Cafritz) |
| Yale IV | Harvard D (Cormac Early & Juliet Samuel) |
| Clark University | Harvard BE (Ben Belser & Allen Ewalt) |
| HWS BP Round Robin | Harvard (Cormac Early & Allen Ewalt) |
| HWS BP Round Robin | Harvard (Lewis Bollard & Rezwan Haque) |
Tournament Highlights 2005-2006
Winners
| Boston University | Harvard ST (Alexander Schwab & Georgios Theophanous) |
| Wesleyan University | Harvard BC (Piotr Brzezinski & Zach Cafritz) |
| Vassar College | Harvard ST (Alexander Schwab & Georgios Theophanous) |
| Amherst College | Harvard 1.5 Asians (Sam Myat San & Allen Ewalt) |
Finalists
| Williams College | Harvard ST (Alexander Schwab & Georgios Theophanous) |
| Colgate Worlds Prep | Harvard ME (Sam Myat San & Allen Ewalt) |
| Vassar College | Harvard MV (Sam Myat San & Vasu Vadlamudi) |
| Amherst College | Harvard BC (Mike Birnbaum & Zach Cafritz) |
| Mt. Holyoke College | Harvard BC (Piotr Brzezinski & Zach Cafritz) |
Tournament Highlights 2004-2005
Winners
| Smith College | Harvard AP (Ya’ir Aizenman & Rich Powell) |
| Columbia University | Harvard KW (David Kimel & Jason Wen) |
| Vassar College | Harvard BP (Alex Blenkinsopp & Alex Potapov) |
| Brown University | Harvard KW (David Kimel & Jason Wen) |
| Brandeis University | Harvard KM (Arianna Kelly & Shi Ming Wong) |
| MIT | Harvard KW (David Kimel & Jason Wen) |
| Amherst College | Harvard BP (Alex Blenkinsopp & Alex Potapov) |
| New York University | Harvard BP (Alex Blenkinsopp & Alex Potapov) |
| Bowdoin College | Harvard A (David Kimel & Scott Lichtenstein) |
| Mount Holyoke College | Harvard/Amherst (Arianna Kelly & Alan Lawn) |
| Bates College | Harvard AM (Ya'ir Aizenman & Saw San Myat San) |
| Providence College | Harvard KW (David Kimel & Jason Wen) |
| Yale University | Harvard/MIT (Ben Hebert & Jason Wen) |
| University of Chicago | Harvard BP (Alex Blenkinsopp & Alex Potapov) |
| APDA Nationals | Harvard BP (Alex Blenkinsopp & Alex Potapov) |
Finalists
| Johns Hopkins University | Harvard BP (Alex Blenkinsopp & Alex Potapov) |
| Williams College | Harvard/MIT (Ya’ir Aizenman & Ben Hebert) |
| Middlebury | Harvard Big Fish (Michael Birnbaum & Rich Powell) |
| Dartmouth College | Harvard PW (Karima Porter & Jason Wen) |
| Amherst College | Harvard KW (David Kimel & Jason Wen) |
| NorthAms @ Cornell | Harvard FS (Fuad Faridi & Alex Schwab) |
| Boston University | Harvard AP (Ya’ir Aizenman & Rich Powell) |
| Providence College | Harvard LS (Scott Lichtenstein and Alexander Schwab) |
Last Update: May 7, 2008. E-mail us at debate (at) hspds.org with any corrections or technical issues.
The Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society is a registered student organization of Harvard College.