Judging Information for the National Tournament

School Judging Commitment

The following rules govern the provision of judges by Colleges entering students into competition in the National Tournament.

Phi Rho Pi does not tolerate any behaviors which constitute sexual harassment. In order to protect the safety of all participants, everyone who attends the National Tournament should undergo Title IX/sexual harassment training as mandated by their home institution.

A. Each college shall be required to bring one competent (as defined below) judge for each four (4) contestants, or fraction thereof entered. However, no school shall be made to bring more than 3 judges (No fees are charged for not having 4 judges).

B. There shall be no provision for penalty fees in lieu of judges, except as the Tournament Director can GUARANTEE that competent judges can be hired with that money. Penalty fees in these instances shall be determined by the Tournament Director on a per-student- not-covered-by-a-judge ratio. If only a limited number of competent judges can be obtained, the colleges most distant from the National Tournament site will receive preference for such option.

C. No coach may code him/herself out of judging any event.

D. Judges shall be responsible for judging all rounds (including eliminations) assigned by the Tournament Management. (Room and judging commitments includes the entire tournament.)

E. Once a ballot has been assigned, it may not be exchanged with, or given away to, another judge (even one from your own school!) without approval by the Judges Table.

F. If a school is requesting special consideration in splitting a judging commitment, the school must provide an explanation submitted with each of the judge’s information forms, including specific available days and times for each judge.

G. All judges are required to call roll at the beginning of a round.

H. Attendance at one of the two judging meetings held prior to the beginning of competition is required of all individuals judging at the National Tournament.

I. Coaches/Judges should not recruit students while actively judging.

J. Students from colleges not meeting their judging responsibilities shall not be permitted to continue in competition.

Interested in being a hired judge?

If you are interested in being hired as a judge for Phi Rho Pi Tournament contact the tournament director at duane.r.fish@gmail.com. You may also go to the Joy of Tournaments website and the PRP entry has the link to the forms that need to be filled out.

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Competent Judges

Debate Judges In order to meet a school’s commitment a “competent debate judge” must be one of the following:

• A college debate coach;
  
• A former college debate coach who has coached within the past twelve years; 
  
• A high school debate coach with two or more years of intercollegiate debate experience;
  
• A person who has debated inter-collegiately two or more years (within the last twelve years, unless he/she has been actively involved in debate activities during this time); and removed from junior college competition for three semesters or five quarters and who is judged competent by the Director of Forensics.
  

Debate judges are to rank themselves A, B, C, D on the Joy of Tournaments form to indicate level of judging experiences (coding does affect judge assignments). Distinctions should be made between policy debate rankings and parliamentary debate rankings.

A Judging Philosophy must be submitted by each judge along with the judge qualification and preference forms. Judging philosophies will be in open narrative form and will include, but are not limited to:
i. Number of rounds judged on the current policy topic and/or in parliamentary for that year.
ii. Years of experience coaching/judging policy (either NDT or CEDA)  debate.
iii. Limited explanation of preferences regarding delivery, evidence,
and issue selection.

Judging paradigms and philosophical differences between policy debate and parliamentary debate as applicable.

(At Registration Confirmation, one set of philosophies will be distributed to each school entered in debate. Any extra copies are the responsibility of the school, but the Host School may have extra copies available for sale.)

Individual Events and Interpreters' Theatre In order to meet a school’s commitment, a “competent judge” for the Individual Events and Interpreters’ Theatre must be one of the following:

• A forensics coach (high school or college);
  
• A speech instructor;

 

• graduate student in speech;
  
• An undergraduate student or a person with prior forensics coaching or participation experience at the college level removed from junior college competition for three (3) semesters or five (5) quarters, who is judged competent by the Director of Forensics.
  
• IE and IT judges are to rank themselves A, B, C, D on the Joy of Tournaments form to indicate level of judging experiences (coding does affect judge assignments).