The Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) and the National Debate Tournament (NDT) have posted their first rankings of the year. The University of Miami Debate Team is currently #19 on the CEDA list and #17 on the NDT list. These lists reflect overall squad performance. The American Debate Association (ADA), in which UM finished 6th in 2013-14, will post their ranks at the end of the debate year in March.
The ADA established the Front Royal Award (named after the location where the ADA was founded) for the top 2-person team in each division, novice, junior varsity and open this year. Currently, the #1 Novice Debate team in the country ranked by ADA and front runners for the inaugural Front Royal Team Award in Novice Division is Anna Shah and Melissa Cavell of UM. In Junior Varsity, UM Teams are ranked #17 and #23.
In addition, Tabroom.Com, which keeps records of all debate competitions and maintains up-to-date totals, posts the top 2-person debate teams and individual debaters on their website. Currently, the Top Novice debate team in the country by win percentage is Anna Shah and Melissa Cavell of UM. And, the top individual speaker in the country by speaker point average is Anna Shah! MelissaCavell is 14th. The 16th ranked team in Junior Varsity is Ashley Park and Barbara Puodzius of UM, and Ashley Park is the 20th ranked speaker.
Tournament Highlights include
| Georgia State University | Novice Champion, Top Speaker |
| University of Kentucky | Novice Champion, Top Speaker Junior Varsity, 2nd Place Team, Second Place Speaker |
| University of Central Florida | Top Novice Team, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Place Speakers |
| Samford University | Junior Varsity, 1st Place, 1st and 2nd Place Speakers |
| Liberty University | Junior Varsity Quarterfinals |
| West Virginia University | Junior Varsity, Top Seed, Semifinalist |
| University of Vermont | British Parliamentary/Worlds Debate, Quarter-finalist (top 16 teams out of 100 +) |
Additional Debate Team Activities
UM Debate also competed in tournaments hosted by Wake Forest University and Miami Dade College. Our debaters hosted a girl scout troop to assist their members in achieving their Speech and Debate Merit Badges, participated in training the moderators and panelist for the Telemundo 51 Gubernatorial Debate between Crist and Scott (and attended the debate as VIP guests), and co-hosted a student forum on the election. Graduate Student Randall Martinez provided on-air commentary after the debates. On December 6, UM Debate will simultaneously host the Bill Todd Debates, an intercollegiate parliamentary debate tournament, the Ibis Debates, a high school policy debate tournament, and training for the Fairchild Speech and Debate Challenge. Professor Waldinger has been nominated for the position of Southeast Representative to the Executive Council of the Cross Examination Debate Association. UM Debate is will also host the Hurricane Debates on January 2-5, a nationally competitive policy debate tournament, and the Pan American Championships on January 23-25, an international Parliamentary debate event.
31 UM undergraduates have participated in intercollegiate competition during the fall semester, many more have participated in non-competitive on-campus activities or are looking forward to competing soon.
