Judge Certification Page

 

 

 

What we expect from you and students at the tournament

 

 

Please read this page carefully

 

Following our tournament rules is very important.

It is the right thing to do to help our tournament run efficiently.

You can get into trouble and we want to avoid that.

It is needed to help all participants.

 

 

 

We know most of this stuff is pretty obvious and kind of irritating to read but please read carefully.

 

 

 

 

 

PLEASE BE A FAIR JUDGE

 

It is important that you be a fair judge—treating each competitor equally and with full respect.

 

 

Follow the rules and guidelines noted on our ballots.

 

 

Show respect to the students especially when you are judging:

·       Turn your cell phones off.

·       Don’t look at videos/games/instant messenger during speeches.

·       Don’t be derogatory about arguments that students are presenting—try, as best as you can, to give each person the chance to have their case/Interp/speech be heard.

·       BE POSITIVE AND SUPPORTIVE.

 

Show you are impartial about the arguments. Avoid saying things like “I only vote for the negative on this topic.”

 

 

Show you are impartial toward the students. Avoid having conversations/jokes/etc. that don’t involve ALL competitors in the round.

 

 

Do NOT judge your own kids—in the event you are given a ballot to judge your own school by mistake, bring the ballot back to the ballot table.

 

 

WHEN YOU DON’T DO THE ABOVE—students get upset, coaches get upset, and it is not happy. :)

 

WRITE OUT YOUR DECISION AND COMMENTS. Yes you can and we encourage oral comments BUT YOU NEED TO WRITE COMMENTS. Coaches use them to improve, to help their students, for adaptation, etc. Please—a number of people complained last year on surveys that judges did not write out comments.

 

Are you a College Student-Debater? Some of the high school students have complained that they feel some college judges are arrogant and dismissive toward the “not good enough” high school debaters. Please don’t be that kind of college debater. Be helpful and supportive. Impart your knowledge and treat these competitors with respect.

 

 

TREATING OTHERS WELL

 

Treat other participants—coaches, judges, and students--with respect. It’s common sense and it is the law.

 

Don’t make others feel uncomfortable or harassed with sexualized, mean, racist, sexist, or any kind of verbal attacks.

 

Don’t make others feel uncomfortable with unwanted touching.

 

Treat students at the tournament without discrimination based on their race, gender, religious beliefs, sexuality, or any reason unrelated to their presentation of speeches, interpretation cuttings, and debate arguments.

 

If you or one of your students see or experience a harassment or discrimination problem, please contact Jim Hanson at hansonjb@whitman.edu or in Hunter, contact Clare Carson, our Title IX director, at carsonc@whitman.edu, or Dennis Hopwood, Human Resources Director, at hopwoodt@whitman.edu

 

You can and should also contact Security at 509-527-5777 or call 911 if you see or experience physical assault.

 

 

IF YOU ARE A COACH WHO HIRED YOUR OWN JUDGES

 

 

Please talk to them about being courteous, caring judges. Each year, STUDENTS AND COACHES ARE UPSET because they felt a judge mistreated them. WORK TO AVOID THAT.

 

Also, please talk with your kids about the diversity of judges. Not all judges are stock issues and not all judges like kritiks. Students need to learn to adapt to differing judges; blaming judges because they didn’t vote on inherency or because they said the student spoke too quickly is just not what forensics is about. It is about adapting to the judge.

 

 

COMPLAINTS ABOUT JUDGES

Complaints to the tournament about judges are appropriate ONLY IF the judge violates a rule stated in the tournament invitation NOT if they didn’t vote on inherency or because they preferred a “performance” over a disadvantage. Examples of situations where you can register a complaint include:

·       They cut your student’s speaking time.

·       They harassed your student.

·       They forced your student to debate or speak about a topic not sanctioned by the tournament.

·       They made your student say things you weren’t comfortable with.

·       They played computer games while your student spoke.

NOTE: Decisions are NEVER overturned by the tournament unless something extremely serious happened and overturning the decision does not adversely affect the tournament as a whole. This has occurred once in the past 18 years. Don’t count on it. Instead, we will remove the offending judge from the tournament and charge the school hiring that judge a fee.

If one of your Champ LD or Policy debaters receives a struck judge on the postings—REPORT IT TO THE BALLOT TABLE IMMEDIATELY. We will fix that.

 

 

 

 

TREAT OUR CAMPUS WITH RESPECT

 

 

·       PLEASE, NO TALKING IN ACADEMIC BUILDING HALLWAYS FRIDAY 8AM TO 4PM except in your competition room with the door closed.

·       PLEASE, NO TALKING IN RESIDENCE HALLS AT ANY TIME except in your competition room.

·       Be nice to Whitties. Obey Staff and Faculty requests to be quiet and to leave an area. Respect Student Residence Hall Rooms and Lounges.

 

·       Keep areas clean. Toss Trash and Cleanup Messes.

·       Don’t touch equipment, computers, residence hall fridges, furniture, etc. PLEASE DO NOT MOVE TABLES/CHAIRS TO A DIFFERENT ROOM.

·       Don’t play on campus art including the horses and other statues.

 

·       Do NOT go into rooms before your round is scheduled to start if there is a class in there.

·       Do NOT setup “shop” in a room. Use Reid to hang out.

·       Sorry, you may not use the Library due to problems we had at the 2003 tournament.

Many of Whitman’ Library resources are available on the web. If you really need a book from the library, students should get their coach get it for them.

 

·        WIRELESS? Choose whitman_wireless, open your web browser, and Sign on as a Guest.
         To avoid overloading the system, try to connect away from the Reid Ballroom.

·        Need a Computer/Printer? Go to Olin 180. Cost is $1. Printing is 5 cents per page.

·       Need a Photocopier? Go to Staples. Get to Staples by going east on Isaacs Avenue (the 4 lane road on one side of  Whitman. Go east for about 1.5 miles. When you see a McDonalds, look left to see Albertsons—turn left into the Albertsons parking lot and drive past Albertsons—you’ll see Staples ahead.)

 

TREAT THE REID CAMPUS CENTER (TOURNAMENT HEADQUARTERS) WITH RESPECT

Respect the space as you do when you are a guest in someone else's home.

 

NOTE: PLEASE AVOID BLOCKING HALLWAYS/DOORS

 

NOTE: PLEASE KEEP THE AREA CLEAN.

 

PLEASE EAT FOOD ONLY AT THE CAFÉ, COFFEEHOUSE OR BALLROOM TABLES.

Please do not eat on the lounge furniture.

 

PLEASE RETURN ALL DISHES AND TRAYS TO THE CAFÉ AS SOON AS YOU FINISH YOUR MEAL.

Also, please toss your garbage into the trash cans.

 

PLEASE DON’T HANG OUT IN THE BOOKSTORE UNLESS YOU ARE PURCHASING ITEMS

Don’t read through magazines you aren’t going to purchase. Use the bookstore to buy t-shirts, memorabilia, magazines—not as a hang out.

 

PLEASE DON’T HANG OUT ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF REID

The second floor is an office area with people busy working on a variety of projects. Please stay off the second floor unless you have a round there.

 

 

 

TREAT YOUR HOTEL WITH RESPECT

 

Please make sure no one takes pillows and blankets from your hotel rooms.

 

Please keep your team members quiet in the late evening and early morning—avoid waking nearby guests.

 

BE ON-TIME GOING TO AND FINISHING YOUR ROUNDS

 

PLEASE BE ON TIME.
You need to pick up and return your ballot on time per the schedule. When you don’t, we will charge you/your school.

We will be monitoring unpicked up ballots and we will post names of judges who did not pick up ballots on time. PLEASE—LATE JUDGING CAUSES INNUMERABLE PROBLEMS at a tournament of this size.

 

GIVING ORAL COMMENTS AT THE END OF A ROUND? You MAY NOT make the students stay beyond the time the round was scheduled to end. Doing so subjects you and your school to fines and to the students forfeiting (they are NOT allowed to say a judge held them as an excuse for being late to a round).

 

If your round is running late—you need to leave your room if a class is scheduled in the room. Complete the round in the hall, another room, etc.

 

DEBATE ELIMS: ANNOUNCE YOUR DECISION AND STATE THE DEBATERS/TEAM’S FULL NAMES.
         Why? To avoid errors. In 2007—two double-flighted rounds got decided the wrong way when a judge voted for the wrong Mercer Island debaters in two doubleflighted rounds. We caught it in time but we want to avoid this.

 

DON’T ORDER BON APETIT FOOD WITH LESS THAN 20 MINUTES.
You need to order food from Bon Apetit AT LEAST 20 MINUTES before your next round. Otherwise, you may be late because of the long times they take to get food done especially when it is busy. Eat the tournament provided food or wait until later.

 

Turn in your Ballots by the time noted on the ballot!

 

Ballot Distribution and Return happen in the Hunter Foyer (across the street from Reid, the main tournament headquarters)

 

 

NOTE: WE MAY HAVE ELECTRONIC BALLOTS FOR DEBATE. We’ll notify you if we move to that.

 

 

 

COACHES

Have you gone over the tournament rules with your students?

Have you explained to students how to handle double-entering?

Have you made sure your students are in the right divisions? REMEMBER WASHINGTON RULES ARE DIFFERENT.

Have you submitted to Whitman your demonstration that background checks have been completed on coaches and judges you are bringing to the tournament?

 

 

WHEN DO ELIM POSTINGS COME OUT? SATURDAY MORNING. ALL OF THEM.

 

WHEN CAN I ARRIVE ON CAMPUS?

 

Thursday, after 4:30pm.

 

Friday and Saturday, after 7:30am.

 

Parking is too crowded and our facilities are not open prior to that.

 

 

JUDGING OBLIGATION: YOU ARE OBLIGATED TO JUDGE ALL ROUNDS OF YOUR EVENT UNTIL AWARDS.

If you have competitors still in after awards, you are obligated to continue to judge after awards.

 

 

SIGN-IN FOR JUDGE CERTIFICATION

 

Problems? E-mail Jim Hanson at hansonjb@whitman.edu