Trieu,+Thomas


 * Northside College Prep HS 2012**
 * Pomona College 2016**

Graduate student in sociology at UC Berkeley

I debated policy competitively for Northside on the national circuit for 4 years. I have a deep love for this activity and thoroughly enjoy almost every aspect. My general paradigm is not going to be very different from the standard judge in that I am open to all arguments (barring blatantly ad hominem or offensive per reasonable standards arguments) and will vote for the team that does the better job debating in the round. I read a wide range of arguments in high school from traditional policy affs, cps, and das to affirmatives with no plan texts or neg strategies that used no evidence and I will be a competent judge of any argument that might be introduced in policy debate. That being said - I am new to judging this year so I know very little with regards to the intricacies of this topic or what the "core of the topic" is shaping into. Please debate accordingly.

Other thoughts:

1. Throughout high school until now I have wavered in my opinion on what is the best for debate from the position that traditional policy debate is exclusionary and unrealistic to the position that non-topical affirmatives are no predictable and that the resolution provides reasonable limits to what arguments can be read. No judge is free of biases but I would say that I am relatively pluralist when it comes to what debate should be and if this is the kind of debate that unfolds I will do my best to evaluate the debate based on the arguments made in the round and a well-argued impact calculus in defense of your vision for policy debate.

2. Clarity is very important. I'm of the philosophy that one should spread as if they are just reading aloud normally but much quicker as opposed to some of the strange the ways that people have come to speak. This is just a preference I will do my best to try to understand all speaking styles but there is a natural limit to what I can understand and coherently flow.

3. I am a big proponent of viewing debate as an exercise in storytelling regardless of what arguments you read. This is not in the literal sense and it doesn't mean I want you be poetic. I mean to say that I value 2nr's and 2ar's that tell coherent stories about the reason I am voting for them. This often comes down to things like impact calculus, case specific link arguments, and meta-framing questions.

4. Please be kind to the other team, your partner, me, your coaches, your parents, pets, etc. I think that precision, intensity, and maybe aggression can be integral to debate such as during cross-ex but I think that these qualities tend to be overrepresented in the activity at the cost of basic kindness in debate spaces. Debate is at its best when everyone is comfortable and feels like they belong and behavior that takes away from this kind of debate environment will result in low (potentially very low) speaker points.