Vicinanza,+Paul

Paul Vicinanza Executive Director, Detroit Urban Debate Education (2015-2016) Loyola HS, Detroit, MI 2013-16 (coach) The Westminster Schools, Atlanta, GA 2009-12 (debater), 2013 (coach)

Meta – I judge the round through a lens of objectivity to the best of my ability. However, my own opinions do impact my judging, try as I might to block them out. Read whatever arguments you feel comfortable with because good debating trumps any bias I might hold.

Topicality – Throwaway T’s are obnoxious. Legitimate T violations can be both strategic and devastating. Do not get bogged down on the line-by-line and forget to frame the T debate in the bigger picture of fairness and education.

DA/Case – Always classy

Critiques – If it is standard like Security or Capitalism than proceed without caution. If it’s the flavor of the month post-war 1920s German philosopher you must slow down on both the tags and the cards. If your K depends on excluding the aff you will have an uphill battle. The alternative is always the weakest part of the K.

Performance – I am open to hearing critiques of debate and viewing "performances". However, you must provide a point of clash for the other team. I’m very receptive to framework - especially if the aff lacks a firm plan text - and T-USFG.

CX – Respect each other! Too many times I have seen debaters bash heads over irrelevant details. CX is tool. Utilize it properly and it’s like a free speech. Face and talk to the judge. Use tag-team cross-x at your own risk. Dominating your partner makes them look foolish.

Theory – I lean heavily affirmative on theory. The negative has gotten away with atrocious CPs recently. I’m looking at you consult/conditional counterplans that do the aff. I believe that these compete but they are flat out bad for debate. International Fiat is almost as bad. I’m still undecided on conditionality. Multiple contradictory worlds screams theory violation. I have no problem rejecting the team to deter future abuse. Dispositionality is arbitrary and meaningless. I love a great PIC but it needs to be competitive.

Paperless - No prep time counted for jumping speeches. If you do not finish a card you MUST physically mark the card on the computer before moving onto the next card. If not than we will spend your prep time marking them and your speaker points will drop. Otherwise you are functionally clipping cards.

Other –

I’m more receptive to bizarre and strange arguments than most judges. If you're looking to bust out that old spark file I'm the judge for it.

If there are any other questions do not hesitate to ask.