Welcome to the University of Utah!

Dear national competitors and coaches,

We are delighted to welcome you to the 2019 National Parliamentary Debate Association Championship tournament hosted by the University of Utah and our John R. Park Debate Society. With over 100 teams from 34 schools across the nation, we look forward to lively and thoughtful debate on the issues of the day and we thank you for choosing to attend.

At the University of Utah, we are committed to innovation, discovery and value in higher education. Founded in 1850, we currently serve over 31,000 students across a variety of disciplines in our undergraduate and graduate programs, and we consistently receive top ratings in research and innovation across our many fields of study.

Our focus on academic excellence extends to forensics and the John R. Park Debate Society. Housed within the College of Humanities and Department of Communication, the John R. Park Debate Society has operated on our campus since 1869. Since its inception, the society has achieved numerous national and international successes and taken an active role in increasing visibility of the discipline.

We look forward to continuing our support of forensics within and beyond the University of Utah by hosting this national tournament.

On behalf of the university and the John R. Park Debate Society, we hope you enjoy your time in Salt Lake City. Please enjoy our beautiful campus.

 

Best,

Ruth V. Watkins
President, University of Utah

 

 

Dear members of the National Parliamentary Debate Association,

On behalf of the College of Humanities and the Department of Communication, we want to welcome you to our campus and share our best wishes as you embark on your seasonculminating tournament.

Our Debate Society has been preparing for your visit all year and we could not be prouder to include this event among the many ways that our College and Department have supported the role of competitive speech and debate as a critical aspect of an education in Communication and the Humanities. Whether it’s the John R. Park Public Debates that began on our campus in the 1870s, our distinction as the archival home of the Cross-Examination Debate Association and the National Debate Tournament (which we had the honor of hosting twice), or our ongoing high school outreach efforts, we know that supporting forensics on our campus helps contribute to the overall strength of your activity. It is an honor to play a role in the powerful educational enterprise to which each of you have dedicated so much of your time.

While on campus, we hope you enjoy the facilities that we have made available for this event, the hospitality that has been generously provided by our President, Ruth Watkins, and the many other amenities that make our campus the premiere institution for higher education in the State. And, if this is your first time in Utah, we hope that you will visit us again next year when we host our 50th annual collegiate forensics tournament on January 17-20, 2020. Likewise, whether you are a community college student, an undergraduate, or a graduate student, we hope that you will consider the dozens of nationally-ranked programs supported by our campus as part of your future education.

Once again, thank you for choosing to spend your time on our campus. We wish the best of luck as the weekend’s competition unfolds.


Sincerely,