Cal Poly to Host 14 Universities in Second Western Region Debate Championship, March 4-6

The Cal Poly Debate Team is hosting the second annual U.S. Universities Western Region Championship, featuring 14 teams from six states, on campus March 4-6.

Beginning Friday, 128 students from universities and colleges in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana and Washington will compete to be named the Western Region champion.

The competition will feature eight preliminary rounds of British Parliamentary/World Format-style debate followed by two elimination rounds.

In this debate format, four, two-person teams compete in each round or match. Two teams support the proposition and two teams are in opposition. Teammates have 15 minutes to prepare before the start of the 60-minute debate — with no electronic access to the web.

Round 1 motion and debate will be held Friday at 5 p.m. in Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Building (No. 8), Room 123. Round 2 will follow at 7 p.m.

On Saturday, the competition will shift to the Advanced Technology Laboratories Building (No. 7). Round 3 begins at 8:30 a.m. Subsequent rounds will be held at 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m., and 4:30 p.m.

Round 7 will be held at 9 a.m. and round 8 at 11 a.m. on Sunday in the ATL, Building 7. The semifinals begin at 3 p.m., followed by the final motion and debate at 5 p.m.

Schools include: (Alaska) University of Alaska at Anchorage; (California) Cal Poly, Claremont Colleges, Los Medanos College, Pepperdine University, San Diego State, UCLA, University of La Verne and USC; (Colorado) Denver University and Colorado College; (Hawaii) Hawai'i Pacific University; (Montana) Carroll College; and (Washington) Northwest University.