The Madison Cup is an annual debate tournament held at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. It is a long table format, which means there is more than one team arguing both the affirmative and negative side. This year’s debate topic was “This house believes that warrantless electronic surveillance has done more harm than good.” It was very relevant in this time period thanks to Edward Snowden and the continued debate of security vs. the right to privacy. There were twenty two teams competing for $30,000 in prize money. Simon Persico and I were representing the University of Florida at this tournament. We went through three preliminary rounds and were and were ranked third going into the final round along with the University of Houston, Morehouse College, Emory University, American University, and Liberty University. Simon and I finished in 3rd place, bringing in $2,000 for the Speech and Debate Society, as well as $1,000 each. Simon and I would like to extend a special shout out to Amanda Montee, who served as our coach for the tournament, giving us legal cases and tips that we could use as we went into each round. We would also like to thank the coaching staff for giving us the opportunity to represent the team and a special thanks as well to Kellie for handling the logistics and making travel a no-hassle affair. Finally we would also like to thank the members of the Speech and Debate Society for giving us a cheering section back home as we were in Harrisonburg. It was a great send-off for Simon in his last competition in college and hopefully I can earn the opportunity to go back next year!
–Raj