The HSPDS Mission
The Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society is Harvard University's premier competitive debating organization, bringing students to American Parliamentary, British Parliamentary, and other tournaments across the US and the world. We have won more APDA National Championships than any other university and we consistently field one of the strongest and deepest teams. In addition, we bring public debate and discourse to the Harvard student community through events, including a wildly successful debate between Professors Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz years ago and a debate between one of our own members and Bruce Friedrich of PETA more recently.
We are proud of our constitution's purpose statement: "The intent and purpose of the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society (HSPDS) is to develop and pursue excellence in public speaking and oration in the Harvard community, and to represent Harvard University in intercollegiate speech and parliamentary debate competitions. In addition, HSPDS will seek to sponsor, organize, and run speech and parliamentary debate tournaments, public speaking events and demonstrations, and community service projects in the best interests of public speaking."
To these ends, we allow members of the Harvard community from any class, any school (including graduate schools), and any debating background to join our organization, following the completion of a simple "comp" process. We put a high premium on training, practice, and commitment, but we strongly believe that unnecessary exclusion damages the potential of our organization.
If you would like to find out more, please e-mail us at debate@hspds.org.
Executive Board
Teamwork and Leadership
Unlike many student organizations of its kind, the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society is entirely student-run. Most of the responsibility is shouldered by a group of five elected officers that comprise the team's executive board. Elected on an annual basis, the executive board has many responsibilities, including (but not limited to):
- organizing the annual Harvard Debating Championships
- training new members and helping them through the comp process
- handling team finances to enable members to attend tournaments all around the world
- representing HSPDS at American Parliamentary Debate Association meetings
- President: Head of the Executive Committee and Board as a whole, principal representative of HSPDS, manager of HSPDS’s parliamentary debate tournament schedule, and responsible for overseeing all of HSPDS’s activities, committees, and sub-committees
- Vice President of Tournament Administration: Organizer of HSPDS’ annual parliamentary debate tournaments and creator of institutional memory regarding those tournaments. This includes administration of Members-at-Large in consultation with the President as it pertains to tournament concerns.
- Vice President of Recruitment and Training: Leads recruitment and training, administers all comp requirements, and maintains records of membership and electoral qualification status.
- Vice President of Finance: Maintains an accurate account of all team finances for regular review by the Executive Committee, produces a yearly budget, and coordinates all fundraising activities.
- Vice President of Operations: Handles the day-to-day organizational concerns of the team: weekly HSPDS registration for and transportation to other tournaments, administration of Members-at-Large post-tournament (in consultation with the President), and collection and collation of minutes and other forms of institutional memory.
Current HSPDS Executive Board:
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President |
Yihan Tan, 2012 |
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VP Tournament Administration |
Wes Hopkin, 2011 |
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VP Recruitment and Training |
Alex Loomis, 2012 |
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VP Finance |
Jaymin Kim, 2012 |
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VP Operations |
Coulter King, 2013 |
Members at Large
The five executive officers of the team appoint and work in conjunction with a group of officers known as members-at-large, who head various sub-committees created by the executive board and to help in the administration and organization of HSPDS.
History
Evolution
Over a quarter of a century has passed since the founding of HSPDS in 1983, when a small group of students came together with what was then mostly a plan to spend a little time off-campus together with friends from other universities--and maybe hone their debate skills along the way. Never in their wildest dreams did they imagine that the team would have such longetivity as it has had, flourishing over the years to become one of the greatest competitive forces in American debate today. Each year, Harvard sends delegates from HSPDS to tournaments all around the world, including the annual World Universities Debate Championships, and the mark that we leave is indelible.
Yet, the central values of the team have remained fairly consistent throughout the decades, and perhaps it is this to which our success can be mostly attributed. We aren't talent scouts searching only for those who are able to get in front of a crowd and speak without batting an eye; many people join the team without any prior experience in public speaking, and many of our veteran members still know how it feels to have butterflies in their stomachs prior to a debate. Instead, we're simply a large circle of friends who love each other's company.
Past Executive Boards
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Last Update: June 1, 2010. E-mail us at debate(at)hspds.org with any corrections or technical issues.
The Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society is a registered student organization of Harvard College.