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.

General Meetings

Time: 7:00 - 8:00 PM, every Monday, followed by practice rounds
Location: Lamont Forum Room, 3rd Floor of Lamont Library

Thanks to Our Sponsors

We would like to thank all our individual sponsors for their generous contributions!  Their support will help us work towards expanding our campus presence, hosting events for our alumni, and sending more teams to Worlds each year.  If you are interested in learning more about making a tax-deductible contribution to HSPDS, please visit our support page or contact us at finance(at)hspds.org.