The Problem: Fewer Tenurable Debate Coaches

[Cori Dauber]

And, btw, if you want to really kill an academic career, take
responsibility for hosting an on-site summer institute. NOW when do you
write?

On Mon, 16 Mar 1998, kevin kuswa wrote:

> At 07:48 PM 3/16/98 -0500, C.D. writes:
> >True enough -- but those of us interested in playing both games need to
> >have a specific agenda. We cannot go to our colleagues and say, hey, our
> >lives are tough, without specific items we think might help us
> >structurally. I think later release date is one of those things, obviously
> >there is disagreement from small program directors on that -- I wonder how
> >much, and how many of those who want a later release date are those trying
> >to salvage the summers for other projects, which is frankly one of my
> >agendas on that issue. So another question arises: not only do we need to
> >address within the debate community as a whole whether the continued
> >participation of active scholars is of value, those of us who aspire to be
> >in that category need a second line debate over what would be of use. I
> >agree with Cheshier on several of the items he mentions, including shorter
> >season (although I'd shorten on the front end not the back), and there are
> >a variety of other proposals that strike as being of merit BUT LETS LET
> >THE DEBATE BEGIN.
>
> It has begun.  I agree with you that specific suggestions can help bridge
> the practice/structure gap.  The problem is, specific needs are often
> case-by-case.  For example, I thinks it's absurd to try to help debate
> by shortening the season.  First, it's killing the trees to save the forest;
> second, the more debates people have access to, the better; third, you can
> avoid the burn-out question by applying selective preparation for the early
> tournaments (a good CPlan DA story and a good aff); and, fourth, the needs
> MAY BE LOCAL.  Instead of going to your colleagues and saying "We need a
> later release date for our topic because I have other things I need to do,"
> you could say, "Hey, I know a couple of people who would make great graduate
> students if you could give the team another slot or two.  We also need our
> own xerox machine, office space, the approval to do a summer workshop, etc."
> Cutting lots of cards does not have to be central or suffocating.
>
> help I can't breath :),
> kevin
>
> >
> >On Mon, 16 Mar 1998, Steven Hunt wrote:
> >
> >> Cheshier is right on.
> >>
> >> The fundamental problem, however, is coaches helping research actively
> >> coaching their teams. It takes so much effort August -April to coach
> >> research actively to be highly competitive that there is NO time left for
> >> real academic research.
> >> That means no main line comm scholarship for most unless there are
> >> multiple coaches, serious release time, or SUMMERS are dedicated not to
> >> debate but to comm scholarship. All this is VERY HARD.
> >> Plus, only a few PHD programs really encourage forensics training and
> >> scholarship simultaneously in a serious way.
> >>
> >> Steve Hunt
> >> Lewis & Clark
> >>
> >
>