Bylaw VII. Section 3. Add the following: “Any debater
with under 100 rounds of policy debate is eligible for junior varisty. However,
any debater who has won an elimination rounds at three tournament in junior
varsity, varsity or open at the college level will be required to move to open.
The elimination round provision will only apply to those tournaments that clear
to at least octos in the division and does not count for partial elimination
rounds.”

New version would read:

A. A novice is defined as an individual with no more than 24
rounds of team policy debate at the high school or college level, or CEDA
non-policy debate, or 50 rounds of Lincoln- Douglas Debate at the high school
or college level, or a combination of 50 rounds of team policy debate and
Lincoln-Douglas debate at the high school or college level. If a debater
competes in no more than 24 rounds of team policy debate during his/her first
year as a novice at the college level, they retain novice eligibility during
their second academic year in debate. However, if debaters have more than 24
rounds of team policy debate during their first year at the college level but
have not advanced to elimination rounds at two tournaments during that first year
of novice eligibility they are entitled to a second year of eligibility until
advancing to elimination rounds in two tournaments or upon completion of the
second academic year. Any debater with under 100 rounds of policy debate is
eligible for junior varisty. However, any debater who has won an elimination
rounds at three tournament in junior varsity, varsity or open at the college
level will be required to move to open. The elimination round provision will
only apply to those tournaments that clear to at least octos in the division
and does not count for partial elimination rounds. An exception will be made
for Junior Varsity National Tournaments. A waiver process for this section may
be established by the Executive Council for extraordinary situations.

Rationale:

Currently novice eligibility rules are governed by the
number of rounds that the student has competed in. This is a good standard as
it measures actual experience and not years in debate which are extremely
variable both in terms of number of debates and experience.

Allowing debaters who have not yet won an elim in junior
varsity allows debaters with significant rounds for open, but lacking the skill
set to remain in junior varsity until they achieve a level of success/aptitude.

The elim rule is written to exclude very small novice
divisions and byes through partials. This ensures that the tournament is large
enough to represent a significant sample size.