Policy Debate

Erik C. Mathis

Assistant Director of Debate, UT Dallas

I love of coaching. Because of the time, energy, and love my coaches shared with me, I have always wanted to give back to debate and to my local UDL. I worked as a volunteer for GSU for many years, helping to coach countless Georgia State students. I also worked in AUDL camps every summer. In 2014, I realized that debate was where I belonged full-time. I accepted multiple positions at Emory, working with the AUDL and coaching students at the middle school, high school, and college levels. As part of the college debate program, I have assisted in coaching many of Emory’s novice teams from their first days in debate to winning records and tournament victories. I have also worked with the varsity program, coaching fifteen teams to the NDT — including seven First Round teams. But I am proudest of the work I’ve done with the AUDL. In 2015, we initiated the Debate Ambassadors program which was designed to take the best students in the AUDL and travel them on the national circuit. The program required me to develop a new coaching structure and maintain adherence to a budget specified by the AUDL. In my first year we had six students by 2019 one of the top twenty-five teams in the country as recognized by a national coaches poll. Our teams have participated in elimination rounds at many tournaments, including NAUDL Nationals, Wake Forest, The Barkley Forum, Harvard, Ohio Valley (Kentucky), and the Greenhill national tournament. Our students have also been invited to the Greenhill and Pace round robin.

I believe that education is fundamentally about inspiring and serving the student population. My role as an educator is to persuade students that learning is important and stimulating, while providing them with opportunities to learn about the crucial issues involved with the classes I teach. I also believe that I should place myself in a position to learn from my students – a position which I believe makes it easier for me to develop student-teacher relationships that revolve around mutual respect. The communication discipline offers many opportunities to connect theoretical and abstract issues directly to the lives of our students, and I believe that I have an obligation to take advantage of those opportunities. A unique diversity of student inspires me to structure my classes in such a way that they provide useful skills and/or perspectives that benefit students directly. I believe that learning occurs most successfully when students regard teachers as reasonable people who are genuinely concerned about students’ welfare. This sense of reasonability must be balanced by an understanding and respect for the teacher’s roles as an evaluator, a classroom facilitator, and an expert in course content. Students should expect to be challenged and held accountable, but in a manner that is consistent with respectful interaction among reasonable adults.

Cody Morrow

Debate Coach – St. Mark’s School of Texas

Currently one of the coaches at the St. Mark’s School of Texas, he also works with Athens high school policy debate program and works with individual students. When he was in college debating for the University of North Texas, he competed on the NDT/CEDA circuits. Cody advanced to the elimination rounds at the NDT 3 times, received a 1st Round at large bid in 1998, and advanced to the octa-finals in 1998. He has coached extensively on the national circuit (TOC), TFA circuit, and the UIL circuit in policy. He has coached for some of the most prestigious debate programs in the nation, including St. Mark’s, the Georgetown Day School, the Greenhill School, Dallas Jesuit College Preparatory, and many other accomplished schools. He has coached or helped coach numerous tournament champions and top speakers at most of the major national circuit tournaments. In March at the UIL state tournament he coached two sophomores at Athens high school who advanced to the semi-finals and one of the debaters was the top speaker in class 4A. He has coached or helped coach many TFA state champions in policy, a team that was the top seed at the TOC, and a team that advanced to the finals of the TOC. Cody will teach your students from a diverse perspective that includes policy approaches to debate, as well as critical perspectives which he views as not oppositional and instead they are relational. His goals when working with students in the summer is to provide them a solid foundation in making and elucidating efficient multi-warranted arguments, instill the importance of flowing for organizational and coverage purposes, provide as thorough of an understanding of the topic that is possible determined by the length of the camp, insist on clarity while speaking at all times, and most importantly make sure your students are as happy and healthy as possible during our time together.

Dustyn Beutelspacher

Student at UTD, majoring in Computer Science. I’ve debated 4 years at Niles West high school and 4 years here at UTD. I’ve coached high school debate on and off for about 3 years now, and have been judging debates as well.

Mahintha Karthik

Mahintha is an incoming sophomore to the University of Texas at Dallas, studying healthcare management with hopes of pursuing a career in medicine. In high school, Mahintha competed for Westside High School and made it to semifinals of TFA State and qualified to the Tournament of Champions twice. They are very excited about helping out at this camp and working with an excellent group of students.

Colin Quinn

Debate Coach, Highland Park

Colin Quinn debated for the University of North Texas, advancing to the elimination rounds of many competitive tournaments, including Northwestern, Wake Forest, CEDA, and the NDT. As a coach, Colin has worked with students at every level of competition.

Chris Randall

2014 NDT Copeland Panelist

Coached top speakers in both Lincoln- Douglas and Policy debate at the Tournament of Champions (TOC).

Coached multiple Texas State Champions in both Lincoln- Douglas and Policy Debate.