Invitation Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sqr7MdFFAqEpsHuY_xF4T53BX2QObB30qa7ij19RjSk/edit?usp=sharing

Google Form Lunch Order for Saturday, December 6: https://forms.gle/6dABaa8RzAvYUpsz9

Forensics Friends,

The Elgin Community College Forensics Team and the department of Communication Studies are excited to invite you to the “Shadwell-Dittus Speech and Debate Tournament” to be held on Friday December 5 and 6, 2025! This will be a fully in-person tournament on ECC’s main campus. For those that aren’t aware, Gail Shadwell was a Speech faculty member at Elgin Community College for over fifty years, and was instrumental in creating many student centered activities, including ECC’s Speech Team. Jim Dittus is an emeritus professor from ECC, a fixture in Illinois forensics and is still  an advocate for the activity and its students.

We will be operating under a “traditional” 2-day/3-round IE format (novice only for IE) and open IPDA debate infused on both days. 

For debate: competitors in debate must be undergraduate students at the entering college or university who have met the necessary requirements for competition as imposed by that institution. NOTE: This includes students in their third or fourth year of competition which is true only for debate.

For IE: the tournament will be a novice tournament. “Novice” will be defined as any 4-year student within their first 4 semesters of competition, and any community college 

student (to align with Phi Rho Pi policies). 

Our IE tournament will have three rounds of preliminary competition, and finals in all events (providing that size of the event allows for such).  Please also note the special approaches that we will be utilizing for prelim rounds of CA and Extemp. Enclosed in this packet you will find information regarding logistics (registration, parking, etc.) and tournament fees for all events.

ECC students may be entered into events, and may place in final rounds, but will not be eligible for individual or team sweepstakes.

With the assistance of our catering department at ECC, we will once again be offering pre-ordered boxed lunches Saturday Dec 6 (per person charge of $7). This will be a great way to keep everyone inside during the cold (or even inclement) weather! Please be on the lookout for more information regarding ordering.

Should any question arise, feel free to contact me.

We hope to see you on December 5 and 6, 2025!  

Sincerely,

Tim Anderson on behalf of the ECC Speech Team and  ECC Communication Studies Department

Email: tanderson@elgin.edu

Office: 847-214-7275 - Mobile: 217-549-1970