Dear Forensic Colleagues,

On behalf of Mizzou Debate and Forensics, the premier collegiate competitive speech and debate program at the University of Missouri, I am excited to invite you to the first-ever annual Columns Classic, hosted on Mizzou’s campus in Columbia, MO November 14–15. Due to the unique restrictions our campus has on building, space, and room reservations, this tournament will have to operate on a Saturday-Sunday schedule. We will be doing everything in our power to strike a balance between a healthy and compact competition schedule so that hopefully attending schools can leave CoMO in enough time to return to their respective campuses Sunday night.

We plan to offer all 11 AFA individual events and interviewing alongside Open, Junior Varsity, and Novice divisions of individual IPDA Debate. Students may compete in both debate and multiple individual events, although some restrictions on cross-entry are in place to support a tournament which operates on-schedule and adapts to various time/spacing constraints. Each student may compete in IPDA and up to three individual events in each conflict pattern:

Pattern A (Extemp, After Dinner Speaking, Persuasive, Duo, Prog Oral Interp, and Prose)

Pattern B (Impromptu, Comm Analysis, Info, Dramatic Interp, Poetry, and Interviewing)

We strive to provide a welcoming and safe environment for students, coaches, and community members in attendance. If you believe there are special circumstances which I, as the TD or we, as the host team should be aware of, do not hesitate to reach out. If judges need to be struck from specific schools or students, we need to know by the change/drop deadline.

Speech and debate at Mizzou has fluctuated greatly over the years, from booming in the 1960s to functionally nonexistent by 2017. This time around, it operates as entirely student-operated and almost entirely funded via fundraising and tournament hosting. My mission is to build a program which will sustain beyond my time as an undergraduate student, building a reputation and instilling the knowledge necessary in my peers to perpetuate the successful team we currently are. A cornerstone of many lasting programs is hosting an annual competition for other schools to attend, increasing the presence of programs in the community while generating revenue to be used for future travel and competition. With these things in mind, I’d like to extend the sincerest of thank-you’s to all of the members of the forensics community who have and continue to support programs like ours, and we deeply appreciate your attendance to the Columns Classic.

Best wishes,

Dustin Wallace

Tournament Director, Columns Classic  |  President, Mizzou Debate and Forensics

C: (816) 588-3441  |  E: mutalkingtigers@gmail.com