The cold rain and sleet pounded down outside the building, bouncing off the windows, but debaters from across the region were warm inside, kicking off the 2026 competitive season with gusto!
WUDL hosted a second workshop this year, designed to help students in Novice move up to JV and get their toes wet with new argument structures and new case areas, and to help JV students move up to Varsity, exploring case writing and advanced argument structures. 

Many other UDLs around the nation have been offering workshops lately, and we’ve taken a feather out of their book with this new programmatic offering. 

Our team sat down and identified 5 key things we wanted to folks to get out of this event: 

• Mutual Exclusivity – Counterplans, Kritiks, and Opportunity Cost
• Taking Notes, Flowing, and Preparation
• Introducing the JV Core Files
• Debate Theory / Debating About Debate
• Settler Colonialism and Introducing the Kritik

Thus, every student was assigned to a group, and rotated through these 5 core courses, graduating ready to participate in their first tournament. 

Thanks to WUDL Varsity debaters Henry, Bobby, and Louise for serving as TAs and guest instructors this past weekend.