Mission — The mission of the NYU Debate team is excellence at every level with a focus on the Novice National, JV National, and the CEDA National Championships while creating platforms to empower diverse voices. CEDA Debate teaches you problem solving, critical thinking, research skills and information filtering. Of course, you can use it to become more persuasive through rebuttals, more insightful through cross-ex, more reflective through evaluating evidence or to quality for the NDT. However, it can also be a tool for activism, scholarship and finding your voice in the community.
History — NYU’s CEDA team was founded in the mid-1990s by Jacob Weigler, a first-year student and Will Baker. They recruited new novices who would later become coaches (Vik Keenan, Ellen Hogarty and Justine Daniels being the first) and debuted at the Russell D. Martin tournament at Cornell. The team became the centerpiece for a consortium of urban college debate programs that included Fordham, Columbia, CUNY and the New School under the umbrella of the IMPACT Coalition. After winning its first national championship, NYU became a debate force in its own right. For the last 16 years in a row, NYU has ranked in the top 20 schools in the national sweepstakes.