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MIFA organizes two State Debate Tournaments (one Novice, one Varsity) in three disciplines of debate competition. Policy Debate and Public Forum Debate are both 2-person TEAM events in which students argue in favor or against a domestic or foreign policy of national importance. Congressional Debate is an Individual event in which which students emulate members of the United States Congress by debating bills and resolutions. MIFA awards numerous State Championships every year including: Novice Policy, Novice Public Forum, Novice Legislative, Open (Varsity) Policy, Varsity Public Forum, Varsity Legislative. MIFA also presents sweepstakes awards recognizing school success in an event across novice & open divisions. A mathematical formula is used to compile points for all debates won and lost across all disciplines (Legislative, Policy and Public Forum) at both the Varsity and Novice State Debate Tournaments. > The George Ziegelmueller Award for Policy Debate > The Debora Marsh Award for Public Forum Debate > The Denise Kling-Pelto Award for Congressional Debate In addition, MIFA presents the Elice Howard Award, recognizing the achievements of Directors of Debate in Michigan. Details. Past Winners: 2023-24 Katie Polus, Traverse City Central 2022-23 Chris Kuhlman, Utica Academy for International Studies 2021-22 Jake Weir, Dexter 2020-21 Ruth Kay, Detroit Country Day School 2019-20 Ryan Nierman, Groves 2017-18 Deb Marsh, Dexter |
2024-2025 Season: Key MIFA Dates & Forms
Sept 21, 2024 Public Forum Student Workshop @ Wayne State >Coaches & Students are invited to attend a PF workshop designed to prepare them to debate and get them up to speed on the fall topic. Registration coming soon. Email Lori Duncan, Membership Coordinator with any questions. September 21, 2024 Pappas Invitational @ Wayne State University December 14, 2024 Debate State Finals @ Wayne State University May 17, 2025 Progressive Debate w/MSCI @ Grand Hotel, Mackinac ------------------------------------------------------------------ List of Invitational Tournaments Are you hosting an invitational? Send details HERE! so the MIFA can put it on the calendar! Registration for most invitational tournaments in Michigan can be found on: tabroom.com Speech Activities - Relevant portions of our "rule book", SPEECH ACTIVITIES for all MIFA events can be found under the "Resources" tab. Other helpful documents for policy debate, public forum debate and legislative debate (student congress document) are available here. |
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Policy Debate
Policy Debate is a two-person team format in which teams argue in favor or against various interpretations of a nationally agreed upon resolution. Current Topic 2024-2025 season Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights, patents, and/or trademarks. |
Public Forum Debate
Public forum debate is often compared to a nationally-televised debate, such as 'Crossfire' in which the debaters argue a topic of national importance. Successful public forum debaters must make persuasive and logical arguments in a manner that is accessible to a wide variety of audiences. Nationally, Public Forum debate changes its topic monthly however in order to provide students with a little more preparation time our schedule is slightly modified. Tournaments in September and October will use the topic released mid August. Tournaments in November and December including the State Tournament will use the November topic. Most tournaments from January will follow the NSDA topic. Current Topics can be found on the NSDA website HERE. Public Forum Topic MONTH RELEASE DATE September/October: Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially expand its surveillance infrastructure along its southern border. November October 1 — 9a CT December November 1 — 9a CT January December 1 — 9a CT February January 1 — 9a CT March February 1 — 9aCT April March 1 — 9a CT National Tournament May 1 — 9 a.m. CT |
Legislative Debate
Legislative Debate (aka Congressional Debate) is a format in which students emulate members of the United States Congress by debating bills and resolutions. Before the event, each school submits mock legislation to each tournament. After the legislation has been compiled, it is distributed to each participating team. Each team researches as many topics as possible, with the goal of being able to speak on both sides of every legislation |