On April 13-16, Belmont University sent two students to the International Public Debate Association (IPDA) national debate tournament in Shreveport, Louisiana. Both students advanced to the elimination brackets in their divisions.
Nazif Manaj, a senior political science major who is currently planning to attend Belmont Law in the fall of 2019, joined the debate team in January of this year. At the IPDA national tournament he competed against approximately 120 other debaters in the novice division and advanced to partial triple-octa-finals (top 45 in the country).
Tyler Redmon, a sophomore political science major from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is finishing his second year on the Belmont speech and debate team. At the IPDA national debate tournament he advanced to octa-finals (top 16 in the country) in the junior-varsity division. He was also awarded as the seventh place overall JV debate speaker at the tournament.
This year’s tournament consisted of 40 colleges and universities competing on the campus of LSU-Shreveport. IPDA debate bridges the goals of promoting advocacy, communication and argumentation for students in a competitive environment.
