Wortham High School senior, Ben Havens, placed third in Class 2A at the UIL State Congressional Debate contest last week. Havens qualified for the competition in November during the UIL Regional contest. This is the second year Ben has competed in this event and the second year in a row for him to place third in the State!
With COVID, the contest was quite different from last year. For this year’s tournament, all of the competitions were virtual. The Regional and State competitions were both held over ZOOM calls with students all across the state of Texas. The preliminary round for the State contest was held on February 14 during the snowstorm and final rounds were to be the next day. However, due to major power outages across Texas, finals were postponed until February 23. Even with all of these delays and obstacles, Ben was able to finish third!
UIL Congress is an individual contest in a large group setting. It models the legislative process of democracy, specifically the U.S. Congress. Within this mock legislative assembly competition, contestants draft legislation (proposed laws and position statements) submitted to the tournament, and they research the docket of bills and resolutions dealing with real-world social and political policies prior to the contest to prepare their speeches. For his legislation, Havens addressed the opioid problem. Other legislation that was debated included funding schools for mental health, cap on college tuition, regulating social media, and a host of others.
At the tournament, students caucus in committees, deliver formal discourse on the merits and disadvantages of each piece of legislation, and vote to pass or defeat the measures they have examined. Parliamentary procedure forms the structure for the discourse, and students extemporaneously respond to others’ arguments over the course of the session.
After two days of debate (spread over two weeks due to the snowstorm), Havens was awarded the third-place bronze medal for Class 2A. The State competition consisted of 45 students from across the state of Texas in the preliminary rounds and then was narrowed down to 15 students for the final round. The debaters were judged by three judges during their competition. During a “normal” year, this contest would be held at the Texas State Capitol, like last year, but with COVID, all of the contests had to be virtual. This made the contest even harder in Havens’ opinion.
According to Havens, he is a better speaker since participating in UIL. “I think it’s really influenced how I’m going to personally pursue my future,” Ben said. “I never really saw law as an option, but going through the whole Congress process, and working my way all the way up has really had an impact on my future.”
