Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Last weekend, HWS Debate hosted the competitive Round Robin tournament.

The HWS Round Robin is a prestigious annual tournament that brings the top 16 debate teams from across the globe to compete on the HWS campus. During the past several years, debaters and judges from more than 50 nations have attended the Round Robin.   

This year, Stanford LS won the Grand Finals of the 2023 Round Robin against a team from the London School of Economics and two teams from Princeton. Stanford LS debated the position of opening government. 

“We bring together an elite and internationally diverse group of debaters and adjudicators, along with world-renowned public intellectuals,” says Professor of Philosophy and Director of HWS Debate Eric Barnes.   

To automatically qualify for a spot, debaters must champion one of only 12 major annual tournaments, such as Oxford Intervarsity, Yale Intervarsity or United Asians Debating Championships.  

This year, three HWS students were on the judging panel of this elite group: Sreyan Kanungo ’23, July Winters ’24 and Kayla Powers ’24. All three judges have contributed impressively to the debate community at HWS. Kanungo has brought HWS international success in countless tournaments, including proceeding to elimination rounds of the Worlds Championship three times in a row and leading the Adjudication Core for the North American Universities Debating Championship (NAUDC). Winters was the lead Equity Officer at this year’s Round Robin as well as NAUDC this April. Powers has proceeded to the finals of multiple tournaments as a judge and also paired with Kanungo to bring the team to the Octofinals of the Worlds Championship in January 2023.  

William Koepp '23 was once again one of the lead organizers of the tournament. He has helped coordinate the Round Robin for three years in a row, contributing to the tournament's international reputation as an effectively run and competitive event. 

“Part of the incredible experience of hosting the Round Robin is the opportunity to see it all come together. It’s the chance to bring together debaters and judges from across the world and create some of the most competitive and high-equality debates possible," Koepp says. 

As the tournament hosts, HWS debaters do not compete, unless they have previously won one of the big 12 competitive tournaments. 

For the HWS community, the Round Robin poses a unique opportunity for intellectual discourse on an international level. Lamia Nur Rahman ‘26, a rising star on the Debate Team and international student from Bangladesh, recalls watching Round Robin videos before applying to HWS. “As a high school debater, watching my favorite debaters clash against each other to win the Round Robin title strengthened my debating aspirations,” she says. Now, Rahman is grateful to be physically on the campus, “I finally get to be a part of the big dream tournament from HWS.”   

The Round Robin Final occurred on Sunday, April 2 in Froelich Hall of the Gearan Center for the Performing Arts. The event was open to the public. 

On Saturday in conjunction with the Round Robin, Professor of Philosophy Karen Frost-Arnold delivered the keynote address titled, "What Will it Take to Fix Social Media?" The talk will explore themes from her book, Who Should We Be Online? A Social Epistemology for the Internet? 

Check out HWSRR.com or https://instagram.com/hwsdebate/ for more details.