One Community, Infinite Conversations

April 18-22, 2024, over 100 schools and almost a thousand students and coaches from all over the country are expected to attend the National Forensic Association’s national championship tournament. Events include impromptu, extemporaneous, persuasion, rhetorical criticism, informative, after dinner speaking, poetry interpretation, prose interpretation, dramatic interpretation, duo-dramatic interpretation, program oral interpretation, and Lincoln-Douglas debate.

This event is the culmination of the 2023-2024 competitive speech and debate season. Participants had to qualify for entry over the course of the regular season to attend this tournament. The season of intercollegiate speech competition starts in mid-September and rounds through March with colleges and universities all over the nation hosting invitational speech and debate tournaments.

Four preliminary rounds of competition in each of the individual speech events will take place to seed 24 students in each event for elimination rounds to determine national champions. Lincoln-Douglas debate will also be featured in the tournament.

Central Michigan is not only hosting but will have students entered in the competition. Additionally, students from our classes and possibly volunteers from campus and the community will be assisting with the hosting duties.