To date, 13 high school teams with more than 77 students have registered for the tournament. Local participants include: Clinton High School; New Hartford High School; Proctor High School (Utica); Rome Free Academy; Oneida High School; Sauquoit Valley High School; Richfield Springs High School, Mt. Markham, and Holland Patent High School.
Other schools registered to participate include Christian Brothers Academy (Syracuse), Baker High School (Syracuse), Indian River and Liberty.
The debate will feature competition in extemporaneous speaking, original oratory, duo interpretation, dramatic interpretation, declamation, oral interpretation, humorous interpretation and Lincoln Douglas Debate.
Final rounds will begin at 2:30 p.m. in KJ; at 3:30 p.m., Hamilton debaters will conduct a mock parliamentary debate, which will be followed by an Ice Cream Sundae Bar, sponsored by Hamilton's Office of Admissions. An award ceremony will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the KJ auditorium.
The Hamilton Union was revived earlier this year by two first-year students, Joe Livingston and Sara Weinstein, both of whom participated on their high school debate teams. It was originally organized in 1977 and was active for several years. The newly-reorganized team has approximately 30 participants who have been competing at various college debates this year.
