Community & Campus Engagement

People in the college community and, New Yorkers in general, have disagreements every day.  Many in the NYU community want to learn to handle them better by debating points INSTEAD of just arguing with each other. 

Debate is highly flexible and effective means of engaging in hard conversations and allowing people to express their thoughts, concerns and fears in safe spaces.   When debate leaves the tournament arena and enters the public sphere, it takes on new meeting and a means of liberation, expression and bridge-building, especially, in these troubling times. 

The NYUCEDA team can facilitate IDBE [Inclusion, Debate, Belonging, Equity] activities to assist NYU faculty, administrators, student groups and campus in meeting objectives outlined in NYU's Strategic plan nd supported by NYU’s Office of Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Strategic Innovation. OGI is dedicated to developing and implementing strategies that advance inclusion, diversity, belonging, equity, and innovation across the entire NYU community—including at our campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai and our 11 global academic centers which means people are having dialogues they couldn't imagine just a few years ago.      

Professors, administrators and student groups can choose topics, formats and competitive structures that match their pedagogical objectives and incorporate a customized approach into their lesson or event.  NYU students and coaches are deployed incrementally as participants, judges, and lecturers starting with one class or school for demonstration debates and exercises.   The team will host public debates on any requested topic and fosters safe space environments to conduct hard conversations on DEI-related issues.

Demonstration debates appeal to those who wish to become change agents in their communities and use their voice to make a difference.   The NYUCEDA team's debate-as-service model has led to debate activities with the NYU Breakthrough Scholars program, middle schools in Brooklyn and even Wall Street hedge funds.    

Under the leadership of Will Baker, Chief Information Officer at BCA, the NYU team offers a suite of options in public speaking, refutation, debate training, cross examination, research and issue framing.

The better we know each other's stories, the closer we are to respecting our differences.