“Is this a joke?” Those were the exact words of a national circuit competitor when I  showed him North Dakota’s Student Congress legislation docket. He found the legislation so elementary and un-debatable that, to him, it had to be a joke. In North  Dakota, many competitors do not know what ‘good’ legislation truly is. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. You’ve probably heard of rural debaters having it hard. Yet as a  North Dakotan who lives this reality, let me tell you, North Dakota is in the worst situation imaginable. National circuit competition is almost entirely impossible. North Dakota forensics has virtually zero similarities to the national circuit, and corruption runs rampant. North Dakota is too far behind, and something needs to be done.  

The national circuit is impressive, to say the least. From TOC to Glenbrooks, it is filled with some of the best competitions and competitors in the nation, but in North  Dakota, attending these competitions is a nonexistent privilege. The North Dakota  High School Activity Association (NDHSAA) upholds two National Federation of State High School Associations NFHS rules that undermine our ability to compete.  

1. If you compete in a national tournament not sanctioned by the NDHSAA/NFHS,  you will be declared ineligible to compete at the state level. North Dakota students can compete at the national speech and debate tournament, NSDA, because it is outside of in-state seasons like speech and congress. You also need the approval of the NDHSAA, which is impossible to get without connections and relationships to high-level officials in CSTAND and the NDHSAA.  

2. Per NDHSAA rules, within season, schools are limited to 12 tournaments, online and in person, for Speech. If their tournament is more than 600 round miles, they must have permission to attend, which will almost definitely be denied. This regulation is limiting because if a student wanted to compete in an online equality in forensics tournament, it would count against their school unless they entered as an independent entry during out-of-season competition. The NDHSAA rules with an iron fist, discouraging those from exploring national competition and limiting them to amateur state competition. North Dakota hasn’t had a main event national finalist in decades, which is a rarity because of our lack of experience on the national circuit. But, remember how I said “tip of the iceberg?” Yeah, it gets worse. 

One advantage of in-state competition being similar to national competition is that once you go to national competition, nothing changes. North Dakota is not given this advantage. Let’s start with Student Congress.  

First, North Dakota has two in-state competitions and then state. Regular competitions last one day and one round. State lasts 2 days with two rounds. 1 round each day with small breaks in between. Students write legislation at the end of each season to be anonymously voted on by coaches and other students. This is then adjusted and put on the official docket for all three competitions for the next season. Five pieces of legislation are assigned to each competition and must be debated. Second, instead of ranking everybody in the round, you are given points based on how good your speeches were. Adding to the debate and questioning are therefore not as important.  

What’s worse is that there is no preset recency in North Dakota. The presiding officer chooses who speaks first and develops the speaking order. The first five speakers are the intro speakers, and they give the first affirmative speech to each piece of legislation in a row. This works by debating five pieces of legislation, written by students from different schools. The catch? Only students from the school where the legislation originated may give the introductory speech. If your legislation was picked to be on the docket for that specific competition, you get to speak first, and because you are given points based on your speeches, the only thing that matters is how many speeches you give. Intro speakers already have precedent in speaking order, so now all they have to do is provide more mediocre speeches in the round than other speakers, and boom, they win.  

Instead of focusing on debate, students are focused on the number of speeches they give, and presiding officers are focused on picking people from their school. There are too many examples to count of coaches and students manipulating and warring with each other to win competition, and it almost always ends in an emotional bloodbath. All of North Dakota’s rules can be found here, but trigger warning! They are so illogical, they might make you want to scream in rage! 

In speech, it is a much simpler situation. Not all of our events match the national circuit. Many are two minutes shorter, their blocking is much different, and sometimes we don’t even have all the events that the national circuit does. The only event similar to the national stage that North Dakota has is impromptu. The main reason speech events are so different is the fear of change. Tournament managers and high-level officials refuse to change and actively work to ensure that events stay as they are.  They are the reason we are so far behind.  

In debate, the NDHSAA picks our topics. If they do not like the ones on the national circuit, they choose different ones, and due to inadequate judging, debate students struggle to grow and improve. North Dakota also doesn’t have a policy debate. Debate in North Dakota is dying, and the NDHSAA is to blame. North Dakota’s student congressional debate format is messy and horrendous, and when moving to national circuit competition, we almost always underperform. As I have stated before, the same goes for speech and debate. Check the records: North Dakota is not successful. 

Finally, what North Dakota struggles with most is corruption. As a Senior in High School, writing about this issue is risky, but I find it essential to speak up. So what you are about to read is a description of experiences that I have compiled into words. I want to make clear that the only evidence for these claims is experiences and testimonies. The tab room for competitions in North Dakota has ‘favorites.’ For example, at the national qualifier competitions in the Rough Rider District, which is all of ND, many of the same people will place repeatedly when they should not have qualified. As a competitor, I have seen multiple students who could not put an argument together or block out an interpretive speech qualify for the National tournament. And in most of those instances, those students were close to the tab room officiators. These occurrences should come as no surprise, considering the judges for state-level and national qualifier competitions are the same every year and handpicked by the same tournament manager. Our judges are also inexperienced; many have never judged a national-level competition, so their rankings can and have been off. Regardless, the state tournament and national qualifier tournament for speech, debate, and student congress are undoubtedly rigged in many ways. It is not impossible to become a state champion in speech, debate, or student Congress if tab room officials do not like you, but it does become slightly more difficult. However, the corruption is killing us, and the future of forensics in North Dakota is uncertain.  

North Dakota’s situation seems hopeless, but it is far from that. Something can be done. The state must take essential steps to ensure the safety, integrity, and future of speech in a bit in North Dakota.  

First, the leaders in the NDHSAA, CSTAND, and Rough Rider districts must overcome their resistance to change. The adult community within forensics desperately needs to mature and work together.  

Second, the NDHSAA must take action to allow competition on the national circuit and make it easier for North Dakota schools to compete without limiting their state-level competition. The NDHSAA must also let students pick the topics and completely revamp Student Congress and Debate.  

Third, students must propose the rule change and get the support of superintendents and activities directors to back their efforts. They must be at the center of these changes, participating in them, protesting for them, and working towards them. It is time for the students of North Dakota to stand up for themselves.  

An iron-fisted rule has kept North Dakota in the shadows in the past. A backbone of corruption has led to the destruction of our success at the national level. We must speak up. We must never stop speaking. Our voices must be heard. Our fight must carry on. And our revolution must prevail. 

Go Roughriders.