The Lawrence Debate Union at the University of Vermont provides students the opportunity to learn the art of rhetoric. Through debate, students practice thinking clearly, speaking honestly, and listening hard, every week, all year, across campus and across the world.

Why debate now? Because in the age of AI, knowing something is becoming increasingly cheap, yet persuasion remains a priceless talent. Debate trains the rare skills that still move the needle, like how to frame problems, stress-test a policy, read a room, and land your point precisely. Those skills travel with you into class, research, interviews, politics, startups, public service, and the rest of your life.

The LDU is open to every UVM undergraduate and graduate student, from any major, with or without experience. We do not believe in tryouts. Just show up curious. Our dedicated coaching staff run practices that build from fundamentals to advanced strategy, so beginners learn fast and experienced debaters keep sharpening. We are highly successful competitively, regularly winning tournaments, speaker awards, and breaking into outrounds.

We travel a lot. One week you might be in Burlington with your team members debating online; the next you’re flying across the US for a tournament. We crisscross national tournaments, from Seattle and California to Florida and Georgia, with plenty in the Northeast (Vermont, New York, New Jersey, etc.). We cross the border for Canada, where Toronto and Montréal are regular stops. And every year we send teams to the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC); un the past few years, that’s taken us to Spain, Panama, and Bulgaria. We also run an exchange with the University of Dar es Salaam and travel to Tanzania annually as part of that collaboration. And ya, travel is fully funded for students via our generous endowment, with a stipend for meals included.

Competition is only a part of our mission. The LDU is a public-facing institution for the UVM community. We host public campus debates and partner on the SPEAK Vermont Prison Debate Initiative. We convene the UVM Janus Forum and run the Huber Debates, our annual tournament that sees schools come from all over the country. If you want your ideas to meet the world, this is where it happens.

At the LDU, you’ll probably end up finding your best friends, who like thinking as a sport, and become part of an over century-long tradition on the Long Green Line.
 

The Huber Debates

The Lawrence Debate Union at the University of Vermont hosts the Huber Debates each fall on the first weekend of November.

The tournament honors Robert (“Doc”) Huber, who coached debate at the University of Vermont for over 45 years, winning several national titles. He was a debate innovator, and he was named by the National Communication Association one of the academic organization’s outstanding members of the 20th century. He arranged for the endowment of the Lawrence Debate Union and the Lawrence Professorship. We hold this tournament whenever we can to salute his commitment to debate. In addition, the tournament commemorates Doc’s successor, Alfred “Tuna” Snider, who passed away in 2015.