Debate Camp

Why Debate Camp at IU?

Students and Parents, 

The 12th annual Hoosier Debate Camp is back in 2025!

Join us for a fun filled and high impact educational experience on the beautiful IU Bloomington campus!

The tentative dates are (Week 1) June 22-June 29th, (Week 2) June 22-July 6th, and (Two-Weeks) June 22 - July 6th.

Our camp is for students of all backgrounds and experience levels. If you are looking for a high impact, event filled, educational summer camp experience, that will help build your confidence and skills in speaking, argumentation, research, and more, our staff is here for you! 

Since hosting the HDC in 2010, ~1000 students from over 20 states and three countries have attended and achieved consistent success in competitive debates in their regions, states, and at national tournaments. Our staff is here to give you the education you need to succeed at any level and style of debate. 

We will offer overnight and commuter registration options. Our overnight camp will include the opportunity to experience college dorm-life in some of IU's best facilities. If you live in the Bloomington community, you will have the opportunity to commute, however we do suggest staying in the dorms since events can start in the morning (9 AM) and end later at night (8-9 PM). 

Debate Lab Event Opportunities*
Option A: Public Speaking and Advocacy Camp
Option B: Public Forum Debate
Option C: Lincoln Douglas Debate
Option D: Policy Debate

*Labs are "classes" where students are divided into groups with shared interests in debate styles. Lab size and options will be based on registrant numbers. If registrants are low, we may need to cancel an event. Registrants will be offered the opportunity to attend other labs. 

Public Speaking and Advocacy Camp: The PSA Camp will focused on students who would like to hone their speaking skills outside of the competitive nature of a "debate." Students will learn about public speaking, argumentation, and advocacy. They will write and perform several speeches (oratory, impromptu, extemporaneous, policy, and ceremonial). 

Public Forum Debate: PF debate is a partner based debate where students are part of a two-person team. A resolution, often based on current events, is provided and changed several times during a year of competition. Our camps often cover at least two resolutions a week. The student and their partner are paired against an opposing team and then assigned to a "Pro" or "Con" position on a resolution each round. Each debate is about 1 hour long, about 1/2 the speaking time as policy debate. 

Lincoln Douglas Debate: LD debate is a non-partner single person debate against a single opponent. LD resolutions tend to focus on moral or value based controversies and are often identified as the "philosophical" in type. LD resolutions change every month or two during the season, similar to PF. Each debate students are assigned to be affirmative or negative, assuring balanced switch side debating. 

Policy Debate: Policy debate is a partner team event. Policy resolutions are year-round and selected early in the calendar year. Policy historically has included a United States Federal Government acting to change a particular policy controversy. Since policy debate requires in depth research on a year-long topic, the debates are longer, about 2-hours, with twice the length of speaking times of other events. This allows the students more time to include depth of argumentation based on researched evidence. The summer camp resolution will be selected early in 2025 based on the National Speech and Debate Association topic selection.