U of MN Parli Debate Society
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Home | Heads & Tails | NPDA Is Better | Why Not NPDA

Many of the things that some of the officers have done in the past few years are not only less than honorable but are in violation of University policy, team Constitution, state guidelines and codes of good practice.

While some of this webpage is dedicated to the good of the UMPDS, there is not a willingness to hide the bad. Here are some of the bad on this page.

A running log of items being looked into is being kept. While some are speculative and others are simply needing a little more research or examples they are not available to the general public yet. As things get resolved or confirmed they will be posted here. As items provide vindication the apology will also be posted here. Fair, equal and honest. No more cliques; no more subjectivity; no more using UMPDS as a personal international travel agency.

This team has the potential RIGHT NOW to become something great. With the current philosophies it will never become a national powerhouse. That is the focus of this portion of the website.

UMPDS Attempts to Violate Privacy of Students

This link gives the University Policy on Student Information Privacy. Click here to view.

The proposed UMPDS Constitution will require disclosure of enrollment status (grade enrollment) in order to vote. The problem is that the only public information relating to students is if they are enrolled full-time, part-time or not at all. All other information relating to enrollment is PRIVATE INFORMATION.

Financial Imprudence
The budget for the 2003-04 school year was $25,000.00. This may sound like a lot of money until one realizes how quickly it was spent on the President Perks. In December both of the Presidents (Ryan Black & Zach Coelius) took 4 of their friends on the team to a trip to Worlds in Singapore.

How much were the tickets for those six people? Over $1000 each. That's right...nearly 25% of the budget was used for one tournament (in which 2 of the 6 people were NOT debating at all). This did NOT include the entry fees, food, lodging, travel and all other incidental costs that the team paid for.

Let me repeat that. Airfare for 4 people to debate and 2 people to watch ONE tournament cost 25% of the entire team's budget.

And the response for trying to ask about this fact? Threats of being failed. The sanction against the UMPDS President for making those threats? Nothing.

What do they have to hide besides their spending habits?

Back To UMPDS page