U of MN Parli Debate Society

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Will fiscal imprudence continue this school year?...Developing story.

Blog tracking UMPDS financial activities will soon be made public. Watch here for details!

Why Is It Important To Scrutinize Every Dollar of UMPDS?

"The UMPDS is the most highly funded student organization on campus, receiving annual donations from the Political Science, Communication Studies, and Journalism departments with additional coming from the College of Liberal Arts."--source: We Debate, You Should Too; http://socsci.class.umn.edu/documents/We_Debate_You_Should_Too.html; September 12, 2004.

UPDATE: 12 September 2004

The new year brings about a few new officers. We will soon see if there has finally been a regime change or if the same financial imprudence will continue.

An e-mail was sent to the Presidents (Sean & Ryan) and the faculty advisor. It is asking for public information and the text is below.

I have some questions about the funding for this year¹s team. What is the total budget that the team has this year? What are the prospective "big ticket" tournaments this year (i.e. $12,000 for Worlds)? Is NPDA going to be attended this year beyond MN state tournament or PLUM? What tournaments are being hosted this year by UMPDS? What is the membership/enrollment size?

I am not looking for exact numbers, just estimates (though I do understand that the budgets for all University accounts were completed a few months ago so the budget ought to be a quickly accessible number).

Thank you

The substantial response was a follows:
(From Dr. Rose) "In order to get these questions answered in the proper way, I recommend a meeting with you and I and the team presidents. If that suits you, I can tell you when we're available.

So, we will see how forthcoming UMPDS is this year about the financials or if we have a repeat of Dictator Black's and Dictator Coelius' efforts to "never reveal (the public financial) information".

The Purpose of This Site

There are many sad truths to UMPDS. Financial prudence is NOT a practice. Abuse of appearant position has been swept under the rug. Threats are not punished. Whistleblowers are not welcomed (nor are conservatives). Sponsored events have under-aged drinking as wink-wink-don't-do-it activities. Travel privileges are predominately reserved for officers and their friends. Hypocrisy, deciet and flat out lies eased easily from the Presidents of the group the most recently concluded year. Election-rigging have been regular practice since inception.

Why do I care? Because if the Speech Department would put forward some accountability in the group then this could be the most powerful, dominant force in every/any debate circuit in the nation within a few years. Easily this campus could become such a force in debate/speech competition that recruiting top high schoolers would be possible.

What is more important? Providing a method for a select few to be able to send them and their buddies annualy around the world for free (as R. Black, R. Dahlen & Z. Coelius have done) or to build the debate/speech powerhouse that others look towards the top to see? That is the premise behind these pages. Rooting out the bad actors and building the superior program.

If that means kicking a little ass along the way, then so be it.

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