Tabbing the Adelphi tournament here in lovely Garden City, NY

For the first time ever in my life, I think, there are more judges than there are debaters. So in round 2 we have 7 judge panels.

Problem is that there are many same-institution conflicts all over the place. But many alums and other friends of debating have come out specifically to judge this competition. I hate sitting them to the side after having come out all this way to judge.

So I’m working to make sure that each room has a balance of conflicts. And only 3 conflicts per panel of 7. Trying, but not really having a lot of luck with it.

I wonder if anyone else has had this problem. The obvious answer is to reduce the judge pool to those who are neutral, but then we leave aside a lot of people who are supporting debate with their time and resources. I don’t mind having 5 or 7 judge panels – in fact I think it actually helps mitigate some of the biases you might find on conflict-free panels to a point – but the same institution bias is prevalent.

Suggestions?