Dear Colleagues in Forensics:

We are pleased to invite you to join the Collegiate Forensic Association and to participate in the four tournaments the organization will sponsor in the 2024 academic year. Dr. Neil Strine, Bloomsburg University now serves as CFA president and Dr. Paula Youra, University of Lynchburg now serves as CFA vice president. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions or concerns.

We wish to stress how CFA events (and CFA-participating schools) are different from others involved in intercollegiate debate and forensics. Although it is difficult to codify precisely the difference, CFA events offer an open venue for students at programs with minimal funding, minimal coaching staffs, and no (or very few) debate/forensic scholarships, schools that compete primarily because debate and forensics are educationally valuable not because they seek slots-a-plenty at either AFA or NFA nationals. We have relied in the past on the ethics of forensics educators to determine if their programs fit or not. We do hope, as we embark on the 2024 season, that we can count on colleagues to choose the CFA circuit only if their programs do indeed fit the profile outlined above. Some CFA-ers do participate at nationals, and some who don’t enter occasional competitors who are of national caliber. However, the organization prides itself on offering an arena of competition where beginners can quickly succeed if they have talent and work hard and where students who are doing forensics along with many other things can thrive.  

CFA also has been characterized by some as “traditional,” and that may be true to a point: interpretation events at CFA events are usually not as “theatrical” as on other circuits; NPDA debate is conducted with a premium on the good arguments and good speaking that would sway a public audience. Saying this, however, does not mean that the organization is hopelessly frozen in the ‘80s. We encourage competitors to understand our guidelines for events, but, within those guidelines, take new approaches if they seem effective. And, very importantly, we encourage all judges not to insist on one correct way to do an event (whether that way be “traditional” or “avant-garde”) but, within CFA guidelines, evaluate competitors respecting the strategic or artistic choices they have made.

We look forward to seeing you and your teams in Bloomsburg, PA as we kick-off the 2024 CFA season.

Sincerely,

Dr. Neil Strine President, CFA
Dr. Paula Youra, Vice President, CFA