1 September 2025 

Dear Colleagues:

The Marshall University and Ohio University speech and debate teams invite you to back-to-back tournaments on the beautiful campus of Marshall University in Huntington, WV from Friday, 14 November 2025, through Sunday, 16 November 2025. This year we celebrate the Pi Kappa Delta forensic honorary and “The Art of Persuasion, Beautiful and Just.” 

Marshall University and Ohio University share more than proximity and an affinity for all things green. We both have long-standing Pi Kappa Delta undergraduate chapters and celebrated Pi Kappa Delta-related milestones this year. Marshall University joined and received its undergraduate charter 75 years ago in 1950 and has been consistently competing in intercollegiate speech and debate since that time. And Ohio University, which received its Pi Kappa Delta undergraduate charter 18 years ago, hosted the Pi Kappa Delta National Comprehensive Tournament this past spring. 

Consistent with Pi Kappa Delta’s underlying philosophy, the tournaments strive to be comprehensive in recognition of the important roles both speech and debate play in the forensics community. Accordingly, we will be offering the following events: 

• Five (5) preliminary rounds and elimination rounds of IPDA Debate on Friday, 14 November 2025, and Saturday morning, 15 November 2025, as part of the Marshall University tournament;

• Six (6) preliminary rounds and elimination rounds of NFA Lincoln-Douglas Debate on Saturday, 15 November 2025 (beginning at 12:00 PM ET/9:00 AM PT), and Sunday, 16 November 2025 (beginning at 10:30 AM ET/ 7:30 AM PT), as part of the Ohio University tournament; 

• A speech tournament consisting of 2 preliminary rounds and 1 final round of all 11 NFA speech events + Editorial Impromptu (a PKD event) on Saturday, 15 November 2025, as part of the Marshall University tournament; and 

• A speech tournament consisting of 2 preliminary rounds and 1 final round of all 11 NFA speech events + Broadcast Journalism (a PKD event) on Sunday, 16 November 2025, as part of the Ohio University tournament. 

Competition in speech events and IPDA Debate will be in-person. Competition in LD Debate will be hybrid. 

Importantly, the tournament schedule is designed to maximize speech and debate event cross-entry: 

• A student may enter both IPDA Debate and LD Debate. 

• A student may enter IPDA Debate and all speech events at the Marshall University tournament if they do not advance to elimination rounds and Pattern B events if they do. (Go ahead and enter a student in Pattern A events, and we will drop them at no cost if they cannot compete.) They also may enter all speech events during the Ohio University tournament. 

• A student may enter LD Debate and Pattern A speech events at the Marshall University tournament. A student may enter LD Debate and Pattern B events at the Ohio University tournament. 

• A student may enter up to three speech events per Pattern at both tournaments.

The invitation in the attachment (Files to Download) provides additional information about both tournaments. If you have questions, please feel free to contact Dennis Taylor at taylor41@marshall.edu or +1 304.541.0332 or Jennifer Talbert at jtalbert@ohio.edu or +1 216.410.0041. 

Sincerely,

Dennis C. Taylor, Director of Forensics, Marshall University  

Jennifer Talbert, John A. Cassese Director of Forensics, Ohio University