NEWS RELEASE

Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax; 713/743-8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 4, 2004

Contact: Eric Gerber
713/743-8189 (office)
713/617-7130(pager)
egerber@uh.edu
FORENSIC TOURNAMENT BRINGS THREE DOZEN COLLEGIATE
TEAMS TO UH FOR NOVICE NATIONALS

More than three dozen collegiate debate teams will converge at the University of Houston this weekend to participate in the 22nd Annual Novice National Forensic Tournament.

The event, which is hosted by the UH Forensic Society, is free and open to the public. It begins at 10 a.m. Friday and runs through Sunday evening.

Participants will compete in such categories as parliamentary debate, extemporaneous speaking, impromptu, communication analysis, persuasion, informative, after dinner, dramatic interpretation and prose. Schools scheduled to participate include area institutions like Texas Tech, SMU, Lamar, Prairie View A&M and UH along with far-flung entries from San Jose State, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Indianapolis, South Dakota State and the University of Miami.

A “novice” is a participant with less than one full year of intercollegiate competition in a particular category.

At last year’s Novice Nationals, the University of Houston team placed fourth in overall competition.

WHAT: Novice Nationals Forensic Tournament
WHEN: 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday, March 5; 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, March 6; 8 a.m.-6p.m., Sunday, March 7
WHERE: Headquartered in University Center Friday; in Graduate School of Social Work Saturday, Sunday
WHO: UH Forensics Society

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.