How Harvard’s Debate Team was Defeated by Prison Inmates

News & Events

Wednesday — March 29, 2017

By:Study Abroad

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A few years back in 2015 a Debate competition was held in New York, United States of America. This was a rather rare occasion because of the participating teams. One team was from world renowned prestigious Harvard University. This team was also the defending champion in debate. As Harvard has always been one of world’s most top 3 educational institutes, one would only expect the best from them and their debate had even empowered other top institutes like Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

What you will be shocked to know is about the other debate team to go against these Harvard Alumni as they were Prison Inmates in Eastern New York Correctional Facility that is a prison for men in Ulster County, New York. This facility invited the Harvard’s debate team over at prison of maximum security for a friendly match. There is an institute called Bard College nearby the prison whose faculty teaches some courses in there. This team from Eastern Correctional Facility is also referred to as Bard team because of the college.

To think a bunch of prisoners who are convicted of crimes were to compete against Harvard scholars where only the best of the world’s academics get admission in knowledge and intelligence. It looks like unfair match for prisoner’s team and this is what everyone thought that they had no chance to win against Harvard’s debate team. However, results were stunning for everyone even for most experienced judges of that competition.

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Prison Inmates Debate Team:

Bard’s debate team of three, as you already know, are all prisoners convicted of serious crimes. They have always

showed a positive attitude in learning. They were students of Bard College’s Prison Initiative educational program in which they were taught by visiting faculty of Bard in full prison security. Apparently there is not much information about them on Google as they are criminals; their names are:

1. Carlos Polanco

2. Carl Snyder

3. Dyjuan Tatro

Carlos Polanco, one of the debate team members, is a 31-year old man from Queens. He is convicted of manslaughter and currently living a prisoner life in Eastern New York Correctional Facility. He said in his interview, “We have been graced with opportunity. They make us believe in ourselves.”

Judges and their Response:

It is said that even the judges, as experienced as they are, were also sure that Harvard debate had more probability of winning than Bard’s team. However, when the debate competition started, they were are also surprised how the Bard’s debate team overcame the fight and kept upper hand during the whole competition.

Panel of judges settled that the Bard’s debate team had elevated sturdy points consideration of which lacked on the Harvard’s team side and they stated the Bard’s debate team of prison inmates triumphant. Judging panel consisted of following veterans.

1. Mary Nugent of Rutgers

2. Steven Penner of Hobart

3. William Smith of Cornell

4. Lindsay Bing of Cornell

Harvard Debate Team’s Response:

After this defeat Harvard’s debate team manifested a very professional enthusiastic response. In the same week losing to Bard’s debate team, they updated the following post on their official Facebook page.

“This weekend, three members of the HCDU had the privilege of competing against members of the Bard Prison Initiative's debate program. There are few teams we are prouder of having lost a debate to than the phenomenally intelligent and articulate team we faced this weekend, and we are incredibly thankful to Bard and the Eastern New York Correctional Facility for the work they do and for organizing this event.”

Here is link to Harvard College Debating Union Facebook page.

How Bard’s Debate Team Won:

The inmates were asked to argue that public schools should be allowed to deny enrollment to students to entered United States of America illegally. Bard’s team was actually against this notion yet they had to defend it and surprisingly they did an amazing job. They were given the topic and some raw data after that they had to research a great deal and work really hard for it.

As they are held prisoners, they did not have much freedom. They have to follow administration’s specified schedule. Unlike Harvard’s team, they did not even have much liberty to research materials or even to get books. For everything they need, they have to request the administration to approve it and then pull their external sources to get them required items like books. These processes even take weeks to execute.

They had to work hard more than anyone to be able to fully prepare for the competition. It must be normal for them to be looked down on but they did not let any negativity in their way and strongly focused on their set goal. They gave presentation in such a way that even their competitors had to accept the facts and appreciate them.

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Conclusion:

Our current system to test the students is not perfect. People are judged based on what they score in exams or tests. People even measure your intelligence with a test but none of them is perfect. One who may good in a thing does not necessarily have to be good at others too. It is also said that even if you a good Intelligence Quotient, it does not mean that you will be more successful or you are more smart and wise. Some people may have a different mindset than the rest of the world but people will only judge you based on their own knowledge and abilities. This is the way respected institutes like Harvard and MIT test and select students. Now if Harvard selected the best of the students, how come some prisoners are smarter and better than them. Just because you did not score well in past, it cannot reflect your future and if you had any chance this world takes it away from you.