Reports from Previous Tours

Short History of CIDD

The Speech Communication Association (now National Communication Association) has sponsored international student debate exchanges since 1922. In that year, a student debate team from Oxford University tour selected American colleges in New England. An American student debate team went to England the next year and a debate team from Cambridge University came to America.
For the first thirty years of this program debate teams from Oxford and Cambridge Universities alternated in annual tours of America. American debate teams made biennial tours of Great Britain.

In 1952, the program was expanded to include students from Australia and New Zealand. Students from India and Pakistan were included In 1954. In 1964, with the cooperation of the English-speaking Union, the program was altered to allow any university in Great Britain to compete in the selection of debaters, rather than continue automatic invitations to Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

In 1969, the program was broadened to incorporate student debate exchanges with Japan and the Philippines. Negotiations were also completed to reinstate exchanges with Australia and New Zealand; these exchanges took place in 1970 and 1971. After four years of negotiations, an exchange agreement was reached in 1972 with the USSR. The first Soviet student delegation toured in April of that year, and an American delegation toured Russia in December. Further expansion of the program occurred in 1974 when an agreement was reached with Poland.

In the early years of this international program, the Speech Communication Association and the Institute of International Education cooperated in organizing, administrating and financing the exchanges. In 1965, the Speech Communication Association assumed full responsibility for the program. Since that date, the Committee on International Discussion and Debate, formed by the SCA in 1929, has formulated policy and administrative guidelines for the program.
From 1976 report to SCA by Malcolm O. Sillars, Dean, College of Humanities, University of Utah.

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Carly Woods and Takuzo Konishi - Tokyo Argumentation Conference Proceedings (2009). - "What Has Been Exchanged:" Towards a History of Japan-US Debate Exchange."