Harvard College Debating Union

[1] The organization was created by leading members of the undergraduate Harvard Radcliffe Speech Team, Gordon Bell ’83 and Tony DiNovi ’84, and two graduate students who were veterans of parliamentary debate at Vassar and Yale, Tom Rozinski and Neil H. Buchanan.

These include Professor Richard Marius, a famous academic and writer, and the former director of the Expository Writing Program, as well as the Rev.

Peter Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church.

Today, the HCDU continues to be an entirely student-run enterprise, governed by an entirely undergraduate, seven-member executive board.

The HCDU holds the most World Universities Debating Championship titles of any college in the United States, with wins in 1993, 2014, 2016, and 2018.

A few years earlier, in 2005, HCDU sponsored a debate on Israel and Palestine between Alan Dershowitz and Noam Chomsky.

In just one year, the HCDU began teaching in seven Boston schools, reaching roughly seventy students.

Volunteers met with students weekly and the program culminated in a tournament hosted on Harvard's campus.