The speech team did the same, boosting its tournament participation threefold this year. The speech team was created only three years ago, but many members earned top honors in this year’s tournaments. For the second year in a row, Ragya Kaul BA’21 was named a CEDA National Debate Scholar, recognizing her academic and competitive success, and she was selected to the CEDA All-American Debate Team. Herndon said he plans for UT Dallas to participate in at least two debate formats in the fall — traditional policy debate as well as parliamentary debate. “The goal is to have a nationally competitive speech and debate program that is participating in multiple debate events while also competing in national-level speech events,” he said.