At a recent meeting of the University Debating Council it was definitely decided to permit graduate students to compete for positions on the University debating team which will meet Oxford this fall. This is a radical departure from the custom of former years, which restricted membership on all debating teams to undergraduates only.

Oxford Teams Mostly Graduate

This action of the council is in recognition of the fact that the Oxford, teams which come to this country are composed chiefly of students who are beyond the usual college grade. In previous years Oxford has permitted graduates to speak on the teams and has been consistently victorious over American college debaters. This year, for the first time, the English teams are entirely graduate and the council is permitting Harvard graduate students to speak in an effort to make the competition more intense.

Experienced Speakers Wanted

The University has lost once and won once from the Englishmen. At least two members of teams which have formerly debated against Oxford will be able to try out for the team this year under the new rule so that the University speakers who will face Oxford will be experienced enough to debate with them on even terms. Any other graduate students who wish may try out.

The Oxford debate, which has not been completely arranged yet, will probably come early next October. The English team will arrive in America in the latter part of September, spend three weeks in the United States and then go to Canada for a stay of like length.

Candidate for the University team will be called out in the near future and will have a short period of intensive drill before the summer vacation. During the summer the men will be expected to do a good deal of reading on the subject for debate and in the fall they will meet as soon as possible after the start of school and put on the final.

The league debates which the University will engage in each year have been cut from four to three so that the extra debate with Oxford will not prove too great a burden.