Let’s Get Started: 2023-2024 Season Launch
from the Director
Dear NHSEB Community,
This afternoon, the National High School Ethics Bowl will kick off its 2023-2024 Season with the release of a new and exciting Regional Case Set, some important updates to our official rules, the opening of school registration, and more.
My team and I couldn't be more excited to kick off another year of the NHSEB program with you all. Around launch time each year, I am ever mindful that the skills and dispositions our activity cultivates are more important than ever. Done well, Ethics Bowl is an ideal venue for the development of those virtues which are absolutely crucial if democracy is to flourish. High school students are not merely the distant future leaders of our democracy. They are the immediate inheritors of the demands of citizenship, and play an already important role in our society. Our activity is designed to equip participants to take on these challenges—not only as students, but as full members of social and political communities. Our goal is not merely to teach students to reason about and discuss moral and political issues. It is to teach them to do this hard work responsibly, constructively, and most importantly, together. I look forward to taking on this project with you in the coming year.
Please join us at 4PM ET this afternoon (September 8) at NHSEB.org for our 2023-2024 Season Launch Live Stream, which will feature some exciting announcements from the NHSEB Administration Team and an overview of new regulation changes from the Rules Council, as well as a specially curated Case Authors' Roundtable facilitated by the Case Advisory Committee to get the conversation started on the new case set.
Finally, we have compiled a few important announcements for the beginning of our season together below. Please review them as your register your events and teams and get started for 2023-2024, and don't hesitate to reach out to my team (ethicsbowl@unc.edu) if you have any questions or concerns we can be of assistance with.
Excitedly yours,
Alex Richardson, Ph.D. (he/him)
Director, National High School Ethics Bowl
Parr Center for Ethics
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Regional Qualification Form
To ensure that a Regional Competition is registered with the National High School Ethics Bowl, and that the information for their event is as up to date as possible, all Organizers should complete the official Regional Qualification Form by October 15, 2023. Projections of registration numbers are helpful for the purposes of allocating Divisional Playoff bids, and can be updated by contacting NHSEB HQ. Once NHSEB receives a Qualification Form, event dates will be listed on the NHSEB website and official calendar.
School Registration and Fees
For official recognition and to get started competitively, an Ethics Bowl team should complete a two-step registration process. These steps should generally be completed in tandem:
Teams should register with their geographically closest Regional Competition by contacting its Organizer(s). NHSEB Regionals typically occur between January 1 and early February of a given school year. A full list of contact information for NHSEB Regional Organizers is available here.
All teams participating in the NHSEB program must register with NHSEB HQ each season, and pay a yearly registration fee. The registration fee for 2023-2024 is $125, if schools register before November 1, 2023. After November 1, fees will increase to $175. All school registrations must be completed by January 15, 2024. As always, NHSEB HQ is committed to ensuring that no team is prevented from participating because of financial need. Therefore, financial assistance and/or fee waivers are available for teams who qualify as part of the NHSEBBridge initiative. For more information or to request a fee waiver, contact NHSEB. Schools may register and pay their fees at: go.unc.edu/nhseb-registration
Rule Updates for 2023-2024
The NHSEB Rules Council and Executive Committee have approved the following changes to NHSEB’s Official Rules for 2023-2024. All are fully detailed in their respective context in the Rules Manual at the pages and sections cited.
Conferral Times: The Rules Council has elected to return conferral times to their pre-pandemic state, but to keep consistency across periods, all conferral times will now be up to two minutes rather than the previous three minutes. Organizers and Moderators should implement this change across all events in 2023-2024 (6).
Speaking Cutoffs: When a team’s speaking time expires, the Rules Council has now formalized a ten second pause to allow teams to finish their remarks. Organizers and Moderators should implement this change across all events in 2023-2024 (8).
Regional Rule Variations: Variations in regional rules, procedures, or scoring are now allowed with approval from the NHSEB Rules Council. The Rules Council will consider such requests insofar as they are compatible with the spirit of the NHSEB program, and may ask Organizers to report on the effects/implications of any approved rule variations (11).
Eligibility Requirements for Community/Organizational Teams: An eligibility exception has been added for teams which are composed in affiliation with community organizations, e.g., after-school groups, etc. (17).
Sanctions for Rule Violations: While it is the hope and expectation of NHSEB HQ that all teams will comply with the Organization’s rules as published, rule violations, whether intentional or otherwise, do occasionally occur. The NHSEB Rules Council, has developed and approved new sanction procedures for implementation in 2023-2024 (24).
Coming Soon
Still to come this Fall are additional opportunities and programming for students and organizers! The celebrated NHSEBAcademy program is undergoing updates for the new season, including new printable and graphic learning resources, an expanded slate of Studio Hours for on-demand coaching assistance with UNC-based Ethics Bowl experts, and a full docket of online events in the NHSEBAcademy Live series for this Fall. The NHSEBAcademy website will undergo some maintenance next week, with additional programming announcements to follow in the coming days.
On October 1, the popular Case Competition will launch, where students can submit their ideas for Ethics Bowl cases for potential inclusion in future NHSEB case sets, as well as a monetary prize for a winner and two honorable mentions. Students can learn more about this opportunity, submission guidelines, etc., here.
Applications for the 2023-2024 Foushee Alumni Scholarship will also open in October. This scholarship award, in the amount of $250, is available to an alumnus of the National High School Ethics Bowl program who will be attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a first year student in the Fall of 2024. The 2023-2024 application cycle will open October 1, 2023, and all applications must be submitted by May 31, 2024. The winner of the scholarship will be notified by July 1, 2024, and the award will be disbursed as the Fall 2024 semester begins.
Finally, there are new appointments to the NHSEB's Student Advisory Council. Two new students will join two existing members who have been reappointed for 2023-2024 to bring student voices to the center of our activity. The new Student Advisory Council was recognized in our Season Launch Livestream and detailed in a formal announcement on NHSEB.org.