Select an Academic Article.

	Pilot Social Studies contest (by Hawthorne)
	Make plans for spring, next year (by Hawthorne)
	Current events contest goes worldwide (by Hawthorne)
	Academic Invitational Meets

Drama	There is not always a best answer (by Murray)
	One-act play judge list
Journalism	Journalists take responsibility of accuracy seriously (by Vonderheid)
	ILPC sponsors Photoshop workshop and celebrates 75 years
	TAJE fall convention, Oct. 27-29
Speech/Debate	Speech web page offers multitude of information (by Riggins)
	C-X debate topic hits World Trade Center tragedy dead center (by Edwards)
	Questions/Answers about the 2001-02 Prose/Poetry Categories (by Riggins)
	Topics for Extemp
Elem/JH	Tragedy offers all a sense of appreciation (by Alves)
	E/JH listserve easy to subscribe
	Music memory contest official list
	Art contest official list

Select a UIL department web page.

by Bobby Hawthorne
Academics Director

Student Activities Conferences

The final student activities conference will be Nov. 10 at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. The tentative program and links are posted on our web site: http://www.uil.utexas.edu/.

Plans are underway for the 2002 conferences. For more than a decade, the League has hosted conferences at four fixed sites: UT-Austin, Texas Tech, Sam Houston State and the University of North Texas.

In an effort to serve more regions of the state, we plan to rotate conferences on an odd-year, even-year basis among nine sites including the four present locations. While specific sites have yet to be determined, we want to reach schools in the Permian Basin, in the Panhandle and in Northeast Texas. We want to return to the Rio Grande Valley every other year.

These conferences constitute one of the League’s most valuable outreach programs. With no registration nor fees, they’re arguably the state’s best educational bargain. Please plan to attend the next one in your area.

Conflicts, Part I

We’ve received a number of calls regarding the conflicts inherent in this spring’s calendar. Easter Sunday is March 31, which makes it difficult for schools to host or attend district academic meets Saturday, March 30. To complicate matters, many schools have scheduled their spring breaks during the week of March 18-23.

In one case, half the schools in the district were out on spring break March 18-23. The other half were out March 25-30. They wanted permission to hold their district meet during the week of March 11-16 or April 1-6.

The request was denied. We develop materials for two weeks of district competitions. If we release it early, we cannot guarantee the confidentiality of the test materials. Besides, district meets held March 11-16 would conflict with the CX Debate State Tournament.

If we allow schools to hold meets outside the two-week window, then we cannot guarantee that regions will receive results in time to schedule their meets.

The UIL posts its tentative calendar a year in advance. Problems can be avoided by planning and communication. It’s not our intention to hurt students, but the greater harm is done if we do not strictly enforce the spring meet calendar.

Conflicts, Part II

The packed spring calendar guarantees a number of conflicts, but academic coordinators, athletic coaches and band directors must work together to eliminate unnecessary conflicts and grief. We recommend the following policy: Priority is given to contests that count toward League standing. Thus, the district academic meet will have priority over a concert band festival. The district track meet will have priority over an invitational math tournament. The regional academic meet will have priority over an invitational track qualifiers meet.

It is critical that coaches, directors and sponsors communicate regularly. This won’t eliminate all conflicts. Occasionally, a student will have to decide whether to attend the area one-act play or play center field in a district baseball or softball game.

But a general policy that, as the UIL Spring Meet Code mandates, “insures that UIL academic district, region and state meets receive precedence over non-qualifying contests or meets” will alleviate some confusion and potential hard-feelings.

Questions or comments about the Academic Department should be directed to Bobby Hawthorne, uilacad@uts.cc.utexas.edu

Select a UIL department web page.

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