SECTION 12: Judges for the IIFA Tournament must have earned a bachelor’s degree or be approved by the governing board. Requests for exceptions to this rule will be adjudicated by the IIFA Board using the following criteria:
1. Requests for exemptions should be made sparingly rather than broadly. No DOF or DOIE should submit a request for an exemption unless they are personally satisfied that the individual being submitted meets a high bar of expertise and objectivity. The submission of a name indicates that the petitioning school has carefully vetted the ability and likelihood of this individual to provide excellent service as a critic/teacher to the students of Illinois.
2. Requests for exemptions should be submitted by the program's DOF or DOIE (as appropriate).
3. Requests for exemptions should include the following information: (a) the individual's name, (b) information specifying the individual's degree status - what degrees if any are held, how close to completing a BA or BS the person is, the individual's plans or lack thereof to complete their BA/BS, (c) an indication of the most recent year in which the individual took courses actively seeking a BA/BS (is the individual currently an active undergraduate, or did they withdraw from school one or more years ago?), (d) an indication of the number of academic years in which the person has actively served as a forensics coach and/or judge to date (including the current year), (e) an indication of approximately how many tournaments the person has judged at each of these years, (f) an indication of the extent to which the individual has judged BOTH 2-year and 4-year competitors, (g) an indication of any "conflicts" which exist (school affiliation, particularly close personal relationships, etc.) which limit the individual from judging any particular Illinois schools at IIFA.
4. Final determination of whether or not to grant an exemption will lie with the IIFA Board, with a 2/3 majority vote required to approve the granting of an exemption.
5. The IIFA Board will take into consideration the information specified in "4" above, and is empowered to seek additional information as needed. While "4" above lists crucial information, the Board is empowered to take any and all available information into account when making a decision.
Each member institution is required to supply an adequate number of judges or appropriate monetary compensation as determined by the governing board.
No one may judge at an IIFA tournament if he or she has competed in the competition year which began the preceding September. In addition, no one may compete at any IIFA tournament after having judged at an IIFA tournament.