Our purpose is to facilitate participation in organized debate activities for as many urban students as possible. An Urban Debate League organizes academic debate programming for public schools in a large city. Though successful variations can and do exist, an Urban Debate League (UDL) is generally structured around a partnership between the urban public school district and a private partner, a local not-for-profit organization often called a UDL Advisory Board, which comprises civic-minded leaders in business, law, academia, government, and the nonprofit community.