EWU Model U.N. club attends International Conference

During Nov. 22-25, the Eastern Washington University Model United Nations Club (EWU MUN) traveled to Chicago, Ill., for an MUN conference where six EWU delegates participated. The delegates were Ronnie Valencia, Mark Peckham, Deseure DeBerry, Brian Turner, Sean Rutherford and Christina Bos.

A delegate, by definition, "is a student who assumes the role of an ambassador to the United Nations at a Model U.N. event," according to the Model U.N. Headquarters Web site.

"When EWU MUN attends conferences throughout the year, it is a simulation of the actual United Nations. Each conference is set up differently, but generally the General Assembly, Security, and Economic and Social Councils are typically simulated," EWU MUN President Ronnie Valencia said when explaining how the club and conferences are organized.

"We as a club select a country we want to represent for the conference and research that particular country's policies in economics, politics, diplomacy, human rights, etc. When we go to the conferences, we typically have one person per committee and we try to advocate our country's policies on particular issues. When the club is not attending conferences, we usually spend our time discussing world affairs, researching and preparing for future conferences, recruiting new members and trying to put tighter events on campus to bring an international perspective on campus."

During conferences, each committee and council has specific topics that are discussed such as nuclear disarmament, AIDS, poverty and war.

The responsibility of the delegates is to resolve and solve the issues by drafting resolutions. Each resolution has to be voted on by the committees, and, if it passes, it becomes international law.

The hardest part of conferences, said Valencia, is persuading other delegates to support your views, so debate, persuasion and public speaking skills are essential for success. While preparing for conferences, the members of EWU MUN work on their debating skills and strategies for passing resolutions.

Besides attending conferences, the EWU MUN tries to bring an international perspective to the Cheney campus.

"In the past, the club has hosted guest speakers and held mini-conferences. Every year in the spring we hold a fundraiser for 'Adopt-A-Minefield,' which is an organization through the U.N. that removes landmines in war torn countries," said Valencia.

Also, the club has held yearly mini-conferences, which are open to all students and faculty during International Week in the fall. The club provides participants with information of countries and has them solve international conflicts.

The goal of this activity is for participants to walk away with more international awareness and an appreciation for different policies of other nations.

The next conference EWU MUN plans to attend will be in San Francisco March 5-8, 2009.

EWU MUN has been on campus since the 1970s, but the club died out in the '90s and was reestablished around 2002.

According to the Model U.N. Headquarters Web site, "Simulating international organizations began even before the birth of the United Nations, when students held a series of Model League of Nations in the 1920s. The Model U.N. Program is a successor to a student-directed simulation of what preceded the U.N. itself, but it is not documented exactly how the Model U.N. began."

The Model U.N. Headquarters Web site said that 400,000 middle school, high school and college/university students worldwide participate every year.

Many of today's leaders in law, government, business and the arts participated in Model U.N. during their academic careers - from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and former World Court Justice Stephen M. Schwebel to actor Samuel L. Jackson. Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton is a Model U.N. veteran as well.

Currently, the EWU club has 10 members and is open to all majors. Valencia also said that the club encourages non-government majors to join.

To find out more, EWU MUN meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3:15 p.m. in Patterson 210 (Government Department Lounge).