Honorable administrators and fellow students,
The delegates of Indiana Wesleyan University’s Model United Nations club believe that understanding the topics of international affairs and world politics is essential to the IWU community. These issues are central to all majors, not simply those within political science or international relations. Through attending the 15th annual MUN competition in Chicago, Ill., April 5-8, MUNIWU looks forward to establishing resolutions on international conflict through intentional dialogue surrounding issues relevant to the IWU campus and the world. Thank you.
Guided by the established principles of Model UN,
Model United Nations is a hybrid of debate, role-playing, current events, problem-solving and teamwork. All extra-curricular, of course.
A concept that originated in Ivy League schools, Model UN clubs come together annually at numerous international conferences with one goal in mind: resolution through simulating work done in the United Nations.
“Model UN was created to be able to kind of show a reflection of how the UN works, and give students a chance to be able to engage in that and feel like they have a greater role in the world,” said Laurel Stone (sr), secretary general of MUNIWU.
MUNIWU will compete at the 2012 Chicago Model UN conference over Easter weekend, when student delegates will take on international “characters” they will portray throughout the conference weekend, making decisions and engaging in committees as the individuals they represent.
“You’re not supposed to break character. So at times, you feel like you’re in an acting class, which is kind of funny,” Stone said. “But it helps you see from their perspective, and that whole time it’s your job to maintain that person’s point of view.”
Having considered the implications of international crises.
As students engage in diplomacy, they will experience crisis “simulations” reflecting a variety of made-up, historical and modern-day conflicts, an exhilarating but daunting experience, according to Matt Eckhardt (fr).
“What will happen in the middle of the thing is ‘this country declared war on another country.’ All of the sudden, out of the blue. What do you do? And you’ve got to know who’s side you’re on, how your country would react ideally in the situation, who your friends are and then basically, go off of that. So it’s kind of jumping into a situation, but there’s a lot of fun in that also,” Eckhardt said.
During the conference, participants will be asked to present opening statements, engage in structured debates and draft resolutions, all using Parliamentary Procedure, a system of law for organizing formal meetings and structuring official documents. All delegate activities aim to provide solutions for the problems created during the crisis simulation
“They’ll constantly throw things at you, and they’ll kind of manipulate it, so that if you start getting toward a resolution, all of the sudden there might be some crisis, and they’ll pin two people directly against each other and so you have to figure out what to do in the midst of that,” Stone said.
During Stone’s first experience with Model UN at the 2009 Chicago conference, she encountered the drama and excitement that come from participating in a crisis simulation.
“We had people dress up to fit the roles. We had hostage situations where they came in with airsoft guns and they had masks on and everything, and they were like kidnapping someone, abducting them,” Stone said.
During one of her committee sessions, Stone was nearly “assassinated.”
“I had to talk my way out of it,” Stone said. “Venezuela got me. I don’t know how.”
1. Expresses its appreciation of new participants in the work of the United Nations;
For the 2012 Chicago conference, IWU delegates will participate as members of the International community in a variety of committees. Less than one month ago, after applying for admittance to the conference, MUNIWU delegates were assigned characters to portray from within the CIA, the Republican party, the Department of Treasury, the Cabinet of Bolivia and the UN mission in Sudan, in addition to others. Most of the characters are based on real people.
Although delegates are provided with information concerning the issues of their committee and the background of their character, much of what happens during the conference requires quick thinking instead of preparation.
“We know the general area of where this could take place, but till we get there, we don’t know what our debate will actually be about. So we study the most general, broad stuff that we possibly can and pray and hope that we’re actually getting something done in the process,” Eckhardt said.
Only two of this year’s MUNIWU team members have previously participated in a MUN conference.
Stone, the club’s only senior, was left with lone experienced upperclassman Janelle Hankins (jr) after most of the previous officers of the club graduated last year. To create a team to compete at the conference, Stone began recruiting underclassmen. Of the 12 current members, eight are freshman and one is a sophomore.
The inclusion of so many young members directly influenced Stone’s leadership strategy for this year.
“I’ve been trying to do as much of a holistic approach as I have the capacity to be able to do, so they are stretched intellectually as well as just emotionally and even just out of their comfort bounds. I’ve been trying to push them out slowly … and then make them jump off a cliff,” Stone said, smiling wryly.
For freshman members, weekly MUN meetings and group discussions have helped to inform and inspire them to understand international issues.
“There is a lot of things that I’ve learned being in the club of international issues that I had absolutely no idea of before, even from taking classes, that I didn’t know about,” said Rachel Abrego (fr).
For Gabrielle Crofford (jr), also a first-year member, the club’s youth is a strength.
“I think the main strength is to prove that anybody can do it. We have people sitting here that weren’t even interested in this sort of stuff at the beginning of the year, but because Laurel went and recruited them, they at least had enough interest to then be a part and get roped into all the fun,” Crofford said.
Those with experience are pleased with the new members’ performance.
“They are perfectly competent, very capable people and very intelligent, all of them,” said Stone.
“I am just so blown away, pleased, pleasantly surprised at how well they’ve adapted, how much they’ve been able to soak in and how professional they sound when they go about something that it’s true, they have just started to learn,” Hankins said.
2. Reaffirms MUNIWU’s foundation;
IWU’s Model UN club was formed just four years ago as part of a class project. In fall 2007, then-freshmen Lisa Massey, Derek Freds and Ben Zendejas (alumni ‘11), took a class in world politics with Kris Pence, assistant professor of political science. Pence gave the students the opportunity to “diplomatically” suggest and complete an alternative assignment to a research paper. Massey, Freds and Zendejas chose to draft the constitution for IWU’s Model UN club, which had its first official meeting in fall 2008.
“I’m really glad that someone actually took the first step to start this club because it is a thing where we all hear about the IWU bubble. It’s just something that keeps us from being engaged in the community, and it’s really just an idea,” said Luke Smith (fr), MUNIWU’s secretary general for next year. “The IWU bubble really isn’t a real thing. It’s really just a perception that people have.”
3. Calls upon the IWU community to take action.
As Stone prepares to pass on the secretary general position to Smith, she expresses high hopes for the club.
“I want them to know that they can achieve anything they want,” Stone said. “I’m really hoping that they can kind of take different things that they can do on campus and be a presence on campus, not just at a conference, and be able to find a balance between having fun, but also being realistic about this stuff and being able to educate people too and inform.”
Understanding the issues that MUNIWU evaluates is closely related to the mission of Indiana Wesleyan University.
“Our school talks about world changers with a passion, and to actually understand that world and to actually be able to help it are two completely different things,” said Paul McCraken (fr).
By increasing participation in the club, MUNIWU members hope to increase the IWU community’s ability to understand and make a difference in the world.
“We’re looking for anyone who’s really interested in the world and that’s really willing to put the work in,” said Smith. “This is still a mock, kind-of-pretend way to get involved, but it’s still learning how to practically, just at the ground level, see how people are writing resolutions that are actually going to action. We just want motivated people. I think that’s all you need is motivation.”
