The Observer, November 9, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 10
Case Model UN takes on global issues, wins awards
During the last weekend in October, a cloud of well-dressed professionals descended upon the Crowne Plaza Resort in downtown Cleveland to solve some of the world's greatest problems. Starting with reducing military budgets and proceeding to deciding how to try terrorists in international courts, the students at this year's Lake Erie International Model United Nations (LEIMUN) conference arrived determined to save the world.
The conference itself is organized like the real United Nations: several different committees, such as the World Health Organization and the Disarmament and International Security Committee, meet for eight sessions that are three to four hours each. Each of the committees solves a different set of world problems; for example, the legal committee at LEIMUN discussed whether to convict terrorists in the International Criminal Courts while the World Health Organization discussed women's reproductive health issues. Each student represented a particular country in a UN committee and not only had to accurately represent the country's policies, but also had to sway the committee to pass resolutions favoring their country.
Model United Nations is a fierce competition. Delegates are scored based on their performance in committee, so not only do students strive to find a viable solution to global issues, but they must also form alliances and slyly play policy like a game. Winning takes skill and strategy.
Award-winner Sarah Bixler describes competing at conferences as "a cross between debating and acting: you play the part of whatever country you represent and convince everyone else that your country is right. Some people enjoy it because it makes you feel powerful, some because you can play the devil's advocate, and some because you learn about global perspectives, but everyone is there to have fun and argue."
Case Western Reserve University's Model UN team blew away the competition at LEIMUN this year. Of the 23 Case students that attended, 13 came back with awards. Bixler, Hersh Varma, MJ Carrabba, Alan Jones, Paul LuBonovic, Michael Suglio, Austin Ashwil, Harris Hoffman, Matt Vogler, Jason Li, Alex Pavlof, and Sean Cooper received "Excellent" ratings while new member Dana Skold received the highest score of "Superior." Overall, Case Western Reserve University won first place among all the competing schools.
Case's Model UN team generally performs well at such conferences. In its thirteen years of attending LEIMUN, an average of over half of Case's team win awards every year. Of course, some years fare better than others, but the overwhelming success of this year's new members leaves senior Model UN members optimistic about the future.
"Its great that so many of our new members did well at LEIMUN. It is exciting to see our club growing and I think it is clear that we are going to do very well at our other conferences this year," said club secretary Tessie Panthani.
Next semester, Model UN plans to save the world again with larger conferences at Harvard, McGill University in Montreal, University of Chicago, and the United Nations headquarters in New York. The club plans to attend one conference every month next semester. With all these conferences planned so closely together, the 30 active members certainly have their hands full preparing for repeated success.
Moreover, the rising female population in the club provides female members with hope for increased diversity. According to Panthani, two years ago, there was only one female member in Model UN. Now, the makeup of Model UN more closely resembles the diversity of students at Case.
"Model UN is a club for everyone, not just students interested in international affairs. We are always looking for new members," said Suglio, the club's president.
Model UN does more than attend conferences; they also engage in discussion and debate over pertinent issues, attend presentations, and host speakers. On Nov. 17, Model UN plans to host the Avery Friedman dinner with Phi Alpha Delta, the international law fraternity.
The club is optimistic about planning to host a college conference in January and is seeking the manpower needed to successfully execute an undertaking of this magnitude.
In addition to the variety of events planned for the year, the club's major focus is continuing their successful performances at upcoming national conferences. "We dominated at LEIMUN and we expect to keep this trend by providing fierce competition at the conferences we will attend next semester," said Suglio.
