CMCMUN Brings About Model World Peace

From topics such as human rights to disarmament and international security, Model United Nations encompasses a wide range of issues. Therefore, in order to be successful, teams have to put in a lot of hard work and practice, and the Claremont McKenna MUN team is no exception. This fall semester, CMCMUN competed in three different tournaments, gathering numerous accolades at each stop.  First, from October 24-27, the team traveled across the country to Washington D.C. to compete in the National Collegiate Security Council (NCSC), a conference hosted by Georgetown at which the team won the outstanding small delegation award.

The team also competed at the Santa Barbara tournament from November 8-10, where it performed the best it ever has there, receiving the best large delegation award. Of the 29 CMCers who attended the conference, 20 won awards. In addition, CMCMUN received best delegate in seven out of the ten committees at the conference.

At the University of Pennsylvania conference, which took place from November 14-17 and is one of the top three most competitive conferences in the world, the team continued its run of success. CMC took a team of twelve to the conference, and eight members returned with awards.

Model UN, which encompasses various groups such as General Assembly, Human Rights Council, Security Council, and the World Health Organization, essentially replicates real United Nations deliberations. At every conference, each team is assigned one country and delegates must represent the real life views of that country, regardless of one’s personal beliefs.

The goal of any committee is to pass a resolution, which is basically a solution to the problem that has been presented to the group.  However, in order for the resolution to pass, it must receive majority support from the rest of the delegates present. According to CMCMUN Treasurer Isabel Wade ’16, “to be successful you need to be a good speaker, have good points, and own the room by gathering other people’s ideas and accumulating them into a great plan and drafting a resolution. Basically, be a leader in your group.”

During discussion, delegates start off on the micro level with groups who they are allied with in the real world or who have similar policies and then try to reach out to gather broader support.

“You have to make sure everything is practical and applicable for all countries, because, for example, a rich country can say, 'Let’s do this and this,' but a smaller country may not have the money for that,” CMCMUN President Kanupriya Rungta ’14 explained. “Also, real life alliances are taken into account. For example, the U.S. and Iran wouldn’t work together, but you might see the U.S. and Australia working together.”

In addition, CMCMUN is looking forward to hosting McKennaMUN, a high school MUN conference that will take place on Claremont McKenna’s campus on April 13-14, 2014.  Last year marked the inaugural installation of the tournament, but the team hopes to make it an annual tradition and encourages everybody, even non-MUNers, to come and help out.