Penn State Harrisburg to host Model UN competition

MIDDLETOWN, Pa.- Penn State Harrisburg hosted a Model United Nations convention Feb. 19 and 20. The convention featured 320 local and national high school students, split up into four committees and 100 countries. Students tried tackling the same political issues as the real United Nations.

Tatiana Marroquin, the chairwoman for the Security Council, co-director of the Model UN and Penn State student, explained that the Security Council had to place limits on the number of students who could attend this year’s convention. The Security Council decides the issues that each committee will debate, but occasionally a country will present its own relevant issues.

The committees had all day Feb. 19 to draft proposals for the General Assembly, allowing them some freedom to ensure an inclusive proposal. The General Assembly voted on the proposals (also called “working papers”). On Feb. 20, the various committees will met around campus and the General Assembly convened in the Student Center.

The Model UN staff had been training in the weeks prior to the convention, specifically on how to deal with the large numbers in attendance and to make sure that the plan set by the Security Council went smoothly. The convention had so many attendants last year that some teachers and other staff involved were unable to get resolutions drafted in a timely way. “We had around 350 students come last year, that was chaotic,” Marroquin said.

The Model UN gives students a first hand look at how one of the largest international peace organizations operates. It is set up almost exactly like the real UN. There are 100 countries in the Model UN and 193 in the real UN. Each country is involved in different committees to resolve issues that impact its people. The countries will work together within the committee to find a solution and then present it to the general assembly, which votes on the various proposals. The proposal that wins the majority vote becomes policy. The real world role of the Security Council is like a regular committee, but with an additional administrative role. The nations within the Security Council are super powers, namely the USA, China, France, UK and Russia.

Marroquin says that she first got involved with Model UN during her freshman year when she attended college in South Carolina. When she transferred to Penn State, she got involved with the International Affairs Association, or IAA, which deals with Model UN as part of an initiative to encourage students to become informed about the world issues that affect everyone.

For more information about the IAA and other ways to get involved on campus, visit http://harrisburg.psu.edu/international-affairs-association.

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