During the first week of September when all the clubs started to have official general interest meetings I decided to check out Baruch’s Model United Nations Club. Behind the game room inside the USG’s conference room was the United Nations flag draped over the USG’s emblem and a few members/onlookers already there. I had participated in the Model United Nations Club in High School and had hoped College-level Model United Nations would be the same. After the room filled up slowly we did an Icebreaker breaking up into four teams and arranging ourselves in a number of series such as height, birthdate, etc. It somewhat cooled the rigidness of the room and we started delving into what Model United Nations is. Officially Baruch has the Model United Nations team which is a part of the Model United Nations Club; the team goes from conference to conference acting out as the real United Nations roleplaying as their respective nations given to them to solve a world problem. It’s very similar to speech and debate but with the slight change in that you would represent a nation that has interests in the topic at hand. An example is if the U.S and Russia were represented in a topic about the contested Crimean region; the Russia delegate would refuse all attempts to cede the Crimea claiming it is Russian whereas the United States delegate would claim Crimea belongs to Ukraine. To add to that, in most conferences there are “Crisis Committees” or “Historical/Futuristic Committees” wherein delegates have the powers of their nations; they can assassinate other delegates, start wars, fund coups etc, but all within reason. Its not all fun and games in College Model United Nations however, the older members pointed out,
as copious amounts of research are required to be at level with other highly competitive delegates and one must fully commit to Model United Nations. However that does not deter me and I fully intend to apply to the club.