Volume 34 Number 11
UPFRONT
Model United Nations Team Continues Winning Streak
The California State University, Chico Model United Nations delegation
won an Outstanding Position Paper Award and the second level Distinguished
Perfor-mance Award at the National Model United Nations Conference held
in New York City, April 6–10.
The delegation represented the Russian Federation. It was the only representative
of a “Big Five” country (United States, United Kingdom, France,
China, and the Russian Federation) to win an award. Big Five countries
are assigned based on prior high performance.
The Chico delegation has won Outstanding Position Paper awards every year
for the five years and six countries it has represented. Professor Rick
Ostrom said, “This shows how well the students are researching and
the officers are editing the papers.”
Outstanding Position Paper awards are given to only 8 percent of delegations.
Outstanding Performance awards are given to about 8 percent of delegations;
Distinguished Performance awards are given to another 8 percent. In addition
to the Outstanding Position papers, the Chico delegation has won three
outstanding and three distinguished presentation awards every year for
the five years it has participated.
Head delegate Nathan Davis set up briefings with a Russian diplomat and
two UN staff members, one from the Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism
Committee, the other a coordinator of humanitarian aid programs. The briefings
were extremely helpful to the team, especially in the area of terrorism,
where policy changes rapidly.
The delegation welcomed four CSU, Chico international students from Japan
to the delegation. Although international students have been encouraged
to participate in the Model UN by their advisers Mary Kowta and James
Luyirika-Sewagudde for the English language practice, it is rare for such
a large group to make the team. “The American students were very
grateful for the help from their Japanese partners,” said Ostrom.
“They came through at the end of the grueling five-day experience
the most energetic and enthusiastic of the delegation.”
Approximately 3,000 students from more than 200 colleges located in 23
different countries attended the conference.
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