More than 80 students from seven different schools met at the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences this weekend to debate key international issues at the second annual Dartmouth Model United Nations' Conference.
"It's a simulation of the United Nations in every respect," DMUNC Secretary General Geoff Lieberthal '96 said.
The delegates debated the proliferation and illegal sales of nuclear weapons, peacekeeping in Latin America and refugee issues at the weekend event, called "The Conference on the Hill."
The topics were debated by three committees of 15 delegates from different 'nations,' each set up like the U.N. Security Council. Each school represented a certain country.
"The council is composed of five permanent members and 10 representative states from different areas of the world," Lieberthal said .
"The purpose of the Security Council is to promote peacekeeping throughout the world and basically deal with emergencies. This is the body that decides how the U.N. will react in response to these crises," he said.
Dartmouth students directed all three security councils. Directors led debate and interjected different ideas and perspectives into conversation.
Iason Demos '97, director of one of the security councils, said he feels interaction is a big reward of the conference.
"All participants gained some interaction between people especially in either negotiations in order to get consensus or to rally enough votes to pass their resolution," Demos said.
Chris Proctor, a delegate from New England College, said he felt the conference led to "great new insights" about world issues.
"You meet great people and it was a very intense bonding session for all the participants this weekend," Proctor said.
Other students at the conference agreed.
"You have fun debating and learning the procedural rules involved in the conference. You can really enjoy it," Smith College delegate Eleni Samara said.
"You understand that you're doing something really important which could someday have an important effect on international relations," she said.
The conference proved to be a mixture of debate and diplomacy.
"You want delegates to rally around your position. Debate helps you relay your ideas ... to others. People are judged on their ability to debate," Lieberthal said.
Awards given at the conference for best delegate went to Samara, Jillian Slaughter and John Roberts from McGill University, and Wendy Chou from Tufts University.
McGill University was awarded the prize for best overall delegation.
"I'm really impressed on how it flowed. The Dartmouth delegation did a fantastic job. Topics were very well chosen and committees were effective in bringing in new ideas," Proctor said.
Lieberthal said the U.N. at Dartmouth club, which sponsors the DMUNC, hopes to expand the conference in the future.
Two speakers supplemented the conference -- Government Professor Eugene Lyons and Robert Grey, Jr. '57, a current fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and previous advisor to the U.S. mission to the U.N. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The club hopes to expand the annual conference in the future to include another security council, bringing the total to four.
"We have more than enough experience, and we have enough seniors who want to be chairs," Lieberthal said.
Students from Dartmouth, McGill, Middlebury College, New England College, Smith, Tufts, the University of New Hampshire and Wellesley College participated in the conference.
The club and conference are funded by the Dickey Endowment for the International Understanding and the Committee on Student Organizations.
