MUNUC conference model of cooperation

More than 1,800 high school students from 85 high schools across North America will reside at the Chicago Palmer House Hilton Hotel for the simulation of a United Nations assembly. Nearly a year has gone into planning the conference, which involves more than 150 University students in its organization and presentation.

The event will begin at 6 p.m. today with opening ceremonies and with the keynote address, "Peacekeeping and Peacemaking," by William Taylor Jr., senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Following the address, participants will join one of 15 committees, where they will represent one of 115 member nations of the U.N. and role-play as delegates of their assigned country.

MUNUC participants have been briefed for their committees with detailed papers written by University students. The papers, which track events over the past year, are updated two weeks prior to the conference. While MUNUC is in session, Chicago students will serve as committee moderators and fact checkers. They will provide a research station, a computer room for composing and printing resolutions and amendments, and the Phoenix, a daily conference newsletter that will include articles with fictional late-breaking news from around the globe and documentation of committee proceedings.

More than 40 Model United Nations programs for high school students are sponsored by universities around the country and run throughout the academic year. In the most recent report of the United Nations Association of the United States (UNA/USA), MUNUC was the only Model United Nations conference to earn A's in all categories.

For more information about MUNUC, call 643-9691.