A zombie apocalypse would be an international problem, should it occur. Fear not, for Albion’s Model United Nations (UN) club has discussed such a scenario, among others, in their quest to “learn about international diplomacy and current events through mock United Nations meetings,” according to Albion College’s website.
This year, one of the National Model United Nations Conferences is being held in Washington, D.C. Albion’s Model UN club will be representing Norway, and seven of their members will attend the conference Nov. 7 through Nov. 9.
Livonia senior and Model UN President Kaelyn Ruiter said the club has attended conferences before, but not during Ruiter’s time at Albion.
“Looking for university-level Model UN conferences was a bit of a challenge,” Ruiter said, since many they found were for the high school level.
Model UN Treasurer and Charlotte sophomore James Coney said the conference will “be a bit of a change of pace” from how Model UN is run at Albion.
“Normally at our meetings, since we have so few people, each person will represent their own country,” Coney said. “But because these full conferences have so many people attending, they actually have to give multiple people the same country role.”
Within the selected countries, the groups discuss multiple topics, including “general assembly” procedures and the workings of an atomic energy committee, Ruiter said.
Coney added that during the conference, members will work together within their own clubs “to come to a decision for the country we have to represent.”
“It’ll be nice to actually be able to get out there and do kind of what the club is supposed to be doing,” Coney said. “Which is going to these conferences and representing the college as best we can at the national level.”
Usual Structure; Preparation
Ruiter said they’re “really excited” for the upcoming conference.
“It’s going to be a lot more formal than what we normally do in our meetings. We kind of run things a little loose,” Ruiter said. “We’ll definitely have to review the actual procedure, how to write position papers, all that before we go to the conference.”
Coney said generally, Albion’s Model UN club alternates between a serious and silly topic each week.
“If you get too many serious topics, it gets a little depressing real quick,” Coney said. “You gotta have a bit of lightheartedness in there.”
Montrose senior and Model UN Vice President Trinity Castle-Pollard said sometimes the topics are “a lot of fun,” like “zombie apocalypse,” during which Castle-Pollard said she “acquired a decent chunk of America.”
Why Model UN?
For Ruiter, they joined because they were a member of Model UN in high school. They said the club “has absolutely nothing to do” with what they want to go into, but added that “it’s really fun,” and others should join.
Coney said of Model UN that “a lot of people just don’t know about it or don’t really know what it is” and the club helped him find “a solid friend group” during his first year.
“I still hang out with them outside of Model UN,” Coney said. “That was really the benefit of it.”
When it comes to Castle-Pollard’s experience, their favorite part is “just hanging out” with the group.
“We all spend so much time working on Model United Nations and collaborating and fake arguing,” Castle-Pollard said. “When we’re out of it we also just run into each other.”
Looking Forward
Model UN’s first meeting of the semester will be on Sunday at 6 p.m. Castle-Pollard said it’s “pretty exciting” that they have “enough people for a competition now.”
Still, Coney said that although Model UN has been a club at Albion for “a long time,” the club’s “membership has waned” over the years. In the past, the club has been temporarily dissolved due to a lack of members.
“It’s looking like we’re going to have a pretty good membership going into this year,” Coney said. “Hopefully we can preserve that through the coming years.”
Castle-Pollard said when they first joined Model UN, it had four total members, only one of whom was a returner. The first-years who joined were “drafted into board positions” as soon as they joined. Castle-Pollard said they “kind of had to build it from scratch” because the few initial members when she joined have since graduated.
“At the end of this school year, half of the board will be graduating again,” Castle-Pollard said. “So, if anybody is currently looking for new clubs or just wants to join, there will be new positions opening and we’d love to have you.”
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