Elon University's Model United Nations (MUN) academic club allows students to work together on and off campus to simulate the United Nations Security Council.
Elon University houses a Model United Nations (MUN) academic club, which is also a class with one-hour weekly meetings. Elon’s MUN is a student-administered club, with a faculty advisor overseeing its activities. MUN students work together on and off campus to simulate the United Nations Security Council.
In MUN meetings, students get a chance to debate and practice public speaking through role-playing of their assigned country's policies. The club also competes nationally at a variety of intercollegiate conferences, where delegates travel to different campuses and compete with other schools’ delegations.
Each semester, in consultation with the MUN faculty advisor, the club's executive board selects Elon delegations from its active members to represent the University at these intercollegiate conferences. MUN members attend five to six different conferences each academic year.
This academic year, students in Elon’s MUN attended six intercollegiate conferences, hosted a training conference on campus and administered a day-long conference for students in POL 141 International Relations sections in both Fall and Spring semesters. An E-net story in December summarized the club’s activities in Fall 2018. In Spring 2019, the club continued its activities and recently concluded another successful semester.
In late February, Elon’s MUN sent a delegation to Model UN Emory, where Michael Keather ‘19 received a verbal commendation. In March, another delegation attended Virginia International Crisis Simulation (VICS) at the University of Virginia, where Emma Goering ’21 received a verbal commendation at VICS. The last intercollegiate competition in Spring 2019 was at the College of William and Mary, where Matt Kimball ’19 received a verbal commendation.
The club’s biannual International Crisis Conference at Elon is its simulation designed and administered by its active members. This spring, the conference drew 54 students and focused on Latin America and Africa with the UN Security Council, Organization of American States, African Union, and UN Human Rights Councils.
Students examined the strengths and weaknesses of the organizations while responding to relevant issues like the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, the return of Ebola to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and long lasting UN peacekeeping missions, among others. Dr. Michael Matthews, Associate Professor of History, offered the opening remarks at ICCE this semester.
MUN’s activities and success were recently recognized by bestdelegate.com, which ranks Model United Nations teams across North America. According to the webpage, Elon’s MUN was one of the top 50 MUN clubs in the rankings.
Baris Kesgin, assistant professor of political science and policy studies and associate coordinator for the International & Global Studies Program, is the faculty advisor for the MUN.