Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to the article on the Model United Nations that was written in the Oct. 7 edition of the Campus Times. As a member of the Model U.N. and it’s president, it is my duty to inform you of the inaccuracies contained in the article.
I think the best way to address the article itself is to refute each incorrect statement as it appeared:
1) MUN is “a school-wide organization that acts and functions like the real United Nations.” No. We are a club on campus in which students interested in international topics can attend conferences which are administered to resemble the United Nations. Our group itself does not function like the UN. We are students who wish to inform ourselves about international events and attend conferences where we can share this information and gain new knowledge.
2) “There is a forum consisting of a generic assembly and a security council. Wrong again. A quick look in Webster’s Dictionary would have been able to tell you that the General (not generic) Assembly and Security Council are not the only parts of this “forum.” It is not a forum but a conference, remember? Hence if these conferences are run like the UN, there must be the same components as the UN.
3) “The countries present their issues to the judge and the issues are decided upon.” Incorrect. There are no judges. There is a secretary general who presides over the General Assembly to keep things moving along. We present issues not to a judge but to the other countries from the point of view of the country we are representing. These issues are not randomly picked by the participants, but go according to a set agenda.
4) “Members of MUN get to choose a country or a political organization to focus their efforts on.” Not quite. When we sign up to attend a conference, we include a list of countries we would like to represent. We are then notified as to which country we are assigned. Each member does not represent a different country. The University of La Verne is a delegate who represents that country. The delegates attend different areas of the conference. For example, two delegates attend the General Assembly, one delegate attends the Committee on Human Rights, and so forth.
5) Now to my biggest complaint of all: “…, said Beck. ‘I found out about the program through a LEAD conference.’” One hundred percent not true! I participated in the MUN last year as a delegate and was appointed president at the end of last year. As a president of a club on campus, I was given the opportunity to attend this summer’s LEAD conference. I most certainly did not “learn about the program” at the conference. I was there as a representative of the MUN!
There are a few other minor misconceptions in the article, but I feel that the previous five deserve to be directly refuted.
Writing an article on a small, relatively unknown group on campus was probably not the most interesting assignment that a writer could receive, but that is no excuse to do a poor job. If that is your assignment, than at least write an article that does justice to the students who devote their time and energy to a club they find interesting even if you do not.
I would like to finish by saying that accuracy in reporting is something that should be taken very seriously by any journalist. While this story is rather small and insignificant, it goes to show the general attitude of the Campus Times toward writing factually correct articles.
Stephanie Beck
Senior
Dear Editor,
Ivan [Matsumoto]’s pictures did an excellent job of capturing “the Moment” at half-time. Thanks, and nice job!
Helena Gerstenberg
Housing /Residential Life Director
Stephanie Beck