by Alicia Gibson
Assistant Managing Editor
Model United Nations is an auxiliary team for the University of La Verne, much like the debate team, whose purpose is to pass resolutions.
The team is intended to give students a similar experience to that of the real United Nations.
Model UN for the far west conference took place April 15-20 in San Francisco. The University of La Verne sent six students to San Francisco for the conference.
Students spent the fall semester and the beginning of the spring semester in a one-unit course preparing by researching each of their countries. Model UN assigns each institution different countries to research. The ULV represented Costa Rica and Germany throughout the term.
“You start in the fall and the conference is in the late spring: you spend all that time researching your country and the stand that your country has on different topics that are going to be discussed in the different committees,” said sophomore Fabiola Ochoa, the representative for the third committee for Costa Rica.
The conference then mails each participating the school two books explaining the procedures. The first book provides basic knowledge and background of what to expect at the conference. While the second book explains the issues which will be presented and discussed in each committee.
Students then separate into different committees including third committee, fourth committee, general assembly and security council.
Seniors Danny Rinaldelli and Stacy Bushey represented Germany in the general assembly, and senior Ichiro Sato represented Costa Rica in the general assembly. Sato sat on the general assembly committee for Costa Rica.
Junior Mark Mitchell was a representative in Security Council for Costa Rica.
The security council is made up of 15 members. Five permanent members who have veto power and 10 revolving members. The five permanent members include the United States, China, United Kingdom, Russia and France. Costa Rica was one of 10 revolving members invited for this year to help in the decision making.
The Security Council is the main organ with primary responsibility for maintaining peace and security.
The third committee also known as the social humanitarian and cultural committee dealt with the goal to achieve international cooperation in solving economic, social, cultural and humanitarian character issues.
Senior Sal Medina was the forth committee representative for Costa Rica. The fourth committee is the main committee of the general assembly. They dealt with decolonialization questions, gaining independence and peace keeping issues.
La Verne went with success in mind, and that was the outcome.
“What we went there for, we accomplished,” said Ochoa.
Costa Rica sponsored two resolutions. The first was to lift sanctions from Cuba and African countries. The second was the development of facilities such as schools and women support groups in areas that have been scourged by war to create better conditions for future generations.
“Once you have the knowledge, it is easier to make resolutions,” said Ochoa.
Germany went with a proposal to expand Security Council members. It was also passed, and by the end of the conference, Germany had a permanent seat on the security council.
Model UN was sponsored by the Political Science Department and other private groups and some funds for the trip were provided by the Associated Student Federation (ASF) Forum.
