On March 2, eight Liberty students participated in a UW WASMUN event to simulate being United Nations representatives. Each student was assigned one committee, which contains multiple topics for discussion, and a country’s stance to replicate.
“We have a small but dedicated MUN club at Liberty,” MUN President Wyatt Waters said. “We wanted practice doing this and participating in such a big event that is run at a collegiate level.”
The goal of the event is to draft a resolution that tries to favor the participants’ country’s ideals they represent. No Liberty students had both the same topics and country. They were told what country and topics they were in about two months prior.
“We had two students who never have been to a conference before, and we had students who have been to around 15,” MUN field trip advisor Andrea Antrim said. “It was fun to see the spectrum of ‘what am I doing?’ to old hats.”
“I was really impressed with how they ran it,” Waters said. “All the chairmen did a great job correcting people when they made mistakes, helping people when they made mistakes, and the secretary was a great resource for people.”
The process of the meeting rotates between parliamentary procedure and countries meeting one on one. The students talk, debate, and compromise their opinions to reinforce and produce a better resolution. There are countries that have opposite opinions from each other so not everyone can get exactly what they want.
“Many of the students who came with us will be next year’s officers for the club, and it looks like the conference left a pretty good impression on them,” Waters said.