Albion goes global at weekend M.U.N.
By Justin Matter
Staff Writer

For four days last week, Albion College became Germany - in Philidelphia.

At the same time, the University of Chicago was Russia, Georgetown University was China, and the University of California-Berkeley was the United States.

At the 29th Annual University of Pennsylvania Model United Nations, held Nov. 9-12, 16 Albion students and their faculty adviser represented Germany.

Schools who want to attend Model U.N. conferences apply to represent a nation or state. The choices are distributed by a lottery.

Robert Harbaugh, Jonesville sophomore, is the Model United Nations Club president and served as Germany's head delegate in Philadelphia. He lobbied to get Albion to represent a nation with "significant power," according to Kim Tunnicliff, director of the Gerald R. Ford Institute for Public Service and club adviser.

Albion was assigned Germany, and the delegates began researching in September.

"This [conference] is something that's been going for a while, and it's one of the biggest and best in the fall semester," Tunnicliff said.

"The Albion delegation was one of a half-dozen schools which received verbal commendation from the organizers of the conference as one of the best delegations ... which was especially good, considering Harvard, Yale, West Point and Georgetown were at this, too."

Tunnicliff called Albion's performance "singularly impressive."

Alexander Zbiciak, Hastings sophomore, was designated as outstanding delegate for his work on the International Court of Justice, and Kevin Shehan, Auburn Hills freshman, best delegate for his work on U.N. Development Program.

Two committees which had Albion students on them were identified as the best at the conference. Students were: Jason Watts, Allegan freshman; Deania Towns, Rochester freshman; and Patrick O'Connell, Des Plaines, Ill., freshman.

Harbaugh founded the Model U.N. Club here last year. But he isn't new to the international program - he started in 10th grade.

"When I came here, I told Kim Tunnicliff ... that I would start the Model U.N. club here and attend a conference by the end of my freshman year ... and we attended the University of Toronto's conference in February."

Last weekend's conference was Harbaugh's second at the college level.

He described a typical conference. "You will caucus, you will try and present resolutions, and ... you must not represent your own self-interest. What you believe can't interfere with what your country believes - you must stay focused and present the issue at hand or you'll skew the conference and your role in it.

"These are real United Nations topics and real U.N. committees - they're not [fake]. You deal with the truth, with the real thing."

The topics were as diverse as the U.N. members themselves.

Some issues were human rights-focused, such as indigenous peoples and the status of women. Others included nuclear disarmament, sustainable water development and the former Balkan states' crisis.

Students participate for different intentions, according to Harbaugh. "Some people do this in preparation for a career in international politics, because they're interested in it to the point of wanting to spend their lives working with foreign policy, like myself. Others I think do it more for the intellectual challenge or mental exercise that it promotes.

"At these conferences you're going up against some of the best and brightest student minds in the country - or at least alleged to be the brightest and the best."

Harbaugh said the club's size at Albion has doubled in a year. "Unfortunately ... [the conferences] are not cheap and we don't have the money to take everybody.

"Education on international issues is my main goal. It's in [the club's] mission to go to these conferences, of course, but it's also to increase the awareness of international politics and issues.

"This is a vehicle for learning more about foreign policy and the United Nations themselves, because I think the U.N. is the forum for international debate and compromise between nations, and eventually peace."