A Not-So-Model U.N.

It must have been quite a weekend.

When more than 1400 high school students gathered in Boston December 12 through 15 for a mock United Nations run by Harvard undergraduates the simulated game situations of high powered diplomacy came off pretty much as expected.

But what was not so expected was the way the Harvard staffers in charge of the conference handled parts of the more than $16,000 in fees they took in from the high school delegates.

The parley, known as the Harvard Model United Nations, had an authorized budget given it beforehand by the 16-member board of directors of its parent organization. The International Relations Council, Inc.

It did not, however, have to follow strict accounting guidelines--the two secretaries-general of the conference had unlimited power of the check-book and voucher.

After the conference Clifford M. Lewis '76, a member of the board, was upset that the Model U.N. hadn't accumulated as big a profit as he expected--so he went to Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, and complained.

Epps made inquiries, and the board had three of its members prepare an auditors' report on the finances of the conference.

The three auditors--William E. Reichert '76, Norman Chaleff '76 and Mark J. Penn '76, who is also City Editor of The Crimson and treasurer of the International Relations Council--produced a report that charges "improper management" of the conference funds by the two secretaries-general. Lewis gave The Crimson a copy of the report this week.

Jarius L. DeWalt '76 and Clark D. Pellett '76, the report says, authorized expenditures of more than $5000 during the conference on hotels, restaurants, liquor and miscellaneous cash expenses for Model U.N. staff members.

The expenses included $560 for a dinner at Joseph's restaurant, $1371 in hotel and meal bills and $828 for liquor.

Epps is now conducting an investigation of the charges in the report, working with four International Relations Council members to get to the bottom of the pile of vouchers and receipts in the report.