Harvard Model United Nations Draws Thousands

More than 2,000 college students are converging at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel this weekend to participate in the Harvard National Model United Nations Conference, the largest such event in the nation.

The purpose of the conference is to "promote international awareness," said Nirosha M. Nimalasuriya '98, the event's publicity director.

"Each college represents a member-state of the United Nations and [delegates] debate the most pressing issues on the international agenda," Nimalasuriya said.

Economic, social, political, regional, and security issues are being discussed by delegates, according to Secretary General Jayesh M. Rathod '97.

The conference serves to "promote consensus building, and show the difficulty in international negotiation and how difficult it is to reach compromises in the actual United Nations," Rathod said.

Students from 150 colleges are attending the conference, representing about 165 countries, Rathod said.

Some participants have come from as far away as Asia, Latin America and South America.

Schools submit applications in the fall and country assignments are made by the conference staff, Rathod said.

Participants must quickly pull together facts, integrate the ideas of other delegates, and convincingly portray the opinions of their country in speeches and discussion, Nimalasuriya said.

"[Model United Nations] serves as an educational experience for me more than anything," said Michael A. O'Mary '99, Harvard Model United Nations' (HMUN) assistant charge d' affaires. "It lets me learn from a lot of people."

HMUN's staff of 135 undergraduates has been planning this event since last April, O'Mary said.

Speakers at the conference include Graham Day, who recently returned from Bosnia, where he was chief of United Nations Field Offices.

Yasemin Soysal, John L. Loeb associate professor of sociology, and Juan Enriquez Cabot, a senior research associate at the Harvard Business School, will also speak at the event.

This is the 43rd session of the conference, Rathod said.

Harvard's conference is the oldest and largest of the approximately 50 collegiate Model United Nations Conferences held annually nationwide, Rathod said.

The conference began Thursday and runs through tomorrow.