The Johnsonian

Issue date: 4/2/08 Section: International News

Students from 34 high schools from and around South Carolina are coming to Winthrop this week for the oldest conference in the country to interact high-school and college students. The event will run from Wednesday starting at 7 p.m. to Friday until 3 p.m. in Tillman auditorium.

The 32nd annual Winthrop Model United Nations conference will include vigorous debates on issues of international importance in which students will represent different countries throughout the rest of the conference.

"We're trying to have students step into someone else's skin," said Christopher Van Aller, associate professor of political science and director of the Model U.N.

The conference will also include a cultural event on Wednesday at 7 p.m. It will feature Edward Brynn, former ambassador to Burkina Faso and Ghana, who will give the keynote address. He will speak on the "Global Agenda for Africa in the 21st Century."

On Thursday and Friday, students will debate international issues for about 15 hours with breaks in between. Though that sounds like a long time to some, students in the Model U.N. enjoy it.

"This has been one of the best experiences of my college career," said Ashley Burnside, senior political science major.

She said that Model UN was the reason she chose political science as her major.

"If this went away I wouldn't know what do to," Burnside said.

The conference involves two Winthrop classes, Political Science 260 and 261.

PLSC 260 assigns students a country to represent in in-class debates. The class fulfills the public speaking requirement and teaches students about global issues from the perspectives of other countries.

As the Model U.N. conference draws closer, students are assigned a high school delegation to help out in their discussions at the conference. On the conference days, the college students assist their assigned high school group in forming arguments and provide moral support.

"Once you get started you don't quit," said Angela McCray, a senior art major and student coordinator for the conference.

She has been a part of the Winthrop Model U.N. for 3 years. She started with the 260 course and moved on to the second level, the 261 class, which teaches students to run the conference and to chair parliamentary procedures.

The course requires PLSC 260 as a prerequisite but anyone of any major can join.

"Every year we try out new things," Van Aller said.

This year the conference will focus on genocide and ethnic cleansing and includes a committee dedicated to topics concerning Africa.

The new committee, the African Union, will include students representing six African nations. It is aimed at coming up "with ways to end African tribulations faced by the continent's collective nations and the world at large through extension," according to the Winthrop Model U.N. Web site.

Besides the African countries, 66 others will be represented, including China, Macedonia and the United States.

Other committees involved in the discussions include the Social and Humanitarian, Political and Security, Legal and the Security Council.

Besides topics exclusive to Africa and genocide, there will be debate on toy safety, demilitarization of space and ever-popular topics such as the Iraqi conflict and nuclear energy in Iran.

Joanna Bryant, sophomore political science major, who is attending the conference for the second time, said that all debate is a lot of fun.

"The conference is a fun time to forget the rest of the world and try to solve the world's problems."

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