QuaranTime: Model United Nations
Sabrina Kearney/The Exonian
By Sabrina Kearney
Though quarantine has prevented Exonians from interacting in person this term, Model United Nations club, or MUN, has been exploring new ways for Exonians to connect—and bring a sense of normalcy back into their lives.
Upper and co-president Phil Horrigan described MUN as “a mix between debate and socializing. We incorporate public speaking, getting to know one another, making friends, current events and also public relations.”
“It’s really just an all-in one club,” he said. “We tackle real problems, human rights issues and all kinds of international policy while representing individual nations and voicing their opinions on the matter.”
Upper and co-president Nahla Owens noted that the coronavirus pandemic has affected MUN in a significant fashion. “The most disappointing thing for a lot of MUNers was that DARTMUN [Dartmouth MUN], our big conference in the spring, was cancelled,” Owens said. “I personally was looking forward to it, and I know that a lot of people were looking forward to competing.”
Despite this cancellation, MUN will remain creative to keep members engaged. “We, as MUNers do, have adapted and found solutions,” Owens said. “One of those is engaging on a number of virtual platforms. We use Discord and Zoom, and we’re working on finding other platforms that we could use to potentially expand our reach and get more people involved.”
Through these platforms, MUN has been conducting “in-houses,” which are online MUN conferences. Specifically, all of the “in-houses” are also crisis committees, a special type of MUN format. Horrigan described these crisis committees as a “fast paced and intense but also really fun version of MUN.”
Horrigan elaborated on the environment of conferences. “In a crisis, you're in a room of about 12 people, like a Harkness discussion, sometimes representing specific people or companies or all kinds of different interests,” he said. He explained that a great deal of multitasking is involved, as delegates must focus on solving larger, long-term problems and respond effectively to crises that occur simultaneously—all while advancing their character or company’s personal interests.
At the end of the day, MUN has viewed quarantine as an opportunity to improve and develop. One of MUN’s main goals this term is to retain and build upon the community that has come together over the course of the year. “Especially at this point in the year, when we’re spending three or four days with these people at conferences, MUN can really become a family,” Owens said. “I think I can speak for the whole board when we say we don’t want people to lose that community when we go home.”
“I think our biggest goal is not necessarily to force people to come to meetings all the time or make people stressed out about doing MUN,” Owens added. “We want to make sure people are having fun, learning new things and staying involved with the world around them.”