About
The Model United Nations Program at McMurry University is an inter-disciplinary program that incorporates coursework with interactive, hands-on simulations to provide students with academic and practical learning experience.
The purpose of the Model United Nations Program is to increase students’ content learning by teaching students basic knowledge of the UN system, parliamentary procedure and diplomatic language, and countries’ foreign policies. In addition, the Model United Nations Program enhances students’ critical thinking and processing skills by focusing on: improving reading comprehension, public speaking, and cooperative learning; information analysis, synthesis and evaluation; problem-solving and negotiating strategies, and identifying and developing leadership skills.
The Model United Nations Program at McMurry University provides students with the following specific educational and experiential learning opportunities:
- Model UN participants take an interdisciplinary three-credit course designed to prepare students for competition at regional and national Model UN competitions (see #2 below). Students may take this course twice for credit: Political Science majors may take the course once for credit in the major and once for upper-level elective credit; non-majors may take the course twice for upper-level elective credit.</li?
- Model UN participants compete in Model UN conferences. Preparing for competition involves research and role-playing. Students become “ambassadors” of specific countries by presenting position papers on that country’s policy preferences, caucusing, negotiating, and consensus-building with others to solve global problems. Of particular interest to students is the National Model UN Conference, held annually in New York. Participants at this conference spend part of the conference at the United Nations headquarters and meet with UN diplomats from the US and other countries.
- Model UN participants engage in global community outreach by raising awareness of global problems. Ongoing outreach projects include raising awareness of the global landmine crisis and taking part in the Adopt-A-Minefield Campaign. Participants have spoken to local organizations about the landmine problem, and raised monies to clear a minefield in Cambodia.
Community Engagement
Model UN at McMurry engages in community outreach every year. Model UN believes that the humanitarian work of the actual United Nations and of the United Methodist Church, with which McMurry is affiliated, should be carried through the Model UN Program at McMurry.
Model UN believes that one must define the term “community” in a holistic manner, and thus Model UN students choose a project theme each year and devise a local and global component for that project each semester. Over the past few years, Model UN has engaged in hunger outreach, landmine awareness and clearance, survivor assistance, and neglected diseases.
Competitions
Model UN participants compete in Model UN conferences with teams from other schools. Preparing for competition involves research and role-playing. Students become ambassadors of specific countries by presenting position papers on their country’s policy preferences, caucusing, negotiating, and consensus-building with others to solve global problems. Of particular interest to students is the National Model UN Conference, held annually in New York. Participants at this conference spend part of the conference at the United Nations headquarters and meet with UN diplomats from the US and other countries.
Model UN Conference 2021
