Model UN Draws 1950 Students to Cambridge

Nearly 2000 high school students hailing from locales throughout North America came to the Harvard campus yesterday to represent countries such as Burma, Mozambique, and Cameroon in an effort to solve world conflicts.

Students from schools as far away as Wisconsin, California and Canada convened Thursday in Boston for the Harvard-sponsored Model United Nations Conference, supervised by the International Relations Council. And yesterday, the delegates dressed in ties, jackets and skirts came to the Harvard campus to continue the conference held mainly at the Copley Marriot hotel.

The conference's purpose is "to educate high school students about some of the most important issues facing the international community...and how nations interact with one another in an international forum such as the UN," according to the organizing group's literature.

Williston Professor of Law Roger Fisher opened the conference with a speech on the importance of empathy in negotiations. The conference will end on Sunday with the presentation of awards such as Best Delegate.

During the three intervening days, the students will spend most of their time in committee meetings, representing the views of their various countries in an attempt to form resolutions addressing real world problems. The 1950 delegates are divided into 20 committees, ranging in size from 12 to 200 delegates. Each committee debates on two topics and then chooses one on which to write a resolution.

Harvard students serve as moderators, council directors, and provide information on the topics, and guidance on parliamentary procedure for the delegates. The Harvard students acting as council directors wrote briefing papers on each country over the summer and sent them to participating schools in October, explaining the history and policy stands of each country.

The 105 participating Harvard undergraduatesalso will patrol the corridors of the hotel until2 a.m. to make sure that the students keep theirmidnight curfew. The conference has been "quietrelative to what can happen when you get 2000 highschool students together," said Secretary-GeneralJames L. Cairns '88, who is running theconference. On Thursday night, however, a room ofdelegates whas thrown out for alcohol posession.

For many of the delegates the conferencerepresents a weekend of fun and a relaxing breakfrom school. Yesterday morning was left free sothey could visit classes and take tours of thenation's oldest University, but many of thedelegates used the time to sleep late or goshopping at the Copley mall.

Becky J. Stapan and Kathy L. Dortzbach, juniorsrepresenting Burma from the James Madison Memorialschool in Madison, Wisconsin, thought the bestpart of the conference was "meeting people. That'sthe only reason some people come--just for fun."But they said they also enjoyed the opportunity todebate actual world issues.

While some delegates tried to hammer out theirpositions on the issues in Science Center B,keeping the pages busy as they passed notes in aneffort to forge alliances, others took a morefrivolous tack.

One page said that notes such as "Check outthose babes from Nigeria," "Look at EI Salvador'slegs," and "Do you want to go out for cocktails?"were among the communiques.

Others took the conference more seriously. Oneof the delegations from California, representingNigeria and Sudan, carried portable computers withthem to their committee meetings.

Kathleen P. Pakos, a senior from Andoverrepresenting Mozambique, also took her role as adelegate seriously. "I was up until 4:30 in themorning writing the working paper for mycommittee. I feel like it's my own country," shesaid