Claremont McKenna College’s Model United Nations team has ranked seventh nationally—the highest for a liberal art college and the best on the West Coast.
The rankings, compiled by Best Delegate, an independent Model U.N. consultancy, are based on tabulations of teams’ success and awards in Model U.N. conferences nationwide.
According to Best Delegate: “On the West Coast, the gap between CMC and its rivals has only widened. CMC took home seven of eleven gavels and almost half of all weighted points at SBIMUN [Santa Barbara Intercollegiate Model United Nations] – that’s more than the next three teams (Berkeley, Stanford, and USC) combined.”
Model United Nations is a conference program similar to the United Nations in which students participate as delegates to various U.N. committees. Participants research and formulate political positions based on the actual policies of the countries they represent.
According to the Model U.N. website, these programs provide college/university students and faculty from all over the world a forum for addressing global concerns in a real world context. They provide student participants with a better understanding of the inner working of the U.N. as they build skills in diplomacy and compromise. The National Collegiate Conference Association (NCCA), sponsor of NMUN, is a recognized Non-Governmental Organization associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information.
Head delegates Kanupriya Rungta ’14 and Ankit Sud ’14 lead the CMC team, under the guidance of CMC Associate Professor of Government, Jennifer Taw.
“It always blows my mind to see how hard the entire team works,” said Rungta. “A majority of our new members had never participated in MUN before, but when pitted against the best in the country, they not only held their own, but did extremely well.”
This semester, they will host their own Model UN conference, McKennaMUN, which will bring hundreds of high school students from the region to CMC to compete.
As for the CMC team, according to Rungta, they hope to improve on their performance next semester and break into the top five.