By Egypt Hicks & Elisheva R. R. –
Model UN club continues with the struggle for attending conferences every year due to the financial setback they are experiencing.
“Only the people that can afford to pay for themselves will be able to go,” said Brian Flores ,21, Treasurer of the Model UN club.
The conference that the Model UN club desires to attend will be held in the United Nations Headquarters in New York City on April 1-5.
The club had submitted a request to the Student Government Organization (SGO) two weeks in advanced, in addition to having Professor Stanton writing a letter of recommendation for co-sponsorship. However, the SGO Executive Board did not approve in assisting the Model UN club with funds for the conference.
“The SGO said that they needed more specific information about how the money is going to be spent. Other schools are able to go to conferences because their schools support them financially,” said Edwin Quito, 24, President of Model UN club.
Even before the conference at the United Nations came to interest, the conference at Harvard in February was denied for the club as well because the Executive Board believed it was too expensive.
Quito says, “We only had $625 in our budget, so it was impossible to bring students to that conference.”
The organization consists of 10 members. The costs consist of a $125 registration fee per student and $250 a night for a hotel room. The conference is four days long. The Model UN club was only going to send two members of its organization to the conference.
“The selection process was not open and that’s a lot of money for two people,” said Jan Aguilos , 24, SGO Vice President of Public Information.
Even though the Model UN group experiences certain financial issues, it is very beneficial to its members.
“We try to do a lot of activities, which we do with our own funds. For instance, we took some of our members to the United Nations headquarters so they can actually see the inside,” said Flores.
“Last semester, we attended one meeting with the ambassador of the United States and we got a chance to talk to him about the issues in the Middle East. It was a really cool experience,” said Quito.
