The 1970s brought many
new and exciting changes to the Winthrop campus such as the transformation to
co-education in 1974 and the first Model United Nations Conference in spring
1976.
Under the direction of
Dr. Melford Wilson, political science professor, and Alan Rash, the first
student coordinator, Model United Nations I was on its way.
On April 14-16, 1976, some 200 high school students from North and South
Carolina came to Winthrop representing some 50 nations to debate the issues of
giving Panama the canal, seating Vietnam as an official representative, and
giving the Palestinians a homeland.
On December 1, 1978, Ken
Holland rose to the floor in the SC House of Representatives and hailed Winthrop
College for the implementation of the new Model UN Program.
The following year the Assistant Secretary General of the UN commended
Winthrop’s program as the best organized in America.
An early supporter of
the new program was Geoffrey F. Bruce, Minister and Deputy Permanent
Representative of Canada to the UN. Bruce
was instrumental in aiding Rash and R. Wilson in formation of the Model UN
program at Winthrop. He
accepted an adjunct professorship at Winthrop to help Dr. Wilson begin the
program.
The Geoffrey F. Bruce
Award was established in honor of his hard work to get the program off the
ground. In his opening speech at
Model UN I, Bruce said one of the major benefits of the Model UN program is it
“will help you immensely in deepening your understanding of international
politics, of the United Nations, and of your own interests as Americans.
You will come to understand the interests and goals of other nations.”
The Winthrop Model UN is
unique in several ways. It was the
first program of its kind to combine participation of the college students and
high school students. The college
students, who act as delegate chairs, are also enrolled in a Winthrop course on
the United Nations.
From the UN class,
students are selected for the Secretariat, which plans and runs the following
year’s conference. This year’s
Secretariat, under the leadership of Student Coordinators Ashley Burnside and
Angela McCray, began
planning the Model UN XXXII program within two weeks of the close of last
year’s conference.
Since its conception,
the Winthrop Model UN has expanded to represent 65 nations.
A simulated Security Council has also been added.
The International Court of Justice was later included, but cancelled a
few years ago due to evaluations and restructuring. The
Model League of Arab States began several years ago and proved quite successful.
Unfortunately, due to staffing problems, the Model Arab League was cancelled. The Year 2000 marked the
inauguration of the Model Organization of American States, which proved to be
an exciting committee. For the 2006
conference, the Secretary General developed the idea of the UN Reform Committee. To date more
than 2,000 Winthrop students and 10,000 high school students have participated in
these conferences.