The Department of Political Science sponsored the 50th Arkansas Model United Nations (AMUN) conference at the University of Central Arkansas on November 20-21, 2015. More than 560 delegates representing 122 countries from 29 high schools in Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Oklahoma participated in the conference. Breanna Wilbanks from Russellville, Sociology (major) and Anthropology (minor) at UCA, served as AMUN Secretary-General (pictured below, bottom-left) and Dr. Mark Mullenbach served as Coordinator of the AMUN conference. UCA President Tom Courtway gave the welcoming address to the delegates during the Opening Session in Ida Waldran Auditorium on Friday, November 20th. Mr. Bernd G. Reindl, Deputy Consul General at the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Houston, gave the keynote address during the Opening Session (pictured below, bottom-right).
Committee chairs included Jesus Torres (Special Political Committee), Kayla Close (Social & Humanitarian Committee), Willis Arnold (Economic & Finance Committee), Alex Battaglia (Security Council), Stephanie Gray (Historical Security Council), Katelyn Wilkins (Economic & Social Council), Ashley Semiche (Model Arab League), and Nick Cartwright (Human Rights Council). Dr. Mark Elrod, Visiting Assistant Professor in the UCA Department of Political Science, served as Coordinator of the Model International Court of Justice (MICJ). During the Closing Session on November 21st, the “Outstanding Delegation” award was presented to the Nigerian delegation (Pulaski Academy, Little Rock) and the “Outstanding Delegation Runner-Up” awards were presented to the French delegation (Conway High School, Conway) and United Kingdom delegation (Haas Hall Academy, Fayetteville). Several students were also awarded “Outstanding Delegate” awards for performance in each of the nine committees.
On Friday evening, a 50th AMUN Anniversary reception and dinner were held in Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center. Sixteen former AMUN secretaries-general (pictured below, top-left) and several other invited guests participated in the event, including Mr. David Gruber (AMUN secretary-general in 1967) and Mr. Brett Newcomb (AMUN secretary-general in 1968). Mr. Robert B. Andrew, U.S. Department of State Diplomat-in-Residence at the University of Oklahoma, was the guest speaker during the dinner.
