U.N. Laurels for CSUN’s Young Diplomats

There are no short cuts to the top honors handed out annually at the National Model United Nations (MUN) competition in New York City, believes Peter Kappas of CSUN’s Political Science Department.

Kappas’ tough, intellectually aggressive young students—the products of his intensive two-semester MUN course in applied diplomacy—proved his point during the spring 2007 competition at the U.N., where competing teams were assigned to represent a variety of countries or organizations. CSUN’s team—representing Iceland—walked away with the Outstanding Delegation Award, equivalent to first place.

For the past five years, Kappas has prepared the Northridge MUN students to do diplomatic battle in New York with top teams from 270 colleges and universities worldwide. In the process, their public speaking, negotiation and resolution writing skills are honed to a fine point. As a result, the past five years of CSUN teamwork has earned the university a gleaming national reputation and a trove of awards in the field.

To gain such glory, Kappas’ students eat, sleep and dream world issues. “They spent three months preparing specifically and only for this conference,” Kappas said of their recent win. “They wrote about seven drafts of their position papers.”

The Outstanding Delegation Award, together with an Outstanding Position Paper Award, burnished the team’s 2006-07 record of 10 Distinguished Delegate Awards, 10 Outstanding Delegate Awards, 11 Research Awards and other Position Paper Awards earned at the United Nations competition or in local and regional competitions.