With those announcements, students from the ACT Academy in McKinney, Austin College, Denison High School, George Mason University, Hooks High School, McKinney High School, Mountain View Community College, Sherman High School and the University of Texas at Dallas shifted into high gear. They negotiated, wrote resolutions defining the position of the countries they represented, made speeches and ultimately they resolved the problem and averted, at least for a time, armed conflict. The simulated crisis was the creation of Dr. Shelton Williams, who teaches International Studies at Austin College. He and his students were preparing high school and college and university students who came to the conference to participate in one or more of the MUN conferences held in various places all over the world each year. Williams said the MUN conferences attempt to educate by simulation.
Participants write resolutions and make speeches.
They take on the role as ambassador from the country they represent. Williams said although MUNs are typically competitive, they can lose their educational value if the nations are not well and accurately represented. Because of that, participants must do extensive research on the nation they represent. Using the research as a base, they write and turn in position papers before each conference begins. The papers are part of the criteria by which participants are judged.