Students from 12 Universities to Role-play EU Negotiations
Role-playing as presidents, prime ministers, ambassadors and commissioners in a simulation of European Union meetings, more than 160 Midwest college students will try their hands addressing issues and problems European nations face.
The Midwest Model European Union (EU-Midwest) will take place Thursday through Saturday, April 19-21, 2007 at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. All sessions will be held in the University Place Conference Center, 850 W. Michigan St.
Students from 12 colleges and universities across Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio will participate in the EU-Midwest. Following the protocols of their real-life counterparts, the students will seek to build consensus around proposals regarding foreign policy, economic/financial affairs, agriculture and the environment.
More than two dozen European nations belong to the European Union that was founded in 1957. Created to enhance economic, social and political cooperation among its members, the union now represents the world's largest economy and its largest trading power. IUPUI political science Professor John McCormick says the hands-on simulation offers participating students an exceptional opportunity to learn the workings of the European Union.
"You can teach students about Congress, (or the United Nations and European Union), but if they participate in role-playing they learn a lot more about the decision-making process," McCormick said. "It's a practical exercise."
The EU-Midwest hosted by IUPUI, now in its 14th year, is the second oldest of six such simulations held in the United States.
This year's keynote speaker, Angelos Pangratis, deputy head of the EU mission in Washington D.C., will address students from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. Friday, April 20 in the University Place Conference Center auditorium. Students will break for their sessions following Pangratis's speech.
Working in teams of seven, the students will role-play meetings of three EU institutions: the European Council, the European Commission and the Council of Ministers. An awards ceremony will honor the students' choices of Best Delegation and Best Individual Delegate.
Indiana universities participating and the countries their teams will represent are:
Ball State University, France and Poland; Butler University, Italy; IU Bloomington, Luxembourg and Romania; IU South Bend, Bulgaria; IUPUI, Germany, Greece and Ireland; and Rose-Hulman, the Netherlands and UK.
Teams from Drake University in Iowa will represent Hungary and Sweden.
Michigan universities participating and the countries they represent are: Grand Valley State University, Belgium and Portugal; and Western Michigan, Slovakia.
Teams from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Missouri, will represent Estonia and Finland.
Denison University of Ohio will represent the Czech Republic.
Information about the Model EU is available online: http://www.iupui.edu/~modeleu.
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