Yale University defended their Best Large Delegation award at HNMUN 2012
The Harvard National Model United Nations (HNMUN) is the largest and most competitive university-level Model UN conference in the world and serves as the collegiate championship for many of the teams in attendance. And the delegation awards went to…
- Best Large Delegation: Yale University
- Outstanding Large Delegation: University of Chicago
- Best Small Delegation: George Washington University
- Best International Delegation: Universidad Simon Bolivar
Here’s a video from Closing Ceremonies:
Here are a few photos of delegates in action:
Special, Political, and Decolonization (SPECPOL)
Hunter Richard moderates SPECPOL
Brazil (Universidad Metropolitana) asks for support of their amendment
Papua New Guinea (University of Miami) gets the committee excited about the amendment
India (Clark University) explains his amendment on export controls
Cambodia (Laval Law School) supports India's amendment
Japan (Universidad Simon Bolivar) warns countries about the possibility of exploiting loopholes for nuclear energy
Argentina (Universidad Central de Venezuela) presents their amendment
The United Kingdom (Yale) makes a speech in SPECPOL
Honduras (Mount Holyoke College) speaks against an amendment. That amendment would ultimately not pass.
Time to vote!
Other Committees
Delegates from the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello Guyana are enjoying their time at HNMUN
Harvard Head Delegate Rodolfo Diaz role-plays Fidel Castro as the chair of the Gabinete Ministerial Cubano three-way joint crisis committee
The Gabinete Ministerial Cubano was conducted in Spanish. It proved to be a popular committee at HNMUN, especially since many Latin American universities compete at the conference.
A delegate from Clark University works on her proposal for the NGO Forum
Delegates caucus in the World Intellectual Property Organization
The Security Council dais analyzes the crisis update
China (University of Chicago) speaks in the Security Council
Closing Ceremonies & Awards Analysis:
Yale won the Best Large Delegation award again
George Washington won the Best Small Delegation award with a team of mostly freshmen
Carleton University celebrates their best performance ever at HNMUN
Awards Analysis:
We only have an unofficial tally at the moment, but the top ten delegations sorted first by weighted score of awards and then by number of awards won (double delegations count as one award) were:
1. Yale University (10 Best, 3 Outstanding, 2 Honorable Mention)
2. University of Chicago (4 Best, 5 Outstanding, 8 Honorable Mention)
3. University of Pennsylvania (4 Best, 6 Outstanding, 3 Honorable Mention)
4. Florida International University (0 Best, 7 Outstanding, 2 Honorable Mention)
5. Universidad Simon Bolivar (2 Best, 2 Outstanding, 1 Honorable Mention)
6. Emory University (3 Best, 0 Outstanding, 1 Honorable Mention)
7. Peruvian Universities (1 Best, 1 Outstanding, 2 Honorable Mention)
8. US Military Academy at West Point (1 Best, 2 Outstanding, 0 Honorable Mention)
9. Universidad Central de Venezuela (0 Best, 0 Outstanding, 6 Honorable Mention)
10. United Netherlands (0 Best, 1 Outstanding, 4 Honorable Mention)
Yale University represented the United Kingdom and successfully defended their Best Large Delegation award with a total of 10 gavels. That means they won Best Delegate in about a third of the committees available which is quite an achievement at a very competitive conference like HNMUN. The ten gavels combined with five other awards (plus a better award-to-delegate ratio) allowed them to pull ahead as the best team at HNMUN.
The University of Chicago also put in an impressive performance as China and won the most individual awards of any team in attendance. This enabled them to capture the Outstanding Large Delegation award. The University of Pennsylvania also contended for a large delegation award with many individual awards as the United States, and Florida International University stepped up to its P5 assignment as Russian Federation to win many individual awards as well.
There was some separation after the top four teams, but these other teams all had strong showings. Universidad Simon Bolivar got a balanced performance from its team and took the Best International Delegation award to keep the award in Venezuela. They were given a standing ovation and applause from their Venezuelan peers. The Peruvian Universities delegation made a huge improvement from last year and contended for the best international delegation award this year. Universidad Central de Venezuela, United Netherlands, and Universidad Metropolitana also put in strong performances among the international teams. Among North American teams, Emory University also had a big improvement compared to last year and West Point won its share of awards to stay among the top ten delegations.
George Washington University sent a small team of almost all freshmen and was able to win two gavels en route to the Best Small Delegation award. Other teams with multiple award winners included Clark University, University of Miami, Utrecht University, Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, Mount Holyoke College, University of Edinburgh, Carleton University, University of Exeter, Pitzer College, and Universidad del Rosario. Plenty of other teams had at least one individual award winner including Portland State University and Boston College with one gavel each.
HNMUN is always extremely competitive and participating in committee with some of the best delegates from around the world should already be a rewarding experience even if the challenge may not always be enjoyable. Therefore, congrats to ALL the delegates for participating at HNMUN this weekend!
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Finally, it’s very easy to get lost while trying to cover such a large conference and our experience is made much easier when we can embed ourselves with a team. Last year Yale played host to Ryan, and this year I want to give special thanks to U.Penn and Mount Holyoke for allowing me to sit with their delegation.
