Eight students from SUNY Jamestown Community College recently participated in a live simulation of the European Union at SUNY Buffalo State College. The SUNY Model European Union is an annual effort to replicate an EU summit, as a means to help students gain familiarity with the organization and how it works. In 1988, JCC and five other colleges were invited by students from SUNY Brockport and their professor, William G. Andrews, to participate in the first event.
“We continue to be the only community college involved,” Greg Rabb, professor of political science at JCC explains. “This year, our students played the role of the Netherlands and Austria. Because they did so well preparing their originally-assigned four proposals, they were asked to improve a proposal prepared by another college.”
The JCC contingency included Irene Aloyce, Christian Baffoin, Reece Bates, Samatha Nyweide, Mia Raj, Jubal Samuelson, Ekaterina Starkova, and Anneke White. According to Rabb, they began their preparations in January, and do not earn academic credit for this work.
“They are doing this because they care and for the sheer pleasure of learning during these difficult and changing times,” Rabb shared.
Two of the proposals the students worked on won awards. Global Energy and Independence earned the Superior Proposal award, and Migration won the Distinguished Proposal award.
SUNYMEU is open to all undergraduate and graduate students worldwide. It is a student-run organization, with faculty advisors who support the students that are chosen to represent different delegations as heads of government, foreign ministers, European Commissioners, and even members of the press. Rabb serves as a co-director and board chair, and has been involved with the simulations since the organization's inception.
“I was a young, untenured faculty member at the time,” Rabb recounts. “I was encouraged by the then-dean, the late Ted Smith, who was committed to global affairs long before many others. I am the only one left of the original six faculty still involved.”
This year, Rabb delivered the Professor William G. Andrews lecture to the faculty. Andrews was a professor of political science at SUNY Brockport from 1967-1996, originator of the SUNY Model European Community, and mentor to Rabb. Each year, a senior member of the now SUNYMEU is invited to present. Rabb’s lecture, entitled Nationalism in Poland and Palestine: A Personal Comparative Approach, was funded by the University of Illinois Global Studies Grant.
Rabb further explained that students participating through JCC are supported through a three-year grant from the European Union, Buffalo State, “and a generous benefactor.” Through these funding sources, participants have no registration fees, but do incur some hotel expenses to participate in the culminating event. This year, hotel fees were covered by the JCC Programming Committee.