Contact: Sammy McDavid
More than 350 state students and teachers are finalizing plans to gather Thursday [Feb. 8] at Mississippi State for the university's 22nd annual simulation of the United Nations' representative assembly.
Representatives of 18 high schools and four universities will be on campus through Saturday [the 10th] for the 2001 Mississippi Model Security Council. Most council activities will take place in the Colvard Union.
In addition to assuming major leadership roles in mock council sessions, the students and teachers will work directly with two career U.N. diplomats. Ambassador Datuk Hasmy Bin Agam of Malaysia is scheduled to be joined by a representative from another permanent mission to the New York City-based world body.
"Over the more than two decades since it began, the Mississippi Model Security Council has provided an excellent format for students to learn or expand their skills of diplomacy, negotiation and compromise," said MMSC director Rickey L. Travis.
"That this year's event is expected to attract the largest number of participants ever speaks to the program's continuing success," the associate professor of political science added.
At 9 a.m. Friday [the 9th], Ambassador Hasmy and his U.N. colleague will be part of a general question-and-answer session open to the public in the union ballroom.
Signed in 1945 by the United States and 49 other nations, the U.N. charter gives the Security Council "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security." Though principally concerned with the resolution of conflicts, it is the only U.N. body with the power to create and deploy peacekeeping forces.
In addition to the political science department, the Mississippi Model Security Council is sponsored by MSU's College of Arts and Sciences, John C. Stennis Institute of Government and University Honors Program.
For additional information, telephone Travis at (662) 325-2711 or 325-7866.