By Joani Gillam
Executive News Editor
Costa Model United Nations won the “Best Large Delegation” award on Jan. 27 at the Ivy League Model United Nations Conference XXIX in Philadelphia amid a flurry of awards controversy.
Both Costa and Horace Mann School, from New York City, New York, are now winners of the Best Large Delegation award of ILMUNC XXIX, an advanced Model UN conference held by the University of Pennsylvania.
Costa originally was the sole winner, but the ILMUNC Secretariat announced it had found a “mathematical error” two days after the conference’s culmination and gave Horace Mann the award as well.
“Our concerns have been expressed directly to the University of Pennsylvania and the people who ran the conference,” Costa MUN Co-Advisor Robert Timberlake said. “What I can say with complete confidence is that we broke no rules.”
In MUN, the objective of delegates in the large majority of committees is to write resolutions with other delegates throughout the course of debate. Pre-written resolutions are generally considered cheating.
According to Timberlake, Costa checked several of Horace Mann’s resolutions and found they were pre-written. One was found to have first been submitted onto turnitin.com during last year’s North American Invitational MUN, Georgetown’s MUN conference that the two schools faced off at last year.
“Winning to us is not so important that we need to cheat to get it,” Timberlake said. “Horace Mann is too good for this. Once your name is tarnished, it takes twice as long to get it clean.”
According to the ILMUNC XXIX Secretariat, all schools submitted original work throughout the course of the weekend to the best of ILMUNC’s knowledge.
“There were no substantiated allegations of any compromised resolutions submitted, and the Secretariat takes such claims very seriously with a thorough investigation process,” the ILMUNC administration said in a statement.
At the conference, Horace Mann had a higher “weighted score” than Costa, meaning that the school’s awards-to-delegate ratio was better than Costa’s. However, Horace Mann only brought 20 delegates while Costa brought 35, and Costa’s total awards surpassed the entire competition at the conference.
“It was the perfect way to end an amazing four years in the program,” Costa MUN senior Hannah James said. “I am so proud of our entire team.”
James and her partner, junior Teddy Friedman, were one of two partnerships to win Best Delegate, or “gavel,” in their committee at ILMUNC XXIX. Senior Danny Kelleher and sophomore Eva Abramson were the other pair to do so.
Last week, Costa MUN received the “Best Large Delegation” award on Feb. 2 at the Surf City MUN X conference at Huntington Beach High School.
Many advanced Costa MUN debaters are currently preparing for the final two advanced conferences of the year, which will be the Berkeley MUN LXI conference and the National High School MUN conference in New York City. Both conferences will take place the week of March 4.
Most of the current seniors in Model UN are finishing their times as Costa delegates with either the ILMUNC, BMUN or NHSMUN conferences.
“ILMUNC was the best way I could have ended my career in Mira Costa Model UN,” Secretary-General senior Taylor Lewis said. “I am so proud to be a part of this team and to have led the program this year.”
I find it funny that Mr. Timberlake would call into question another school’s integrity. In the final exam he created for his Model UN Class ( http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=mun-quiz-1 ) he asks in question 111 what the tuition is at Horace Mann. Question 112 then asks whether or not Dalton’s tuition is higher. These questions clearly have nothing to do with Model UN or International Relations and have the sole purpose of making a statement regarding the financial background of students at these schools. I would respectfully recommend that Mr. Timberlake take a look at his own integrity before questioning others.