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October 30, 2005

The Role of the Next Generation’s Leaders in Reforming the United Nations: The Tufts University Community Celebrates UN Day

More than 100 members of the Tufts University community gathered in front of the Fletcher School’s Ginn Library at on October 24 to celebrate United Nations Day, the anniversary of the founding of the international organization in San Francisco in 1945.

For the fifth consecutive year, students from the Fletcher School and the Tufts University Department of Arts and Sciences organized a flag-raising ceremony and talk to mark the occasion.

The celebration started with the playing of carillon music by Douglas Damron, Music Director at Tufts’ Goddard Chapel, and a trumpet call by Tufts University Senior David Fair.

Fletcher second-year MALD students Cornelia Schneider and Gillian Cull welcomed the crowd, some of whom came dressed in their colorful national costumes and military uniforms.

Professor Jamshed Bharucha, Tufts University Provost, then linked the event to the university’s role in education and advancing knowledge.

“Let us take advantage of the celebration today to advance our knowledge of the UN,” Bharucha said.

Bharucha said that in celebrating the principles upon which the UN was founded, “we must learn from each other’s cultures—the teaching of this is one of the core responsibilities of the university—so that we may understand each other’s differences.”

Mauricio Artinano, a senior at Tufts University, then spoke about the need to strengthen the UN and to promote dialogue.

Artinano recalled how his early idealistic images of the UN were shattered when he participated in his first Model UN event, which was dominated by difficult negotiations to pass weak resolutions. However, one of his high school teachers explained that this frustrating experience was actually a good opportunity to understand conflict resolution.

Artinano urged students to work to strengthen the UN and promote dialogue. "Any frustration is borne out of a deep respect for what [the U.N.] stands for," he said, stressing that, “while changes may depend on the will of its member-states, lasting changes still depend on the individual.”

Heather Sensibaugh, a first-year MALD student at Fletcher, then spoke to the audience about how they should rise to the challenge of reforming the UN.

Sensibaugh said her work with the UN last year was colored by the “turmoil” brought by the oil-for-food scandal and the issue of sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers in the DR Congo.

“The next 60 years (of the UN) is where the period of reforms come in,” she said, emphasizing the role of the next generation in reforming the institution.

“I look forward to the time when my classmates at Fletcher can start working for the UN and applying what they have learned in this school,” Sensibaugh added.

The Ambassachords, a Fletcher a capella singing group, sang the Chinese song "Tuan jie jiu shi li liang" (meaning “Unity is Strength”) before the UN flag was raised on a flagpole to the left of the American flag.

The ceremony closed with a reading of the UN Charter by University Chaplain Reverend David O'Leary. He then used expanded on a quote from theologian John Courtney Murray: "’Civilization dies with the death of dialogue. May the UN continue, so that dialogue may continue, and also civilization.”

The UN Day celebration continued in the evening when Fletcher students met with Tufts University undergraduates to share their experiences in working at the UN, other international organizations and government agencies.

Rahul Chandran, a second-year MALD student who also leads Fletcher’s Mentor Program for Tufts University undergraduates, spoke about the challenging environment he found himself in working in a UN aid program in Afghanistan. Schneider, meanwhile, spoke about her summer internship doing legal research at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia at the Hague.

After the brief program, the undergraduate students stayed on to mingle and get ideas with the Fletcher students on possible career and internship options and advice on how to pursue them.

Provost Bharucha said this year’s celebration of UN Day was the biggest in terms of turn-out during the flag-raising event and student participation.

Article by Sharon R. Rivera, MALD '07

Posted by jessica at October 30, 2005 03:54 PM