Lack of interest leads to WSUV no-show at Model United Nations Conference
This turned out to be a far tougher piece to produce than I thought. Originally I was doing a story on the IT Help Desk at WSUV. However, due to someone unforeseen complications, I was abandoned the topic for the time being.
On Friday, my sister told me that a WSUV student was scheduled to attend a Model United Nations conference at Clark College this previous weekend. In the past I have been involved in Model UN at Clark College and WSUV, so I asked if I could attend one of the days to report on the conference and the WSUV student.
On Saturday night (Feb 9), I found out that the student had failed to show up. I wasn’t going to change topics again, so I recorded interviews about the conference and made a decision only yesterday (Tuesday, Feb 12) what direction to take the story.
I decided on splitting the story into three ideas/sections. The first being that WSUV was not in attendance at the conference. The second that Model UN at WSUV is a ‘club’ and being such it has several disadvantages that Clark College currently does not because it has a ‘program’. And lastly, I decided to highlight a little about the president of the WSUV Model UN club.
The story is kind of wobbly. However, the true focus of the story is to show how Model UN is a difficult program to run as a club despite having a leader with competent credentials.
Throughout this process, I have had a terrible cold that I just cannot get rid of. To prepare my voice for recording, I took cough drops, cold medicine, and drank hot tea. I think I still sound plugged up, and I think listeners will easily be able to tell I had a cold when I recorded this. I spent a lot of time editing the piece (over 12 hours) to make the sound levels better, eliminate noise, cut out breaths, coughs, and more. But I still think it could be a lot better audio story if I had more time to work on it.
Lack of interest leads to WSUV no-show at Model United Nations Conference
Audio Script:
Joshua Wagner
2/13/2013
:180
In: …dangerous path of nuclear energy
Runs: :9.75
Out: (gavel and fading murmurs)
Washington State University Vancouver students were a no-show at the 2013 Portland/Vancouver Model UN conference held on February 9th and 10th. The conference’s Director of Information, Jessie Phillips, invited the Model UN club at WSU Vancouver to attend.
In: We tried to coordinate…
Runs: :15.00
Out: …do some switching around.
The conference was hosted by Clark College. Unlike many colleges, Clark’s Model UN is a program with a budget and not a club that depends on fund raising. Jessie Phillips hopes to attend WSU Vancouver next Fall and is saddened that the college does not have a similar program.
In: I was looking for…
Runs: :7.00
Out: …much option for that.
However, even Clark College is considering cutting their program and making Model UN a club. Jennifer Hawks, Coach of Clark’s Model UN believes it should continue as it is program and a class.
In: If its a club…
Runs: :23.00
Out: …for the work that they do.
In: (MUN speech)
Runs: :6.00
Out: (MUN speech) fade out
Former coach of Clark College’s Model UN and president of Model UN at WSU Vancouver, Patrick Mehigan, concurs that are many difficulties in making Model UN work as a club.
In: It’s hard for us…
Runs: :15.00
Out: …to go to a conference.
Because of a lack of interest, the club is inactive and may not be rechartered in the Fall. However, Mehigan, a Political Science major, has not quit promoting and teaching about Model UN.
In: I would love to…
Runs: :5.00
Out: …class.
Brendan Phelan, a former WSU Vancouver student claims he learned many useful skills from Mehigan during his time as a Model UN delegate.
In: United Nations…
Runs: :16.00
Out: …global affairs.
Mehigan is in the process of publishing a textbook for Model UN and plans on working as staff at a conference next October.
This is Joshua Wagner reporting for the VanCougar.
I enjoyed this piece, Joshua. I particularly liked your lead-in that included speech from the event. One thing I thought would be difficult to do would be split your topic up like you did, but I think you did a good job. I thought you included a sufficient amount of information in each of your topics, and it wasn’t too thin in each area.
This was a very interesting piece and I found it useful to hear about the non-attendance, and then the pros of the Clark College not just having a “club.” I thought your sources were solid, and overall I liked the piece. Well done.
This piece was very interesting to listen to Josh! It was interesting to hear a piece that was about something that didn’t go all that well. (In terms of WSUV not even showing up to the model UN conference) I thought the interviews you got were perfect. It was interesting to hear the reaction of the conference’s director of information. You did a lot of cutting back and forth between your voice over and your sound bites/interview materials. I felt like this made your piece really engaging.
Good work Josh!