University Presidents' Council - CONFERENCE 2021 CORNELL MODEL UNITED NATIONS - Cornell Model UN Conference
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University Presidents’
Council
CORNELL MODEL UNITED NATIONS
CONFERENCE 2021Copyright © 2021 by the Cornell Model United Nations Conference
All rights reserved. This document or any portion thereof may not be reproduced
or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the
Cornell Model United Nations Conference (CMUNC) except when used for educational
purposes.
Commercial reproduction or reference to this document requires the express
written consent of the current Secretary-General of CMUNC. Further terms of use
for commercial purposes will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
For more information on CMUNC, use the Contact Us page located at: cmunc.net
2CMUNC 2021 Secretariat
Secretary-General
Malvika Narayan
Director-General
Bryan Weintraub
Chief of Staff
James “Hamz” Piccirilli
Director of Events
Alexandra Tsalikis
Director of Outreach
Akosa Nwadiogbu
Director of Communications
Annie Rogers
Director of Finance
Daniel Bernstein
Director of Operations
Andrew Landesman
Under-Secretary Generals
Robyn Bardmesser
Avery Bower
John Clancy
Mariana Goldlust
3From Your Chair
Dear Delegates,
Welcome to CMUNC 2021! I will be your chair for the University Presidents’
Council! I cannot wait to see what we will be able to accomplish this weekend as
we talk about topics such as covid-19 management and equitability in college
admissions.
I am Gayatri Somaiya. I am a junior studying Biology & Government in the
College of Arts & Sciences. I am from Mumbai, India. I am so excited to spend
the weekend with you all. Outside of CIAS, I am the Vice President of the
Cornell Speech & Debate Society and the COO of the Advocacy Project. I have
been doing Model UN since middle school, so I have seen a fair amount of
different types of conferences. However, I have never chaired a virtual
conference, so this is going to be a novel and challenging experience for both of
us. That being said, I am certain that we are going to make this a fantastic
committee.
The University Presidents’ Council is going to be an imaginative experience for
you, delegates, as you have not experienced the problems that college students
and administrators face. However, put yourself in the shoes of the people you
are going to be in a few years and imagine how you would want these problems
to be solved. Some of the decisions that you make as presidents of these
universities might be decisions that presidents might make in the future as they
grapple with these exact problems.
I look forward to meeting all of you on conference day. If you have any
questions or concerns about the background guide or the committee, or if you
would like to just talk about Cornell in general, feel free to message me at
gss79@cornell.edu. Hope to hear from you soon and enjoy your semester!
Gayatri Somaiya
University Presidents’ Council Chair
CMUNC 2021
4Introduction to the Committee
The University Presidents’ Council is a council of presidents from 75
different college campuses across the country. The council meets to discuss and
resolve challenges that the representatives are facing on their respective college
campuses. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, college campuses have had to deal
with challenges that they have never experienced before. Even though some of
these issues surfaced before the start of the pandemic, the age of COVID-19
brought a lot of these issues to light. Inequalities between students had never
been clearer, whether individuals are struggling with housing conditions or
mental health issues. Prospective students have found themselves wondering if
they could afford to attend their planned institution, or if opting to an in-state
college was the more reasonable alternative.
Presidents of colleges and universities have important decisions to make
during this Council session. Some pressing issues include the standards of
admissions inequalities on college campuses, virtual education transitions, and
grading frameworks.
This committee will function as a typical Specialized Agency set in the
present. This means that Covid-19 will play a role in whichever decisions that
you will make. You also have to take into account potential budget cuts and
rising costs due to the current economic crisis going on in the country.
5Additionally, you have to consider the differences and similarities between the
multiple college campuses and try to come up with uniform rules that work
across the college campuses while also contending with the differences between
them.
6Topic A: Covid-19 and College Campuses
Introduction to the Topic
One of the most pertinent issues that college campuses face today is the
COVID-19 pandemic. Studies have suggested that college campuses are COVID-
19 ‘super-spreaders’, especially during the first two weeks of the academic year.
During the fall semester, many colleges had to deal with rising coronavirus cases
due to large, unregulated social gatherings among students. However, with
constant testing, successful contact tracing, and peer accountability, some
colleges did have successful returns to campus.
College campuses have faced many other challenges resulting from the
pandemic. Due to online classes, college campuses have seen an upsurge in
academic cheating. Students across the country have also been demanding more
flexible grading schemes and better mental health resources. As presidents, the
Council must make decisions on how to make the college experience as
equitable as possible, as well as how hard to crack down on Covid-19 violations.
History of the Topic
When the pandemic hit the United States in March of 2020, college
campuses experienced tremendous turmoil. Many colleges and universities shut
down all campus activities and sent all of the students home. Some campuses
sent their students home in the middle of spring break, without even giving the
7students a chance to collect their belongings, while other colleges gave students
a grace period to pack up their things and leave. Due to this disruption of the
students’ education, many universities decided to have flexible grading schemes.
Some universities opted to make all classes uniformly Pass/Fail, while others
allowed students to take as many classes as they would like Pass/Fail, while also
being allowed to keep some classes graded. This was to prevent students from
feeling stressed out about their grades when they had many other causes of
worry. There were arguments made for both strategies.
Neither students nor college administrators had any idea about when
students would once again be allowed on campus. When the fall semester
started coming up, different universities took different strategies. While some
universities took a risk and invited all their students back, other colleges went
completely online, and some universities adopted a hybrid model in which they
invited some students back but not all. However, the moment students started
coming back to campus, many colleges saw a rise in coronavirus cases due to
students being irresponsible and hosting large gatherings. Consequently, many
universities shut down campuses again after bringing everyone back due to the
infection rates. Nonetheless, colleges such as Cornell University took a different
approach and decided to aggressively test and contact-trace as
necessary. Although some still had clusters throughout the semester, these
8universities managed to keep the incidence rate of COVID-19 low. Other
colleges and universities also had similar success stories that raise questions
about what policies might work to curb COVID-19 rates on campus.
As online classes became more prominent, other issues also came to light.
In the fall semester, students demanded that the same policies that were decided
in the spring get carried over, such as the flexible grading scheme. They argued
that they were in the same situation that they were in during the spring of 2020
and that it was unfair to put the stress of grades back onto these students on top
of all the other potential stressors. As Presidents of the respective colleges, you
have to decide whether these arguments are worth considering and whether
students deserve to have a Pass/Fail system as many had in the spring of 2020.
For the purpose of this committee, please seek to create a system that is uniform
across colleges. This will prevent some students from getting an unfair
advantage in graduate school because they can improve their GPA, while other
students have to take all their classes Pass/Fail.
Another issue that became prominent during the pandemic was the lack
of academic integrity. Before the pandemic, most exams were in-person, where
it was easier to tell if students were cheating. However, as classes went online,
students could get away with a lot more. As Presidents, you must decide on what
is the best way to solve the problem. Does it mean being harsher on the students
9who cheat, or having stricter policies during exams? Does it mean reducing the
ability of students to cheat in other ways, or shifting the way assessments of
students are taken? These are all questions that can be discussed during the
conference.
Questions a Resolution Must Answer
1. What are some policies that must be implemented to deal with the rising
COVID-19 cases on campuses?
1. What are some administrative policies that should occur?
2. How should college administrators discipline students who break
COVID-19 policies?
2. Should there be a uniform Pass/Fail policy during the spring 2021
semester?
1. If not, what are the alternatives that could be suggested to make
grading more equitable?
3. How can faculty deal with the issue of academic integrity as classes remain
in a virtual setting?
1. How can professors make the exams more flexible, or should they
have stricter proctoring?
10Topic B: Standardized Testing and Admissions
Introduction to the Topic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many colleges decided to make
standardized testing optional because they realized it was inequitable. While
some students were able to get to testing centers because they lived in privileged
areas, many students had trouble taking the SAT or the ACT because the testing
centers were either closed due to the pandemic, or the students could not afford
to pay the entrance fees because they were trying to make ends meet. Some
studies have found that waiving the standardized testing applications has
improved admissions rates to elite universities. However, these inequalities in
standardized testing have long existed. Some students receive an advantage over
other students because they are able to take extra classes to prepare for
standardized tests. Additionally, standardized testing does not take into account
any factors except how the student does on the day of the test. On the flip side,
there are benefits to standardized testing. Standardized testing does give a
uniform medium of comparison when students come from many different
backgrounds and types of schooling. These tests also prepare students for high-
pressure testing that they are probably going to face in college. As Presidents of
your respective colleges, you must take this time to decide whether standardized
11testing is necessary for admissions and whether or not there are feasible
alternatives.
History of the Topic
Standardized testing was used as an alternative to oral exams in the US
during the 1840s. Horace Mann, who is considered to be the father of
standardized testing came back from Europe in 1945, convinced that written tests
were superior to oral examinations. Therefore, Horace Mann had members of
the Board of Education develop written examinations to give to students in the
Boston school system. After this change occurred, standardized testing began to
be adopted everywhere across the country. Currently, the SAT and the ACT are
the most common standardized tests that are available to judge students’
aptitude for college.
As mentioned in the introduction, there are both negative and positive
aspects of standardized testing. Supporters of standardized testing maintain that
standardized testing offers an objective measure of education. This is because
teacher’s grading practices are naturally subjective across schools and having an
objective measure that colleges can look at is extremely helpful. However, strong
performance on standardized tests often is correlated with socio-economic
privilege. Students score higher when they have access to elite preparation
classes and other resources. Therefore, critics of standardized tests argue that
12standardized testing is an inaccurate metric of a student’s progress because some
students have an unfair advantage over others.
Alternatives to Standardized Testing
There are several alternatives to standardized testing that you can discuss
during the committee. These alternatives are not mutually exclusive. As
Presidents, you can decide which of these potential alternatives could be used in
place of or in conjunction with standardized testing to make the admissions
process more equitable. Stealth assessments: A passive method of collecting
educational data through online softwares such as Khan academy. These
softwares can collect information throughout a semester or school year. This
type of assessment gives a more holistic view of how students do, rather than
measuring how they do at one point in time. However, this might raise privacy
concerns. The software is also extremely new, so it might be harder to establish
across most schools across the country. Social and emotional skills: Students
could be surveyed on other measures, such as the Gallup student poll (which
measures levels of hope, engagement and well-being). Advocates argue that
these types of polls are better predictors of college success than SAT/ACT
scores. However, these polls might not give a good indicator of academic
performance when applying to universities. Video-game assessments: These
types of assessments try to indicate higher-order thinking. These tests are still in
13their infancy, but could become viable options in the future. Performance or
portfolio-based assessments: These type of assessments are what you
would normally think of as holistic measures of admission. These include
projects, individual and group presentations, reports, and papers that are
collected throughout high school. Other things to put more weight on during
admissions could be public service, show-casing their leadership in
extracurricular activities. You also have to think about how to value the
educational achievements of students from resource-poor schools, even if these
achievements may not be up to the standards of other students from privileged
backgrounds.
Questions a Resolution Must Answer
1. What should be valued most in admissions: objective measures or
personalized applications?
2. Based on the previous question, which admission strategy would be the
best for that goal?
3. What are the potential pros and cons of that strategy, and how would you
be able to deal with that? Should these admissions strategies vary across
institutions?
4. What will be each President’s role in making sure that these policies are
implemented in college campuses?
145. What policies should be put in place to address the difficulties of college
admissions during the age of COVID-19?
15List of Positions
Christina Hull Paxon (Brown University)
Joseph E. Aoun (Northeastern University)
Philip J. Hanlon (Dartmouth College)
Peter Salovey (Yale University)
David W. Leebron (Rice University)
John J. DeGioia (Georgetown University)
Michael K. Young (Texas A&M University)
Morton Schapiro (Northwestern University)
Michael J. Smith (Berkeley College)
Julio Frenk (University of Miami)
Helen Drinan (Simmons University)
Robert A. Brown (Boston University)
Robert Zimmer (University of Chicago)
Amy Guttman (University of Pennsylvania)
Ronald J. Daniels (John Hopkins University)
Michael M. Crow (Arizona State University)
Maud S. Mandel (Williams College)
Lawrence Bacow (Harvard University)
Marc Tessier-Lavigne (Stanford University)
16Bruce Harrield (University of Iowa)
Freeman A. Hrabowski, III (University of Maryland, Baltimore County)
Edward Guiliano (New York Institute of Technology)
Ronald D. Liebowitz (Brandeis University)
Lee C. Bollinger (Columbia University)
Vincent Price (Duke University)
Sylvia Mathews Burwell (American University)
Martha Pollack (Cornell University)
Dr. Michael Drake (University of California)
G. Gabrielle Starr (Pomona University)
Hirom Chodosh (Claremont-McKenna College)
Christopher L. Eisegruber (Princeton University)
Mark Schlissel (University of Michigan)
Jay Hartzell (UT Austin)
L. Rafael Reif (MIT)
Daniel Deirmeier (Vanderbilt University)
John I. Jenkins (University of Notre Dame)
Gregory L. Fenves (Emory University)
Peter Hans (University of North Carolina system)
Andrew D. Hamilton (NYU)
Jim Malatras (SUNY system)
17Anthony Monaco (Tufts University)
Sarah Mangelsdorf (University of Rochester)
Katherine Rowe (William & Mary)
James E. Ryan (University of Virginia)
Suresh Garimella (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Michael Fitts (Tulane University)
Shirley Ann Jackson (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
Angel Cabrera (Georgia Institute of Technology)
John Douglas Simon (Lehigh University)
Timothy L. Killeen (University of Illinois System)
18Works Cited
Walke HT, Honein MA, Redfield RR. Preventing and Responding to COVID-19
on College Campuses. JAMA. 2020;324(17):1727–1728. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.20027
Gajewski, M. (2021, January 13). College campuses are covid-19 superspreaders,
study says. Retrieved February 24, 2021, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mishagajewski/2021/01/13/college-campuses-are-
covid-19-superspreaders-study-says/?sh=21374e1752fd
Kamenetz, A. (2015, January 06). What schools could use instead of standardized
tests. Retrieved February 24, 2021, from
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/01/06/371659141/what-schools-could-use-
instead-of-standardized-tests
Ezekiel J. Dixon-Román, F. (2019, October 29). Standardized tests like SAT and
ACT favor students with FAMILY wealth: Opinion. Retrieved February 24, 2021,
from https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/sat-act-standardized-tests-
equity-socioeconomic-status-wealth-20191029.html
Llc, E. (2020, August 31). What if standardized tests aren't part of college
acceptance?: Earnest. Retrieved February 24, 2021, from
https://www.earnest.com/blog/standardized-testing/
Students seek pass-fail options again for fall in light of covid-19. (n.d.). Retrieved
February 24, 2021, from
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/11/30/students-seek-pass-fail-
options-again-fall-light-covid-19
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