Buffalo State University's Department of Political Science, Public Administration, and Planning is proud to announce that our students will be participating in the SUNY Model European Union (SUNYMEU) in New York City from March 30-April 1, 2023.

SUNYMEU is a 3-day simulation of the next European Council meeting (June 2023) in which participating college campuses field four-person teams with the students playing the head of government, ministers, and permanent representatives. While SUNYMEU is guided by a team of faculty, SUNYMEU is student-run and student-directed -- it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for students to organize and host SUNYMEU. Students who participate in SUNYMEU gain a better understanding of the EU; of international and supranational organizations in general; of the EU Member States, their peoples, politics, and policies; and of major current issues of international relations. SUNYMEU also provides its approximately 125 participants with opportunities to develop their skills and techniques at negotiation and conflict resolution, public speaking, debate, expository writing, logic and reasoning, small-group dynamics, leadership, and problem-solving.

SUNYMEU 2022, hosted by Buffalo State University, was attended by students from as far afield as Germany and Russia. These events are an exceptional opportunity for students not only to develop the skills that will undoubtedly help them achieve their goals for the future, but also to allow them to expand their cultural horizons.

We are committed to making this year's SUNYMEU affordable and accessible for all our participating students. But we need your help to make that happen.

The cost of registration, travel, and lodging for SUNYMEU is expensive. The $150 registration fee for SUNYMEU will give our students the chance to participate, but even that can be a barrier to entry for some students. And although the Buffalo State team has written several grants to support SUNYMEU 2023, including from the prestigious European Union Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Action, we still need at least $3000 to cover the remaining registration expenses for both conferences. Your generosity makes this invaluable experience possible. We hope we can count on you to contribute and make Buffalo State proud!

And to be clear, SUNYMEU is just one of the annual model international conferences Buffalo State students seek to attend as part of their education in political science and public admininistration. Our department already sent students to participate in the North American Model United Nations (NAMUN) in February 2023. NAMUN is Canada's longest-running university-level Model United Nations conference, and provides a unique opportunity for students to practice and grow their abilities to problem-solve, debate, mediate, negotiate, and coordinate, and further their networking, writing, and communication skills. We would like to be able to keep sending students to simulations like NAMUN.

Your gift today helps defray the costs of students attending SUNYMEU this year, and allows us to keep offering the experience of SUNYMEU and NAMUN going forward.

Please visit our website for more information about SUNYMEU 2023. (And click here for testimonials from past students about their experiences participating in SUNYMEU.) For more information about NAMUN, please click here. Thank you for your support! And good luck to our Buffalo State student participants!