LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- President J. Barton Luedeke has issued a proclamation commemorating 30 years of the National Model United Nations (NMUN) program at Rider University.

The events on Rider's Lawrenceville campus scheduled for Homecoming Weekend, Friday and Saturday, October 24 and 25, will coincide with Friday's worldwide observance of United Nations Day and will mark the official start of activities for the 1998 Rider NMUN team.

The United Nations Day traditions of raising of the UN flag and unison reading of the UN charter preamble will begin the ceremonies in front of Moore Library on Friday at 12:35 p.m. Dr. Phyllis M. Frakt, vice president for academic affairs and provost, will preside over the event along with Dr. Peter Aberger, chairman of the department of foreign languages and literature and international student advisor, and Dr. Bosah Ebo, professor of communications and Fulbright scholar.

A homecoming reunion of NMUN teams who have represented the University in annual competitions in New York City will take place on Saturday following a second flag raising at 11 a.m. According to Dr. Chau T. Phan, professor of political science who has been faculty adviser of Rider NMUN teams since 1968, there have been 265 students involved in the program through its years of existence at Rider. It is the longest continuing academic competition in which Rider has been involved.

To commemorate the Rider NMUN's 30th anniversary, the 1998 team has coordinated a University-wide trick-or-treat campaign for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) that will end on Halloween. Donations will help babies, nursing mothers, and mothers-to-be in over 100 developing countries.

The NMUN is designed to give students a simulated experience of how the UN General Assembly and other international organizations handle and resolve world problems and issues. Each participating school is assigned a UN member state to represent, depending on the size of the team, and students are delegated into committees. The committees research, debate, and negotiate issues in order to arrive at resolutions acceptable to a majority of delegations. Unlike the actual United Nations structure, however, all NMUN teams begin at the same level of power and influence.

Last year's NMUN competition attracted over 2,000 students representing 170 colleges and universities from North America, Europe, and Japan. Delegations from Rider have been cited for numerous awards over the past 30 years, including the top honor of being named "Outstanding Delegation" four times since 1974.

"Every year we start out with about 40 names, and I approach each student," said Dr. Phan. "Most students find that it's too much sacrifice -- for three credits, students do a tremendous amount of work on topics that are esoteric. It's a lot more demanding than a regular class.

"But many students who have taken the course consider it relevant to their success in life. The ability to get people to come together to solve a common problem is what is pointed to by our alumni as being the most useful learning experience."

For more information on the NMUN program or the upcoming events, contact Dr. Phan at (609) 896-0766.

Rider University's Lawrenceville campus is located five miles south of Princeton and three miles north of Trenton on Route 206 in Lawrence Township, NJ. The campus is one-half mile south of exit 7A of Interstate 95.