Model U.N. team wraps up semester with more awards

The Model United Nations team, run through the Political Science Department, recently wrapped up its award-winning semester at a conference in Las Vegas. Over the weekend of Nov. 19-22, the MUN team members, who are also classmates, traveled to Las Vegas to compete against other colleges and some high schools by representing individual countries during meetings that focused on various topics of international relations. Brent Burpee, the team’s head delegate, won the Outstanding Delegate Award for his representation of the United Kingdom in the Security Council meeting, where he also won an Outstanding Position Paper award. Marcus Afzali, a team member representing the United Kingdom in the U.N. High Commission on Refugees meeting, won a Distinguished Delegate Award. Kiyomi Richmond won the same award for representation of the United Kingdom in the General Assembly at a conference in Anaheim in October. Also at the Las Vegas conference, Haroun Nabhan won an Outstanding Position Paper Award for representing Bangladesh in the UNHCR meeting. Peter Kappas, political science professor for the MUN class, said the team will prepare for a conference in New York with the “most qualified students” from this semester.

-Ryan Denham

Student broadcasting club to host resume-writing workshop

The College Students in Broadcasting will host a resume-writing workshop on Tuesday at 5 p.m., with major points of focus being how to get a resume noticed and how to get a job interview. The workshop, which will be held in Manzanita Hall 112, will be led by Robert Gustafson, a professor in the Cinema and Television Arts Department, industry professional and head of the Entertainment Industry Institute. Gustafson said he would emphasize that resumes do not get people jobs, interviews do. In turn, he will discuss the function of the resume insomuch as it gets someone an interview. “Resumes should not state the obvious,” Gustafson said. “They should highlight a person’s achievements, skills and personality.” He will discuss how resumes should be written in the “jargon” of the organization where the person is seeking employment or an internship. He said many large human resources departments no longer read resumes. They use computer scanners that match keywords in the resumes to keywords in the job vacancy descriptions, he said, with the HR departments focusing more on the interviewing process.

-R.D.

Study suggests investing in higher ed will save money later

BERKELEY, Calif. – Investing in higher education could net savings for California taxpayers, a new study suggests.

That’s because the number of people reaching college age is growing and if they don’t have the opportunity to learn, taxpayers could end up paying for more people living in poverty and even in jail, according to the study by University of California, Berkeley researchers.

The study, commissioned by the bipartisan Campaign for College Opportunity and released Wednesday, looked at the potential return on investing in education and the cost of doing nothing.

In general, the study found the state will get a return of $3 for every new dollar spent on community colleges, public universities and student financial aid. For every dollar not spent, the loss was two tax dollars.

California set a blueprint for investing in college with the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education that guaranteed an education for qualified students. But over the years, state spending has slipped.

“This governor and the Legislature now have an opportunity, a precious window of time to ensure that college access is expanded for our growing young population,” said Abdi Soltani, executive director of the Campaign for College Opportunity, a coalition founded by the California Business Roundtable, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Community College League of California.

Campaign leaders plan to use the report to talk about how to improve access to college. They are making a 20-city tour that began Wednesday in Sacramento and will continue through January. The campaign hopes to have a legislative agenda by spring.

– Associated Press