Reporter Volume 25, No.21 March 17, 1994

By MARK WALLACE
Reporter Staff

Nine UB undergraduates traveled to Luxembourg over winter break to
participate in a simulation of the European Union (EU) decision-making
process that was conducted Jan. 4-9 and involved about 200 students
from New York State and 12 European countries. The New York Consortium
for Model European Community Simulation (NYCMECS) and the Institute
for European and International Studies (IEIS) of Luxembourg organized
the simulation, which is known as NYSLUX (New York State-Luxembourg).
	Focus of the simulation was on the creation of a new European
system of monetary integration that could help Europe in its current
recession, says Donald Eagles of Political Science, UB faculty advisor
for the project, who accompanied the students to Luxembourg.
	"I had an enormously positive reaction to the whole process,"
Eagles said. "The students got a chance to play the role of decision
maker, and to meet other students from around New York State and much
of Europe."
	According to Eagles, the simulation program was developed and
begun at SUNY-Brockport last year. The site of the simulation will
move back and forth each year from SUNY-Brockport to Luxembourg,
Eagles said.
	Eagles said that the simulation had two major benefits for UB
students, the first of which was simply getting a chance to visit
Europe. "Being in Luxembourg, meeting Europeans and being surrounded
by people committed to the European Union was a wonderful opportunity
for the students," Eagles said. "It was great for them to be there in
Europe with an academic mission. All but one of the students stayed on
after the simulation to travel in Europe."
	But students also learned on a highly technical level how the
EU operates, Eagles said. "They learned about the incredibly complex
details of the issue of monetary integration," Eagles said. The
simulation helped deepen student understanding of the EU and American
perceptions of it, Eagles said.
	One indication of the value that students saw in their trip
was the fact that all of them who are not graduating this year want to
go again next year, Eagles said. "The students intend to carry this
on, and right now they're trying to form a club," he said. "It's all a
measure of how much they've learned."
	Marc Fishbach, the Minister of Education for Luxembourg, and
Yves Mersch, Director of the Treasury of Luxembourg, were just two of
the important leaders who addressed the students at the simulation,
Eagles said.
	The UB students who attended the simulation were Tomislav
Djurdjevich, Peter Soukas, Shawn Bradia, Nancy Pellegrini, Min Chan,
Vasilios Tasikas, James Domzalski, George Smolen, and Stephanie
Mennen.