ridgerunner • thursday, January 27, 1972
Simulation Exercise Brings The Learning
Experience Closer to the Student
A Inter-Nation Simulation
Competition d»veloped and dir
ected by the Political Science
Department brought eighty
High School students to UNC-A
on January 15 to participate in a
unique and exciting educational
experience.
Inter-Nation Simulation is a
“game” designed to help students
grasp the complexities and in
tricacies of world politics by
involving them in an artificial
setting where they must make the
decisions and guide the nation
through peace and war.
Earlier in the term, UNC-A
students took this “game” to
eight area high schools where
they asked teachers and students
to participate first in learning
basic simulation and then, later,
to engage in an area-wide com
petition.
Team-taught courses were
arranged to get the high school
students acquainted with the
simulation exercise which has
become a well-known and well-
received teaching aid in many
political science courses at
UNC-A.
Dr. Bahrum Farzanegan who
arranged the competition and who
had a controlling hand in most of
the events leading up the com
petition, said, “We’re interested
in trying to make the educa
tional experience were real to
the student by making him part
of the situation, part of a life and
death situation.”
Eight area high schools par
ticipated in the event. When it
was all over Dorb, a small, semi
industrialized nation (Asheville
School) was judged best overall.
In the competition, there were
two coalitions, the Blue and the
Grey, lead respectively by the
two atoic powers in the sim
ulation world. Algo and Zena. The
events which followed showed a
steady deterioration of the allies
of Algo and a shift in the balance
in opposition to Algo’s tyrrany
of the coalition. The pressure on
the system was a fuel crisis, a
shortage in the vital Farzanium
supplies of the world powers.
The Farzanium mines, however,
were located in the neutral zone
between Dorb and Yora and much
of the jostling and pushing in the
world camps was aimed at the
partitioning of the Farzanium
resources among the coalitions.
By the end of the exercise,
the coalitions had been dis
solved and Algo had stormed out
of its share of International
Organization meetings.
The competition was carried
out with the aid of computer
resources supplied by Educational
Computing Services. Carl
Ballard, a former UNC-A students
and author of the computer
The internal workings of the simulation nation
include the management of an economy, trade
agreements, as well as international diplomacy.
Here a nation sorts through communiques, World
Times Reports, and trade agreements with other
nations.
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Representatives of the various nations present their opinions in the International
Organization meeting. r~Z I IT ^
Communications:
Power-Systems Behind
The Press at UNC-A
from page 2
only persons left from the time u'hen th^ original Ridge
runner was created and since he has helped the paper
during its many fights for autonomy from the SGA has
rather a maternal role in the operation of this nev^spaper;
he is the administrator whose interests are most tied to the
newspaper.
By all rights, the Student Affairs Officer should be the
liaison between the student press and the administration
but since Dr. Riggs has both a knowledge of the past as well
as having had a controlling hand in the creation of the
publication, he is that “liaison''.
When plans were made to change the name of the news
paper last year, he rushed in to state that it would take many
meetings and conferences between the SGA, the newspaper,
and the administration before the name could be changed.
Similarly, recently when a new policy statement was pro
duced, Dr. Riggs conducted the meetings and in fact, directed
much of the thrust of the statement.
Dr. Riggs is probably more responsible for the existence
of a newspaper on this campus than any other single entity.
His personal force and insistence have kept the paper
‘‘constant", if not a little staid.
When staff appointments are made at the end of the year,
the ceremony takes place in Dr. Rigg's office for legitimacy.
When it was hinted at last year that the Ridgerunner would
not choose a faculty advisor. Dean Riggs issued a few re
joinders to remind the staff that an advisor was de rigeur.
This is not meant as an indictment of Dr. Riggs; it is only
meant to clarify one of the most intangible of power relation
ships on this campus. The content of this newspaper is not
controlled by the Vice-Chancellor but the spirit is.
SOME PREDICTIONS
There is every possibility at this point that UNC-A will
have a weekly newspaper by the end of this year. That is the
is the aim of the present staff.
But there are some changes that must be made in the
near future: first, there must be more student involve
ment in and interest in the Ridgerunner, as well as, faculty
involvement.
Secondly, there has to be more happening at UNC-A to
justify the existence of a weekly newspaper; the members
of the "academic community" will have to begin to take
advantage of the communication available to them. Indeed,
this is the recurring theme in all evalutation of the media
at UNC-A; the withering away of powerful media and com
petent media due to the lack of interest and lack of student
use.
If there is any cure for the colorless and insipid tone of
much of the media at UNC-A, it is a greater amount of
student interest. (More next week)
version of the simulation ran much
of the computer service for the
simulation competition. Also
used for the competition was a
system of closed circuit TV which
connected leaders of nations to
International Organization
Meetings as well as let viewers
in the Humanities Lecture Hall
watch the action in the simulation.
Dr. Farzanegan and the other
organizers of the competition
found the expereince reward
ing, so rewarding in fact, that Dr.
Farzanegan wants to have another
competition next year- with
thirty nations.
Film
Society
Hardy Kruger and Patricia
Gozzi star in the film, which
features music by Maurice Jarre,
composer of “Lawrence of Arabia”
and “Dr. Zhivago.”
Single admission for “Sundays
and Cybele” is 75c for students,
$1.25 for faculty and staff.
Season subscriptions for all seven
films in the UNC-A Film Society
spring series will be on sale
at $3.00 for students, $5.00 for
faculty and staff, with a special
$7.50 rate for individual-plus-
spouse.
3 ways to make
your family
comfortable
PDH
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