On Monday, 24 October 2022, the?United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI)?hosted at UN Headquarters in New York an event to mark?United Nations Day, a commemoration that remembers the entry into force of the?Charter of the United Nations. It aimed to highlight what universities and colleges worldwide are doing concerning global challenges, what multilateralism means for institutions of higher education, and what these institutions mean to the United Nations.?
The gathering served to answer questions about ways to improve the relationship between academia and the United Nations and enhance the role of faculty and student’s role in the organization’s work. The event had an audience of almost one hundred people in the conference room where it took place, and many more hundreds joined live from around the world via UN Web TV. It was the first event hosted by UNAI at UN Headquarters since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As a global community, we all know this, we are facing just an onslaught of challenges and crises,” warned Jayashri Wyatt, Chief of the Education Outreach Section at the Outreach Division of the UN Department of Global Communications. In this framework, she commented, “higher education plays an absolutely critical role in responding to them, through open dialogue, research, teaching and community engagement which drives research-based solutions to address these very serious issues.”
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, Melissa Fleming, stressed that “the academic community has been a valuable partner for the UN, and this connection has only grown since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015.” “We have the opportunity to hear from UNAI’s member institutions about their thinking on the UN and the role we play on the global stage,” she said. “You can really be part of the solutions,” Ms. Fleming added.
Robert Skinner, Deputy Director and Chief of Partnerships and Global Engagement at the Outreach Division, on the 77th anniversary of the United Nations, said that the institution “is still standing and playing its critical role in the world.” “This is an opportunity to reflect on the engagement of universities around the world with the UN (…) we advocate for meaningful collaborations with stakeholders from all sectors, but particularly, in this case, academia,” he added.
The first panel, titled?Teaching, researching and writing about multilateralism and the United Nations: Reflections, lessons learned and knowledge-sharing, had a group of renowned experts and scholars such as Dr. Daniel Naujoks from Columbia University, Ms. Savita Pawnday from the City University of New York, Dr. Peter J. Hoffman from The New School, Dr. ?. ?lgü ?zler from the State University of New York - New Paltz, and Dr. Courtney Smith, from Seton Hall University.
Omar Hernández, Program Manager of UNAI, said that “academia” also includes students at both undergraduate and graduate levels. “They are very inspired to act and mobilize people, and they have creative and innovative solutions,” he said. “We already know which challenges and global problems we have to face, so our focus should be what solutions can we get from students and scholars, from universities and different stakeholders the UN engages with,” he stressed.
The second part of the event, titled?Student activism and engagement on the United Nations goals and principles: Actions and voices from campus, had an all-female panel with students from different institutions of higher education in the United States: Ms. Sybil Wang (New York University), Ms. Lulu Okeke (Pace University), Ms. Maryam Albakarti (New York Medical College), Ms. Rolake Tomoye (Lehigh University), and Ms. Alyssa Taylor (Hood College).
In closing the event, Ms. Wyatt underlined that “there is no lack of challenges to the global community and the institution itself” and that the United Nations, while “being in service to humanity,” aims at convening “countries and peoples to address these very serious challenges.” “I am really inspired to hear from all of you about the ways you are working in your universities, as you are doing extraordinary work to promote these values and to make the world a better place,” she concluded.
