petition to Reduce BMUN’s Cost of Spaces on UC Berkeley Campus

If you wish to support BMUN operations and our attending students through the Alumni Scholarship, please consider donating to BMUN through Amazon Smile. If you buy anything on Amazon, you have the option of having Amazon donate 0.5% of your purchase to Berkeley Model United Nations, an official 501(c)3 non-profit organization. All the donations will go directly to our Alumni Scholarship program to further subsidize low-income students to attend BMUN LXXIII. If you would like to help, visit Smile.Amazon.com and select Berkeley Model United Nations as your organization. As the donation will be made by Amazon, your action will benefit our program and students at no cost to you.

Berkeley Model United Nations (BMUN) Conferences is a student-run 501(c)3 educational non-profit organization dedicated to spreading awareness of international issues and the spirit of diplomacy through UN simulations for high school students. Our yearly budget serves our conference logistics, member development and mission to promote educational equity and accessibility. 

Increased fees for using spaces on campus has put the BMUN conference in a precarious position. To lower the barrier to entry, BMUN’s registration fees is lowest among comparable conferences, and we allocate over $10,000 annually towards scholarships. Yet our logistics budget, which covers all room rental fees throughout the year, has ballooned from just above $5,000 five years ago to over $40,000 this year. This financial constraint calls into question our ability to continue serving our community and ensuring the quality of the conference experience. 

Our request is to carve out an exception for these room fee increases for our organization. We have enjoyed our longstanding relationship with Event Services and are familiar with campus venues and their operations. We most certainly understand the need to cover labor and resource costs, but in the name of educational equity, we hope we can work with the ASUC in ensuring that our conference remains sustainable for the thousands of students it serves, and continues to show off Berkeley’s beautiful campus and culture.