In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Model UN at Geneseo experienced significant growth in members who won awards at conferences at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Yale, and more. When SUNY Brockport began a Model European Union (EU) Organization and enlisted our college among others to join, Dr. Robert Goeckel proudly stepped up as the group’s advisor. Dr. Goeckel was the department’s leading Europeanist, teaching classes on the EU as an important actor in international and European politics. Many colleges sent Model EU delegates, including European universities. Each year the Model EU Conference would change locations from Europe to New York to allow students to experience a new setting.
It was costly to send students to Europe for this amazing opportunity, even with the generous funds given to the organization by our Student Association. Dr. Goeckel was troubled that Model EU participation became a question of whether a student could afford the higher costs of traveling to Europe. Model UN decided around 2008 to focus on U.S. simulations to be able to send more students on such trips for lower costs. Dr. Goeckel felt that as a premier liberal arts college, Geneseo should compete with other universities to showcase our talent.
In 2023, Dr. Goeckel made a significant donation to Model EU to offer stipends to cover student costs to travel to Europe for Model EU Conferences. He shares that, after the COVID-19 pandemic, it is as crucial as ever for our Model UN students to experience new cultures and interact with one another. Dr. Goeckel has been in contact with Model UN members who have shown interest in the Model EU program, and hopes that these trips and simulations can be revived once again by our department.
Dr. Goeckel has been a champion of the idea that Europe is a rich area of study, ranging from topics of Brexit, Ukrainian politics, and far right party activities. Our attention to Europe must increase if we are to increase our knowledge of international political affairs. Since his retirement in 2022, Dr. Goeckel hopes that the college will hire a replacement to sustain offerings in European studies and support for Model EU engagement.
Our department has utilized the Rose Alent Award for over twenty years, which has been given to outstanding graduating seniors double majoring in foreign languages and political science/ international relations, supported by friends and family of the late Dr. Rose Alent, Emerita. In 2022, Dr. Goeckel donated significant funds to the Geneseo Foundation, designated for this award, to make it monetarily sustainable over the long term future. The award is now called the Rose Alent/Robert Goeckel award.
Our department thanks Dr. Goeckel for his charitable donations to Model EU and the Rose Alent/Robert Goeckel Award, which will enhance our students’ leadership skills, learning opportunities, knowledge, and professional development.
More About Dr. Goeckel
Robert F. Goeckel taught international relations and comparative politics at SUNY Geneseo since 1982, specializing in European politics, Germany and Eastern Europe, and regions of the former USSR. Fluent in both German and Russian, Goeckel has spent considerable periods of time in Berlin and Moscow and conducted extensive research in the archives of both the former German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the former USSR. In 2000-2001 Goeckel was director in Moscow of the Center for the Study of the US and Russia, created by SUNY and Moscow State University. Based on this experience, he led student exchange groups in the program “Geneseo in Moscow” during the years 2004-2012. In 2022, he received an honorary award in Berlin, Germany, on May 28: The Horst Daehn Prize for Contributions to Study of Church and State in Eastern Europe. Dr. Goeckel has recently retired but will be remembered for his passionate teaching and advancements made for the department that will undoubtedly have a lasting effect. Students will never forget his enthusiasm to teach about his area of expertise, and especially his sharing of his own Stasi file from his time in the former GDR.
Written by Alexis Savoie ’24
