Five WSU students were crowned champions of the sixth annual Global Case Competition last week.
The winning team, Dignity Before Detention, consists of team chair Madeleine Hunter, a junior history major, senior chemical engineering majors Kasey Markland and Margaret Wyckoff, senior humanities major Kari Whitney from WSU’s Global Campus, and graduate student Kiana Yektansani, who is studying economics. The faculty advisor is Ken Faunce, a history instructor in the College of Arts and Sciences.
This year’s case focused on arbitrary detention in the United States. Teams were asked to identify cases in which deprivation of liberty has occurred and provide reasonable solutions for the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) to consider.
Five finalist teams were selected from 14 entries. Roland Adjovi, the second vice chair of the WGAD, traveled from Philadelphia to hear their solutions and provide opening remarks at the event.
The victorious group voiced the concerns of indigent people and offered the ideas of education and community outreach as well as economic policy reform as the keys to providing relief from debtors prisons.
The team will travel to Geneva, Switzerland, in November to present to the UN working group. The trip will be funded by Orlin Reinbold, owner of Landmark Turf and Native Seed of Spokane, who has been supporting the Global Case Competition since 2013.