UNITED NATIONS — Eighty catatonic Cornellians left Ithaca last Friday morning to learn how to achieve, in the words of the trip’s main organizer and creator Prof. N’dri Assie-Lumumba, Africana studies, “a world free of violence.” Cornellians and students from other universities made the journey to pose their questions about world hunger and global violence to workers at the United Nations’ within New York City.

Disregarding the elements, sleeplessness and classes, a group of students, faculty and community members boarded a 3:30 a.m. bus on Friday with nothing but excitement and good humor.

Eleven academic, residential and campus-life organizations sponsored the sixth annual trip. Particularly notable amongst these groups is Ujamaa, the Vice Provost’s office for undergraduate education, the dean of students and the Humphrey Fellows’ Program. Joining the 80 Cornell voyagers were students from Columbia and New York University, who brought around 40 and 20 students, respectively.

The trip’s coordinating committee, comprised of Residence Hall Directors Ken Glover, Brian Carroll, Kimberley Barth and Program House Assistant Thomas Noel, was also instrumental in the trip’s execution. It cost $20 for each student to attend.

After the six-hour bus ride, the group arrived on 44th Street and 1st Avenue and entered the United Nations Childrens’ Fund. Following a panel discussion given therein, where students were afforded the opportunity to question the U.N. representatives, students took a guided tour of the United Nations’ Secretariat around. After the tour, students were free to explore the city before the bus headed back to Ithaca at 6:50 p.m.

The UNICEF talk featured six panelists whose starkly different backgrounds and work experiences showcased the diversity of potential U.N. careers.

David Marshall, an officer in the U.N. High Commissioner’s Human Rights Office, talked extensively about the role of justice in peace-keeping missions.

Marshall said that it remains important to “maintain meaningful accountability for human rights violations on a mass scale.” He argued that “as a last resort ... we have a responsibility to intervene military.”

Ari Gaitanas, a worker for the U.N.’s Peacekeeping Department, entertained the crowd with continual humor and a boisterous personality. Gaitanas, who one student referred to as “that guy who looked like James Bond with long hair,” talked, perhaps ironically, about the less glamorous side of his job, including “[the inevitability of] getting a disease [and going months without] running water or a night life.”

Gaitanas, however, also discussed “the day-to-day dangers” of his job — including having to check for car bombs while stationed in Lebanon.

The other four panelists, featured less prominently, discussed the intricacies of the U.N. application process, global crises in food and energy and the way the U.N. works.

Student and faculty reactions to the panel discussion seemed largely mixed. Many, such as Cornell’s Diversity/Special Programs Coordinator Victor Younger, said that the talk, which he called “great and very informative,” satisfied his expectations.

Some students, however, were disappointed by the talk. “I expected them to talk about actual issues …[it was] just alright,” said Octavio Gomez ’13.

Paula Latortue ’12 agreed somewhat, saying that although it was “great to hear about [their] careers,” she was “probably more ready to talk about U.N. issues…[on] gender, economic development…”

Due to renovations, the U.N. guided tour did not include all the stops it has in years past, but students were still able to see quite a bit. One important stop was the room full of other countries’ gifts to the U.N., which Lumumba described as a “powerful statement.”