The Academic Council of the United Nations System, also known as ACUNS, was founded in June 1987 at a conference at Dartmouth College, with the purpose to create a new organization to stimulate and support research and teaching on the role of the United Nations. Since its creation, ACUNS has grown significantly into an organization of 900 individual and institutional members based in over fifty countries from a wide variety of professional backgrounds, all with differents interests but sharing a common commitment to the values expressed in the United Nations Charter. It has a Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and an NGO affiliate status with the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI).