Graduation Pledge Alliance

Posted by on March 12, 2012

GRADUATION PLEDGE ALLIANCE (GPA)

The Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility:

“I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider
and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work.”

2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the Pledge! Please help us spread the word in order to make 2012 the best year ever for the Pledge. We’re celebrating by doing the following:

All students who take the Pledge this year will have the opportunity to be featured on the 25th Anniversary Celebration page of the GPA’s website:

http://www.graduationpledge.org/25thAnniversaryCelebration

In addition, we’re challenging campus organizers to submit their best “Pledgucation” events held as part of their Pledge programming during the Spring of 2012 as well as their best “Spread the Pledge” promotion ideas to get more schools involved in their region. Winners will have their events and ideas featured in GPA press releases, magazine articles, social media postings and more!

Students define for themselves what it means to be socially and environmentally responsible. Students at a hundred colleges and universities  (and some high schools) are using the pledge at some level. The schools involved include liberal arts colleges (e.g. Bates and Grinnell); state universities (such as Colorado and Florida); private research universities (including Stanford and George Washington University); and schools outside the U.S. (e.g., Taiwan and Canada). The Pledge has also been at professional and high schools.

Graduates who voluntarily signed the pledge have sought out employment reflecting their values and visions, turned down jobs with which they did not feel comfortable, and worked to make changes once on the job. For example, they have promoted recycling at their organization, removed racist language from a training manual, worked for gender parity in high school athletics, and helped to convince an employer to refuse a chemical weapons-related contract.

The Pledge was initiated at Humboldt State University in California. Manchester College in Indiana coordinated the campaign effort for ten years, and Bentley University near Boston took over the reins during 2007-2008. The project has taken different forms at different institutions. For example, at Manchester, students sign and keep a wallet-size card stating the pledge, the pledge is printed in the formal commencement program, and students and supportive faculty wear green ribbons at commencement. (At a few schools, a different color ribbon is used.).  At Bentley University the pledge is a “capstone” of  its four-year Civic Leadership Program and at Humboldt State, student government funds a student pledge coordinator internship.

In a sense, the Pledge operates at three levels: students and graduates making choices about their employment; schools educating about values and citizenship rather than only knowledge and skills; and the workplace and society being concerned about more than just the bottom line. The impact is immense  if only a significant minority of the millions of college graduates each year sign and live out the Pledge.

The Graduation Pledge Alliance has a web site for campus organizers and pledge signers (http://www.graduationpledge.org ). PLEASE KEEP US INFORMED OF ANY PLEDGE EFFORTS YOU ARE EVEN CONSIDERING TO UNDERTAKE, AS WE TRY TO MONITOR WHAT IS HAPPENING, AND PROVIDE PERIODIC UPDATES ON THE NATIONAL EFFORT (INCLUDING HINTS ON HAVING A SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN). Contact  GPA@Bentley.edu  for further information, questions, or comments.

The Graduation Pledge is a project of the Bentley Alliance for Ethics and Social Responsibility, Bentley University.