Graduating students pledge social responsibility

Graduating students will be able to pledge their commitment to social and environmental responsibility Wednesday, May 16, through the Graduation Pledge Initiative

Implemented at colleges across the country, the voluntary pledge reads: “I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve those aspects of any organization for which I work.”

Graduates who want to commit to these principles will be able to sign the pledge, noon-3 p.m. Wednesday, May 16, at Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St.

This opportunity to sign the pledge caps a semester of events designed to bring students together with faculty, staff, and professionals from the community to encourage students to consider their personal priorities and values in the context of their career goals.

“The Graduation Pledge Initiative seeks to support a kind of idealism that stands up to the ‘real world’ by equipping students to act on their convictions, not just in their personal lives, but in their professional lives as well,” says Katherine Loving, civic engagement coordinator at University Health Services and coordinator of the Graduation Pledge Initiative.

The Graduation Pledge began at Humboldt State University in California in 1987 and is now organized nationally at Manchester College in Indiana by psychology professor Neil Wollman. UW–Madison is the only Big Ten school with an active Graduation Pledge program.

Signer of the Graduation Pledge may wear green ribbons at graduation May 18-20 to signify their commitment to the ideals of the Graduation Pledge.

“Many students on this campus want to use their lives for a much higher purpose than merely earning a huge salary,” says Cindy Ogrin, a 2001 graduate and organizer of Graduation Pledge activities. “The Graduation Pledge gives us a way to talk about our futures in terms of finding meaning and happiness in our work, rather than being confined to traditional definitions of professional success.”

The Campus Community Partnerships Team of University Health Services brought the Graduation Pledge Initiative to campus as part of its work promoting civic engagement. Defining health in the broadest sense, one of the goals of the Team is to prepare students to create a healthy society by designing opportunities for critical thinking and dialogues on values and ethics.