More graduates seeking socially responsible jobs

By Bridget Murray
Monitor staff

By now, we've all seen people wearing the red ribbon for AIDS, the pink one for breast cancer and the blue one for free speech. But the green ribbon--which senior Sarah Knouse and at least half her classmates will don at Manchester College's graduation ceremony this spring--represents a less familiar ideal.

It's an ideal that may seem surprising for graduates in need of a job--that of job social conscience above job salary. The green ribbons signify a pledge graduating seniors take to investigate the social and environmental consequences of the jobs they consider, and to keep those concerns in mind once they're on the job.

"Why choose work that supports nuclear weapons when you can choose work that supports people?" says Knouse, who plans to pursue work caring for AIDS patients when she graduates. "For me, job consequences are the priority, not salary. I'd like to pay the bills, not to make a million."

Knouse first heard about the pledge from psychology professor Neil Wollman, PhD, in the introductory psychology class he teaches at Manchester College. Wollman is the coordinator of the nationwide pledge effort, known as the Graduation Pledge Alliance. He says it reminds students that, "A job is more than a paycheck."

California's Humboldt State University originated the pledge idea in 1987, then it fizzled, and in 1996 Manchester College, located in North Manchester, Ind., revived it.. Since then, as many as 20 colleges, including Goshen College in Indiana, Olivet College in Michigan, Denison University in Ohio, and Notre Dame University have been involved. Amount and type of involvement varies.

At some schools the pledge is college-wide, at others various divisions or departments, such as peace studies, social work or psychology, participate. Sometimes administrators run the effort, and sometimes students handle it. A few institutions incorporate the pledge into their graduation ceremonies or club creeds. At the adult-oriented University of Maryland University College, for example, it's part of the oath for the psychology honor club.

In all its forms, the pledge's underlying message is the same, says Wollman.

"It gets students to think beyond 'How much do I get paid?' to 'How does what I do affect the world?'" he says.

Why a pledge?

Not only does the pledge's emphasis on serving the world fit with many universities' missions, but it meshes with psychology's mission of advancing human welfare, says Wollman. He believes that's reason enough for psychology departments to promote the pledge. In a larger institution, the effort can start in the psychology department, then spread, he says.

Or, if the college is small enough, faculty or psychology students can recruit others to make the pledge college-wide. That's what senior psychology majors Laura Santa and Rema Hanna are doing at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. They've brought in two other students, an English and politics major, to organize a pledge program for the college's 300 graduating seniors.

Eventually Wollman hopes to see 1,000 or more universities participating--enough to generate "a significant minority" of students asking employers they interview with about recycling, equal opportunity employment, toxic-waste clean-up and other such issues.

"In a world in which corporations are in some cases more powerful than governments, our hope is that students can remind them about being humane, that profit is not the only guide," says Wollman.

Some students complain, however, that the pledge imposes a liberal agenda. Wollman counters that the pledge is voluntary and notes that it leaves concerns about a job's "social and environmental consequences" open to interpretation. People who pledge aren't obligated to comply and aren't compelled to work for well-intentioned nonprofits. They could promote issues such as diversity and fair treatment of employees at any company they work for, says Wollman.

A few schools Wollman has contacted say their students don't need a pledge. They say employer responsibility is something their students consider on their own. But Wollman believes students are significantly more likely to carry out a public commitment than a private one.

How the pledge works

Each college has its own way of running the pledge effort, but Manchester provides a model. First the college publicizes the pledge on e-mail sent to graduating seniors--usually there are 200 of them or more. They also receive a letter explaining the pledge's purpose.

Pledge supporters then receive wallet-size cards printed with the pledge, which reads, "I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider or any organization for which I work," and the green ribbons to wear at graduation. The school also prints the pledge in its commencement program, and the president or graduating class's student representative announces it during the ceremony. In addition, Manchester's career services office advises students on investigating a job's consequences and asking about environmental and social responsibility in interviews.

The routine is much the same at Olivet College in Olivet, Mich., except there, students sign a poster emblazoned with the pledge. Last year Olivet's entire graduating class of 130 wore green ribbons. At Manchester, close to 60 percent of students wore them. And at both universities, a number of faculty wore the ribbons too.

Variations

Other universities use the pledge differently, incorporating it into graduation speeches or prayers, or weaving it into pledges taken by student groups.

For example, Madonna University in Livonia, Mich., has adapted the pledge to an interactive prayer in its baccalaureate mass. In part, the prayer says, "Let us choose work that will benefit others, protect our environment and let us use our education to make our world more healed and whole, a more just and peaceful place."

In another twist, the psychology honor society, Sigma Mu, at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has incorporated aspects of the pledge in to its oath. Students taking the oath commit themselves to "the improvement of human, environmental and animal welfare." And those words cover broader terrain than just job responsibility, notes Steve Kronheim, PhD, the UMUC psychology professor responsible for adding them.

"Sometimes students sign up for an honor society only thinking about how it will further them," says Kronheim. "The oath helps them understand that the 'honor' and 'society' parts extend to the larger responsibility they have in the world."

To get more information on the pledge, go to www.manchester.edu and click on "inde," then "Graduation Pledge Alliance." If you're starting a pledge effort, contact Wollman at njwollman@manchester.edu.

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