From In Business Magazine
September/October 2000, Page 27
collegiate commitment
Pledging Allegiance To Responsible Employment
College graduates vow to make environmental and social responsibility a high priority in their employment choices and work.
Brian F. Hartz
FOR THE MILLIONS of recently graduated college seniors across the country, the road out of the academic world can be disorienting, confusing and even scary at times. Job offers, when they actually occur, may not come from the most socially conscious businesses. To many graduates, this does not matter. They do not care where or how they get a job, just as long as they have one.
However, there is a growing movement of graduates who are thinking twice about the business practices of prospective employers. They are taking the Graduation Pledge, which has served as a guiding light during the job search process. The pledge and the organization behind it — the Graduation Pledge Alliance (GPA) — are helping graduates who desire more than just a paycheck from a job or are weary of corporate irresponsibility.
Despite its lofty goals, the Graduation Pledge is not a legally binding contract or quasi-religious covenant. It consists of just one sentence: “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.”
Simply put, the pledge asks its supporters to think about the ethical implications of taking a job or entering into a profession or occupation. It does not preclude being employed in particular industries or businesses. In fact, it would not be unusual for a pledge-taking graduate to accept a position with an “ethically challenged” business, in hopes of bringing about positive changes in that company’s policies.
Christine Miller, a 1991 graduate of Manchester College in Manchester, Indiana — the GPA’s national headquarters — put the ideals of the pledge into action while working as a chemist in 1996. “I was having a conversation around the coffeepot with my boss and we were talking about some upcoming projects, which included a cyanide testing project,” she recalls. “I came to the conclusion that the group for whom we were testing the water might not make the test results available to the public.”
When Miller thought about the pledge she had taken upon graduating from college, a decision had to be made. “I asked myself, ‘Is this really going to be for the public good?’ and it really didn’t feel right,” she says. “So I told the company that I wouldn’t work on the project and that they had plenty of other chemists and one of them could work on it.”
Miller’s decision turned out to be more than just a personal victory. “A couple of months went by and then my boss decided not to pursue the water-testing contract,” she said. “Once that happened, it got me thinking more about the pledge, and I started noticing more [ethical] inconsistencies in my company. That influenced my decision to quit my job and look for employment elsewhere, with a company that was a good match for me and had the same ideals.”
Now residing in Sturgis, Michigan, Miller works as a laboratory supervisor for Ross Labs. “The general feel of the pledge is kind of embodied by the company and the ideals we follow every day,” she says. “It’s not something I think about all the time anymore, because it’s a given.”
IMPACT ON THE JOB SEARCH PROCESS
Considering social and environmental issues during the job search process lessens a graduate’s chances of being caught in a morally compromising situation within the workplace. Traditionally, Graduation Pledge takers have not accepted jobs with companies that are neglectful or in violation of such issues as human rights, environmental responsibility, sweatshop labor and weapons manufacture, to name a few.
One particularly striking example of the pledge in action occurred when another Manchester College graduate persuaded her employer to turn down a lucrative chemical weapons manufacturing contract. Other pledge-taking graduates have gone on to establish recycling programs at their business, eliminate racist language from a policy manual, and bolster their company’s conflict resolution service.
When they’re not bringing about change in the world of business, those committed to the pledge are spreading its message within the world of academia. One example is Sinead Walsh, a native of Ireland and recent Harvard graduate. She took charge of Harvard’s recently established pledge effort last year and expanded its scope to equip the many Harvard graduates who have majors related to business and government.
“I really liked the idea behind the pledge, but I thought there could be more done with it,” she says. “We decided to focus on telling people what they could do to promote social and environmental responsibility no matter where they worked,” she explains. “We’re trying to fit the pledge to our student body as much as possible. By getting so many students involved in social responsibility, we could really scare some of these companies that put so much time and energy into recruiting them.”
Taking the pledge and acting on it can also bring about a great amount of personal satisfaction, as Walsh can attest: “That actually surprised me a lot,” she said. “I look back now and realize that I didn’t know how much of a personal effect this would have on me. I thought it was something I was just doing for the benefit of my classmates.”
As she became more involved with the pledge, Walsh started noticing the simple ways in which she could make a difference. “In Ireland, there isn’t nearly the emphasis on recycling that there is in the United States,” she said.
Unlike Walsh, many recent college graduates come from schools that have not joined the Graduation Pledge movement. But even those who take the pledge often fall prey to the temptation of high-paying jobs with ethically questionable businesses. “When I was a senior in college looking for my first job, my initial feeling was, ‘Oh, I’ll take whatever I can get,’” Miller says. “But then I realized that I have to be able to live with myself for my entire life, and if I make a compromise with my job, that will only lead to more compromises. However, a lot of people look at the ‘almighty paycheck’ and will compromise their life goals for money when there are more intangible things in life that are more important.”
Since Manchester began coordinating the Graduation Pledge in 1996, dozens of colleges and universities across the nation have followed its lead by instituting similar programs. Schools as large as the University of Kansas and as prestigious as Harvard University and Notre Dame are now encouraging their graduates to take and support the pledge. For more information on the Graduation Pledge Alliance, visit www.manchester.edu/academic/programs/departments/peace_studies/files/gpa.html.
Brian F. Hartz graduated from Manchester College in May and is a graduate student in the School of Journalism at Indiana University.
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