Seniors pledge social awareness

By Aziza Hasan

For the third consecutive year, Bethel College graduating seniors will take the “Graduation Pledge,” which reads:

“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 organization for which I work.”

Seniors who take the pledge do so voluntarily. It allows individuals to determine for themselves what they consider to be environmentally and socially responsible.

Different universities such as Harvard, the University of Kansas and MIT have had different levels of official administrative and faculty participation in supporting the pledge and in having recognition of the pledge be an official part of the graduation ceremony.

Over the years, typically 50-60 percent of students have worn green ribbons at commencement in recognition of the pledge.
Manchester was the first to wear ribbons and now a number of other colleges and universities do, as well.

Seniors who take the pledge will sign a poster with the pledge printed on it. The poster will be displayed in the glass casing in the Schultz Student Center. The day of commencement, seniors will wear a ribbon at graduation to make a public statement of their intent to consider the well being of the world and its inhabitants both when they consider job possibilities and after they are on the job.