UMaine senior seeks pledges of responsibility

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ORONO – Shanna Jackman says it is a simple project, really.

The University of Maine senior has taken it upon herself to create the opportunity for her classmates and future students to take a Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility.

Students who take the pledge promise to weigh the social and environmental consequences of the jobs they consider, and to strive to improve the social and environmental practices of the organizations for which they will work.

Jackman, who will graduate this month, has a table set up in the Memorial Union this week, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. through Thursday, so students can take the pledge. Graduates who take the pledge will wear green ribbons at commencement ceremonies.

“It doesn’t have to be difficult to start,” Jackman said. “It’s something simple, something students can say they’ve done. And it can have an impact on our society.”

The university is one of more than 100 schools nationwide participating in the Graduation Pledge Alliance, a program based at the Manchester College Peace Studies Institute in North Manchester, Ind.

Schools ranging in size from Whitman to Harvard to the University of Kansas have instituted the pledge. Colby College in Waterville is the only other school in Maine that has established the pledge.

The GPA was founded in 1987 at Humboldt State University in California. When Manchester College became the national headquarters in 1996, participation in the program had dwindled to just a handful of universities.

But under the direction of professor Neil Wollman, a senior fellow at the Peace Studies Institute, the GPA launched a campaign to raise awareness of the program and the positive benefits it can have for society.

Wollman said he has spread the word mainly through inexpensive, grass-roots methods, such as posting information on the Internet, distributing fliers at conferences, and procuring free advertisements in peace studies newsletters.

Jackman, a 23-year-old communications major with minors in peace studies and public relations, decided to work to institute the pledge at UMaine as a service project for her peace studies class under instructor Barbara Blazej.

All students in Blazej’s course are required to complete a service project, a research project about a current issue, and a project that expresses an aspect of peace in a creative way.

Jackman said Blazej suggested several service projects to members of her class, and showed them a notice about the GPA in the Consortium of Peace Research, Education and Development newsletter. When Jackman read about the GPA, she was inspired by the idea and contacted Wollman.

Wollman, and the Web site maintained by the Manchester College Peace Studies Institute, offered a number of ideas for getting a GPA project off the ground. At some universities the project has been student-initiated; at others it has been started by presidents, professors or administrators.

At Manchester College, a committee of students and faculty coordinate the event, and some 50 percent of graduating seniors take the pledge each year.

Students sign and keep a wallet-size card containing the pledge, students and faculty wear the green ribbons at commencement, and the pledge is printed in the commencement program. The Manchester College Peace Studies Institute Web site also maintains a list of job opportunities at socially and environmentally conscious firms.

So far, Jackman has been coordinating the project on her own. She said the encouragement she has received from fellow students convinces her that it is a project that will generate grass-roots support.

“Many, many people in my peace studies classes have offered to help,” she said. “I’ve got a lot of people behind me right now, from students who are graduating in December all the way to next year.”

But Jackman said getting the pledge instituted this year is only part of the work. Her task will not truly be complete unless she is able to find others committed to carrying on the tradition after she graduates.

At other universities, the GPA has often found a permanent home in a particular department, program or student organization. She said she would contact student government and other organizations on campus and explore the possibility of continuing the project.

A native of Uxbridge, Mass., Jackman has studied for 21/2 years at UMaine. She previously attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

At UMaine she has worked for Campus Mediation, a group that provides free conflict resolution services for students, and has sung the national anthem at hockey games.

She also has been working with Lauri Sidelko, the assistant director of campus activities and events, and Deborah Mitchell, a crime prevention specialist in the public safety department, to develop a proposal to expand the schedule and increase accessibility to the Maine bus, an on-campus bus service.

Jackman hopes to work in the Boston area when she graduates. Returning to Massachusetts also will allow her to devote more time to the Uxbridge-based acoustic band for which she sings.

Blazej has been impressed by Jackman’s performance in class and encouraged by the commitment she has shown to raising awareness of important issues on campus.

“She’s a very insightful and bright student, and very committed to peace and conflict resolution,” she said. “She cares about the issues.”

For information about GPA, visit www.manchester.edu/Academic/

Programs/departments/

PeaceStudies/index.htm or contact Jackman at ShannaJackman@umit.maine.edu