University Committee on Vision and Values
End of the Year Report to the President 2001

The Bowling Green Pledge

The University’s freshman convocation should be held at the end of orientation week. A prominent feature of the convocation should be a pledge that all students take, committing themselves to become familiar with and abide by the University’s academic honesty policies and to consider seriously the social consequences and ethical dimensions of their actions as a BGSU student and a citizen. After the convocation, students would be asked to sign their names to a copy of the pledge. Signing the pledge would symbolize students’ commitment to the community they are joining and the centrality of ethical discourse to the community. (An appropriate time should also be determined for continuing students to sign the pledge.)

Such a pledge–or an appropriate variation of it–should also be taken by faculty members and staff, at new faculty and staff orientations and opening day ceremonies. Faculty/staff participation would underscore that everyone in the community–whether students, faculty, administrators, or staff–is pledged to consider the ethical dimensions of their personal and professional lives and should act on the values they espouse. (A precursor to the faculty/staff and student oaths would be admissions, search, screening and interview processes that clearly articulate the kind of principled community BGSU is and, as such, the kind of faculty, staff and students we wish to attract.)

In an effort to reinforce students’ sense of moral responsibility, the University should also develop an Honor Code that addresses issues of academic integrity and personal (behavioral) responsibility. A code might be modeled on those now in place at universities such as Duke, Rice, and Wake Forest, to name only three.

Just as the freshman pledge would begin the Bowling Green Experience with a commitment to explore and act on one’s values, a senior pledge–to be taken and signed at commencement–should conclude it. Such a pledge might be modeled on the one created by the Graduation Pledge Alliance at Humboldt State University and now adopted by several dozen universities:

A senior pledge would be a fitting conclusion to an undergraduate education intentionally designed to produce principled graduates. The pledge would also emphasize that the critical exploration of values pursued as a student must be employed in one’s day-to-day life as a parent, a citizen, and a professional if it is to have meaning personally and professionally.