Core Commitments: Educating Students for
Personal and Social Responsibility
We invite all AAC&U member presidents to become partners in this initiative by signing on to this call to action pledge.
In signing, colleges and universities pledge their own leadership and best efforts in support of a far-reaching reengagement with issues of ethical and civic responsibility.
AAC&U, in turn, pledges to make both visible and influential its members’ accomplishments in fostering the ethical and civic outcomes of a contemporary liberal education.
Core Commitments Pledge
We, the college and university presidents who sign this call to action, pledge to provide new leadership to reestablish education for personal and social responsibility as a central goal within American colleges and universities.
In partnership with AAC&U’s Core Commitments initiative, we pledge to give particular attention to the following dimensions of personal and social responsibility:
- Striving for excellence
- Cultivating personal and academic integrity
- Contributing to a larger community
- Taking seriously the perspectives of others
- Developing competence in ethical and moral reasoning
While these five dimensions do not encompass all aspects of conscience and citizenship, they offer a compelling claim as the initial focus for a widespread reengagement with campus values and ethics. Each of these five shared responsibilities is already widely espoused across the academy.
If students are to become accountable for pursuing excellence, integrity, and responsibility, we as campus leaders must also become more intentional and effective in articulating these expectations for student learning, in creating ongoing opportunities for students to engage and address them, in assessing how well they are acquiring these capacities, and in learning—together as an academic enterprise—from our shared progress.
We will work as a community toward these ends.
Pledge Form
Pledge Form to Print and Fax (pdf)
Pledge Signatories
List of Call to Action Pledge Signatories
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