Get to work!

Like many seniors at IU, I’ve been contemplating my options after graduation.

The decision to forego professional school obviously complicates things a bit. These anxieties are only compounded by our economy and gloomy job outlook.

It seems more than ever that I might have to compromise and apply for jobs I wouldn’t have considered otherwise. And I’m not the only one. From personal experience alone, socially conscious students are more likely than ever to enter the corporate field, and this is a welcome development.

There is this widely held notion that working in corporate America is a form of sellout.

It is also contended that corporations engage in unethical business practices, as evidenced by greedy investment banks and their role in the financial crisis.

However, capitalism and socially responsible employment are not mutually exclusive, and companies like Google and Target have demonstrated their commitment to ethical business practices.

College students, surprisingly, remain an ambivalent bunch when it comes to socially responsible employment. Part of the problem here is that many of us don’t even know what ethical business practices comprise. A 2007 survey by Alloy U, for instance, concluded that college students ranked Wal-Mart and Coca Cola among the most socially responsible firms in corporate America.

By most reasonable measures, this is simply not the case. Wal-Mart regularly discriminates against women through lower wages and fewer managerial positions while Coca Cola has allegedly suppressed labor unions in places like Colombia.

Coupled with this confusion is the belief that it is unreasonable to expect students to care about civic responsibility once they graduate. The larger narrative here is that college activism, no matter the sincerity or the cause, remains a youthful indiscretion not suited to the “real world.” This plays out in strange ways.

IU is one of more than a 100 schools worldwide that allows seniors to take a graduate pledge to consider the social and environmental consequences of their jobs.

Joelene Bergonzi, coordinator of the Leadership, Ethics and Social Action Program, said interest in the graduation pledge has steadily declined. In 2008, only a few students participated in the pledge.

Admittedly, it’s often difficult to reconcile one’s views about socially responsible business practices while working in companies like Wal-Mart. But if we are to except that change in any corporation emerges internally, college students are one avenue for social good. Specifically, by virtue of our place in the company structure, we might be able to effect some change in our employer’s policies, whether it concerns health care benefits or wage discrimination.

To be sure, our politics and values inform the kind of work we’d like to see ourselves doing. But, sometimes, we might have to compromise.

That’s OK. We just need a reminder that IU students have a greater responsibility to something even bigger than us.

Four years of passion and activism don’t end once we leave the comfort of campus.

Indeed, the real foray into social justice only just begins.