Contact: Heidi Weber (518) 437-4993

ALBANY, N.Y. (April 21, 2003) -- The University at Albany's Career Development Center will celebrate Earth Day 2003 (Tues., April 22) by providing students with opportunities to explore socially and environmentally friendly careers.

�Making a Living Creating Livable Communities,� will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the Room 375 of the Campus Center on UAlbany's uptown campus. The seminar will explore career possibilities in the fields of social and environmental responsibility, including research, education, policy and creating livable communities.

Featured panelists include Robin Campbell, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; Helen Defosses, president of Albany City Council and associate dean of UAlbany's Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy; Kate Maynard, City of Albany Planning Department and Val Washington, Environmental Advocates of New York. Melissa Everett, an instructor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and executive director of Sustainable Careers Institute, will moderate the discussion.

In addition to the seminar, students will also have the opportunity to participate in the "Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility," which was founded in 1987 and has been adopted at more than 100 institutions across the United States. Taking the pledge is voluntary and if the commitment is made, it allows students to determine for themselves what they consider to be socially and environmentally responsible.

The pledge 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 organizations for which I work." The pledge, which is a new initiative at UAlbany, is a result of work with the Sustainable Careers Institute in response to an increasing need to incorporate social and environmental responsibility into programming, having recognized that students come with a broad range of values, interests and world views. The Graduation Pledge is sponsored by the Career Development Center and the Presidential Honors Society. An information table will be set up in the Campus Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more information, visit www.albany.edu/cdc/events/earthday2003.htm.

Established in 1844 and designated a center of the State University of New York in 1962, the University at Albany's broad mission of excellence in undergraduate and graduate education, research and public service engages 17,000 diverse students in eight degree-granting schools and colleges.

For more information about this nationally ranked University, visit https://www.albany.edu.

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