The Faculty Senate adopted the pledge, “Our Campus Community Commitment To Unity” at its October 19 meeting. Professor Cecil E. Canton wrote the pledge “to reflect upon the common values, goals and aspirations that the campus will share for the year of unity and beyond.”

“Unity is important to this university,” Canton said. “This proposal is about common beliefs about who we are and who we can be as a university.”

Canton describes in his pledge “that members of Sacramento State acknowledge that the main purpose of this community is education, including teaching and learning, academic achievement, social development, personal growth and a commitment to the valuing of diversity.”

Monday, Oct. 16, was the day identified for initiating the campus “Year of Unity.” Events planned for that day included a lecture by the grandson of the late Mahatma Ghandi, Arun Ghandi.

This motion by Canton came to the Faculty Senate with a unanimous endorsement from the Executive Committee. Bob Buckley, chair of the Faculty Senate, stated that “by endorsing this pledge, it becomes a formal endorsement.”

Professor Canton believes that this pledge embodies what President Gerth meant when he declared this the “Year of Unity.”

“This will give us something that we as a campus can come together on,” Canton said. With the adoption of this pledge in the Faculty Senate, Canton requested that “we not only allow the community to have policies but allow us to take action together.”