News Releases - CUA Office of Public Affairs

Feb. 23, 2007

A Spring Break ‘Promise’:

CUA Students Pledge to Watch Out For Each Other

“We’ll be friends forever. We’ll always be there for each other.”

“Do you pinky promise?”

Followed by the linking of the pinkies on each party’s right hand, a “pinky promise” between friends can be more binding than a handshake for some CUA students.

Perhaps that is why the pinky came to symbolize the promise that approximately 950 CUA students made to each other in the weeks leading up to spring break, which, for CUA students, begins this weekend.

That promise – to look out for each other during spring break – grew out of a program fostered jointly by CUA staff and students over the past few weeks.

Kathryn Jennings, assistant dean of students, was working on programs for Safe Spring Break Week when she approached University Chaplain Rev. Robert Schlageter about supporting a student-run safety campaign based on the concept of friends making a commitment to watch out for each other.

Father Schlageter (known widely on campus as “Father Bob”) wrote the line “I promise to keep my friends safe on spring break.” From there, the “i promise” concept was turned over to students.

Jennings and Father Bob asked students to expand the concept into a pledge and spread the word about the “i promise” campaign. Students were the creative force behind the “pinky promise” posters, which began appearing on campus bulletin boards in early February.

Freshman John Calvo from Guam designed the campaign’s graphics.

“Friendship was the force that drove the promise (pledge),” Calvo said. “Applying the views of some of my friends and interacting with other students helped me to place the campaign in perspective. They were the ones who ultimately encouraged everyone to make the promise. It was a well-rounded effort by the students themselves that led to the success of this unique campaign.”

The campaign started with more than 150 mysterious posters that appeared throughout campus the week of Feb. 5. The posters featured a graphic of a fist with the pinky extended in “pinky promise” fashion, which simply read, “i promise.” They were intended to cause students to ask questions, to want to know what “i promise” was about.

“I’m absolutely impressed with how the students have taken this and run with it,” Assistant Dean Jennings said. “They’ve really spread the word and gotten it out there.”

A second poster was released the next week featuring the entire pledge: “I understand that my friends are some of the most important people in my life; that is why, this Spring Break, i promise to keep them safe as much as I possibly can, physically, emotionally and spiritually.” It also featured the Web address where students could sign up online. Students who signed up in person with their resident advisors or in the Edward J. Pryzbyla University Center during meals were given a wallet card with the pledge on it and asked to carry it behind their ID. This way they would be reminded of their pledge to look out for one another over spring break every time they went to a place where IDs were required.

The final push of the campaign began at the Feb. 17 basketball game where students wore T-shirts that read “I promised, Have you?” and offered free shirts to students who signed up for the pledge. This event kicked off Safe Spring Break Week, a national movement promoting travel safety, sexual assault awareness and alcohol awareness.

Tips for a safer spring break were posted in the Pryzbyla Center and were followed by a third promise poster, this one reading, “They promised to keep safe during spring break, did you?” and featuring candid photos of students.

Calvo will be visiting family in San Francisco over spring break and spending time with friends from CUA while he’s there. “I’m more than certain we’ll be living out the promise we made before we left,” he said. “One thing is for sure — I made this promise and I’m going to keep it.”

— MFM

Any questions or comments? cu a-public-affairs@cua.edu

Revised: 2/23/2007