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Walking the walk

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by Letters to the Editor

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Two weeks ago, I was not going to submit a résumé to Halliburton at the Engineering Career Fair, but now I have decided that I will. You might ask why I would do such a thing. Why would I allow such a "loathsome corporation" to woo me? The simple answer is, I am proud to be a University of Wisconsin engineering student.

The mindset taught to engineers here in Madison is that if you see a problem, you try and find a solution. It does not matter if it is an engineering or ethical problem, your duty is to fix it. The answer is never to try and keep the problem out of sight and out of mind, but rather to tackle it head on. In this way, I refuse to wash my hands of Halliburton in the way the Campus Anti-war Network would want. They would have us push the problem off campus so we as a community can claim no responsibility. Well, I think we do have a responsibility that goes beyond non-participation.

Halliburton is a problem, a big problem, but Halliburton is still a corporation made up of people. I would like to think that if Halliburton had more people of the quality that UW can produce, it would steer a new course founded on ethical behavior. If I were to be hired by Halliburton, I would still be fully prepared to honor the National Society of Professional Engineers code of ethics, even at the risk of my job, and I am convinced that all of my colleagues in the College of Engineering would too. I would not participate in or ignore any unethical behavior but would instead work to correct it. In short, I would make myself part of the solution.

So today I will walk through the picket line, shake hands with the Halliburton representatives and tell them that the company has serious ethical problems that cannot be ignored, and that I want to change that.

Noah Bachmann (nbachmann@wisc.edu) is a UW senior majoring in civil and environmental engineering. nbachmann@wisc.edu

UW Senior

Civil & Environmental Engineering

nbachmann@wisc.edu

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Anonymous (September 20, 2007 @ 11:33am):

And to think, there are other ways to change the status quo than pointless protests and lots of shouting about socialism.

Who knew...

Anonymous (September 20, 2007 @ 12:00pm):

Bachmann, why are you such a pretentious douche? You're all like, "I'm so ethical, I'm going to change frickin' Halliburton, you're company sucks and I'm the mofo to fix it, hire me."

Make sure they know you're not messin' around by now wearing a tie, Mr. Bad Ass.

Anonymous (September 20, 2007 @ 1:44pm):

Thank you very much for your balanced input. It's really important that people realize that 1) this is a career fair, and people are there to network with employers, and 2) love them or hate them, they do good things for this university, and 3) the best way to combat Halliburton's ethical dilemmas is from the inside.

Keep fighting the good fight, and good luck.

Anonymous (September 20, 2007 @ 3:42pm):

" Anonymous (September 20, 2007 @ 12:00pm):
Bachmann, why are you such a pretentious douche? You're all like, "I'm so ethical, I'm going to change frickin' Halliburton, you're company sucks and I'm the mofo to fix it, hire me." "

I'll admit, my letter was rather pretentious in tone. But C.A.N 's letter to the editor was slandering Engineering students. They basically said Engineering students wouldn't be able to resist the money dangled in front of their faces, and would be willing to trash all the ethical obligations of their profession for a little green. I chose that tone to better represent how Engineering students I know think and behave.

But I have a feeling this comment was written by someone I know... hmmm....
Anthony or maybe Brian?

-Noah

Anonymous (September 20, 2007 @ 9:26pm):

I work for Halliburton HR and I'm just going to throw it out there that when a company googles the name of a potential hire and finds out that this hire thinks we have "serious ethical problems that cannot be ignored," your resume is going into the trash.

Anonymous (September 21, 2007 @ 12:06am):

Fear not, young engineering padawan. There are other far more ethical companies at the career fair that don't have ties to the bin Laden family or anti-democratic water privatization schemes or war profiteering. For example, Bechtel. Oh wait, scratch that one. Shh, don't tell CAN!
- Germain Q. Stemme

Anonymous (September 21, 2007 @ 9:14am):

"I work for Halliburton HR and I'm just going to throw it out there that when a company googles the name of a potential hire and finds out that this hire thinks we have "serious ethical problems that cannot be ignored," your resume is going into the trash."

Well I apologize for wasting your time, but I'm not exactly crushed.

-Noah

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