The Carolina Creed is more than just words on a paper.
According to the Carolina Judiciary Council, it is something to be lived out through different components that they are working to promote in the upcoming week.
To kick-off Creed and Diversity Week, the Carolina Judicial Council, advisors of the Office of Student Conduct and the Gamecock Pantry came together Monday afternoon to promote the first component of the Carolina Creed, “to practice personal and academic integrity.” The Gamecock Pantry partnered up with the organizations in handing out free popcorn and taking donations.
Students could come and sign a banner of the Carolina Creed and receive five small cards, each showing the components of the Carolina Creed – acceptance, respect, leadership, compassion, and integrity. Monday’s emphasis was leadership.
Creed and Diversity Week started Sunday and is going until next Monday.
“[Creed and Diversity Week] is showing compassion. People can sign the banner so you can see the tenants of it, just to kind of get people excited about Creed Week and get it known,” said Erika Carroll, first-year business student and CJC member. “The creed is more than something that you just sign.It’s something you actually do everyday.”
The main Creed and Diversity Week event is CreedX. Mayor Steve Benjamin and First Lady Patricia Moore-Pastides will speak about how the creed has been in their lives this Friday at 11:30a.m.-1:00p.m. in the Russell House Ballroom.
The documentary film “Happy” will play on Monday at 6:30-8:00p.m. in the Russell House theater to explore the idea of happiness and how we can choose to be happy. People can partake in a discussion right after about how the creed has been implemented in their lives. There is also a Tunnel of Awareness event happening in Capstone this year.
“We’re encouraging people to come over and showing them what the creed really is. So many people on campus don’t really know about it. They hear about it in U101 but they’re really not sure of what it is, so we’re trying to get them more involved. It’s more than just words on a paper.We want people to actually live by it,” said Charlotte Loper second-year political science and criminal justice student.
Tuesday is “Acceptance Day,” and will feature the Bird Cage event. Wednesday is “Compassion Day,” during which CJC will coordinate with the food pantry. Thursday is “Integrity Day” and Friday is “Respect Day.”
“The creed is so applicable. A lot of times it’s hard for people to grasp it. It is something that we can do all the time, something we can choose to make us happy. One of the ways that CreedX is going to help is with that is break the creed down into those five values,” said Sam Tang, a graduate student in higher education and student affairs.