Carolinian Creed and Diversity Week has brought speakers, student forums and interactive displays to USC focused on teaching students about how the tenets of the creed function on campus.
The Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity with Carolina Judicial Council pushed toward expanding partnerships with other campus offices and student organizations this year to spread awareness about the events, especially the popular Tunnel of Awareness.
This year, University Housing has partnered with University 101 for the first time. This means professors have worked some of this week’s events into their syllabuses and have had their students attend events during class time, increasing the number of residents and first-year students in participation.
“We’ve tried to kind of partner more and help people see the events as not just a small group or subset of people but as a campus-wide initiative,” Erin Kitchell, director of academic integrity, said. “I think growth in our partnerships has really been the biggest change I’ve seen, and that just allows for events to be more well attended and the programs to be diverse in their opinion and whose teaching the topics and providing perspectives.”
The Tunnel of Awareness is described as a "social justice experiment" and returned this year with six rooms focused on social awareness topics including civility, toxic masculinity, human trafficking, sexual assault, domestic violence, access to educations, homelessness and micro aggressions and privilege. Those walking through spent one to two minutes in each of six rooms and at the end debriefed with a professional staff member.
“The rooms will change each year which I think is really great because it allows us to adapt to what’s being talked about, what’s relevant to our students at this time,” university’s housing diversity committee chair Anne-Marie Hantman said. “I think some of those topics are super relevant to what our students are talking about and dealing with right now in relation to diversity and being strong Carolinians and I also think some topics might surprise people when they walk in.”
Some students appreciate the opportunity to take time out of their day to consider issues of inclusion.
“Housing has really been pushing it in a good way for us to come because it helps open up diversity and understanding where other people are coming from which is really awesome,” a student who wished to remain anonymous said about her experience in the Tunnel of Awareness.
For Kitchell, it's a chance for students to examine their own attitudes and even underlying prejudices.
“I think most of our students here embrace those values, they just may not recognize that they’re living out the different tenants in the way in which they act," Kitchell said. "So if we can get them to one recognize that but then also be purposeful in that action, then it can really help our campus community just be full of a climate in which we are having civil conversations and dialogue, respecting one another and really looking out for the concern of others and the climate in which we live.”
The rest of the events for Creed and Diversity Week can be found on the Carolinian Creed web page.