The Gamecock

Eighty one years of Collegiate Journalism

The University of South Carolina

Friday, April 13, 1990

Honor

Carolinian Creed inspires Students to work toward being better people

The community of scholars at the University of South Carolina is dedicated to personal and academic excellence. Choosing to join the community obligates each member to a code of civilized behavior.

As a Carolinian...

I will practice personal and academic integrity;

I will respect the dignity of all persons;

I will respect the rights and property of others;

I will discourage bigotry, while striving to learn from differences in people, ideas and opinions;

I will demonstrate concern for their feelings and their need for conditions which support their work and development.

Allegiance to these ideals requires each Carolinian to refrain from and discourage behaviors which threaten the freedom and respect every individual deserves.

The Carolinian Creed, produced by faculty, staff, and students through the USC Division of Student Affairs, is an honor code for Carolinians. In fact, the code should be a celebration of values for USC.

USC Vice President of Student Affairs, Dennis Pruitt, said the creed was developed in response to an increase in various forms of insensitivity across the nation's campuses.

With reported cases of date rape, racial discrimination incidents and hazing, the creed is to make students more aware of their obligations to the larger community they live in.

After much research, a social code crystallized that this is a short five-item list of positive actions members of a community should follow. This is a refreshing deviation from the thick code of rules and "don'ts" that we face every day.

It really calls us to do nothing more than be what we are striving to be-informed, tolerant individuals who have opened their minds to different experiences and people. It should be a part of common sense.

The Board of Trustees approved the creed Thursday.

Pruitt introduced the creed by saying, "It's a tool Carolinians can use to teach people how to treat one another and show the world what it means to be a Carolinian."