The Daily Mississippian writes about the Associated Student Body – a lot. As a student newspaper, our job is to hold our student government accountable, and we will never falter from that objective.
Today, I wanted to personally take the time to write about the ASB once again. This time, it’s on a lighter note, but just as important as ever.
Yesterday, the ASB kicked off its first-ever Creed Week, which highlights and honors the University Creed on the tenth anniversary of its implementation.
This idea, which was conceived by ASB President Gregory Alston and his campaign staff when Alston was running for his position, is one of the best ideas I have witnessed as a student at Ole Miss.
Though the Creed was drafted well before I became a student at Ole Miss, the values expressed within it are ones that I have come to love and adhere to as I have started my fourth year at the university.
In the past, the Creed has served a great purpose, but one that hasn’t necessarily been perfect. More than once, it’s been a way to cope in times of adversity.
Two of its biggest uses have allowed Ole Miss to move forward from racially-fueled situations that garnered national attention. When the Ku Klux Klan came to campus in 2009 to protest the abolishment of The Pride of the South’s song “From Dixie With Love,” members of the student organization One Mississippi literally turned their backs on the KKK’s rally at Fulton Chapel. In a counter protest of the KKK’s hatred, the students recited the words of the Creed.
More recently, One Mississippi, in conjunction with the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, held a candlelight march to counter the previous night’s racially-motivated 2012 election protest on campus. The peaceful rally, which was attended by 600 people, centered around the recitation of the Creed.
While the Creed’s purpose in the past has been important to our university, it’s being made better this week, and for the first time since I’ve been at Ole Miss, it’s in a positive way. Thanks to the ASB’s work this week, the Creed has become more than a coping mechanism – it is an open invitation to participate in making Ole Miss a better place.
Because of this week, students are being invited to live by the words expressed in the Creed every day, not just during the hard times. If our student body could regularly express the tenants of the Creed instead of just in the negative times, imagine what a place Ole Miss could be.
Hundreds of students and faculty members have already lined up in the Student Union lobby to sign the Creed Week book. Alston said that the book will be presented at every Creed Week for years to come.
If you have signed the book, I commend you. If you haven’t, you have until the end of this week. I would also challenge you to take it seriously and strive to live by those words.
I hope that Creed Week will continue to be one of the best weeks at Ole Miss for years to come. Take the time to be part of the first one ever and enjoy it. In the meantime, I will continue to be impressed and humbled by the way Ole Miss will be made better because of it.
Adam Ganucheau is a journalism major from Hazlehurst.
