History of
The UCF Creed

Following one year of research and brainstorming by a task force appointed by President John C. Hitt, The UCF Creed was introduced to approximately 1,500 UCF students and their families at the New Student Convocation on August 2001. This began a new UCF tradition. 

From a statistical standpoint, past creeds and honor codes at various universities have shown on average a ten percent decrease in regards to students cheating on exams. The venture of adopting a new creed for the university was led by Patricia MacKown, Student Development and Enrollment Services, guiding the efforts of Ryan Mallory, a UCF student. Mallory was participating in a LEAD Scholars assistantship, and researched other universities, colleges and military institutes’ creeds and honor codes. His research included the University of Virginia and the University of South Carolina, looking at traditional honor codes and modified versions from across the country. Following that research, a focus group / task force of students was formed to review ‘trial creeds,’ in the hopes that their collaborative efforts would find the perfect solution for UCF.

The reason for UCF developing a creed was to adopt a value system for the students, faculty and staff to share, making it just as important that they practice honesty, integrity and respect, not only for themselves but for others as well. The creed was also put in place to discourage behavior that threaten the freedom and respect for all members of UCF.

Since its inception in 2001, The UCF Creed has been incorporated into various aspects of university life, including housing, orientation, SGA and in the classroom. Additionally, the Division of Student Development and Enrollment Services  embraced The UCF Creed into its learning objectives with students, all with great success. 

For questions or more information, contact the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities at 407.823.6960.

The UCF Creed
Committee members:

• Patti MacKown,
  Chair
• Myron Fottler
• Grant Hayes
• Lyman Brodie
• Ed Hampton
• Taylor Ellis
• Aaron Liberman
• Ben Morgan
• Stuart Lilie
• Allyn Stearman
• Joyce Clampitt
• Bill Faulkner
• Mary Kaufman
• Christine Kurle
• Kyle Mattingly
• Dennis Sprenkle
• Ryan Vaccio
• Sandy Bell
• Craig Ullom
• John Ruzick
• Tina Adamski