When an alumnus came to the student government with an idea to help with tradition and retention, junior Nicole Neely was more than willing to help.

The idea was to create a card with a creed similar to Miami University’s, but changed to fit Bowling Green.

“A creed is an all encompassing of what the University is, like buzzwords,” said Neely, director of strategic planning for the undergraduate student government. “More of a Bowling Green lifestyle but in words.”

Neely said Miami’s creed is about a paragraph and she sees ours to be more like a pledge to the University.

In order to create this card and creed, Neely put together an exploratory group made up of student leaders found on campus.

“We just had the first meeting,” she said. “We were looking to see what they thought about the idea and if it was good.”

Senior Ryan Sowers, legacy campaign chairman, was one of the people invited to the group.

“It’s an honor [to be in the group],” he said. “There is a lot of passion and a lot of pride for BGSU. This could be something big.”

Even though they’ve only had one meeting, Sowers thinks they are on the right track.

“It was fruitful, there were a lot of good ideas and ways to take the card,” he said. “Some of the bigger ideas were to incorporate Ay Ziggy Zoomba, pieces of Forward Falcons and the Alma Mater to stand behind.”

Sowers thinks the creed is for anything to stand behind and inspire people. He also has an idea of what he would like the creed to look like.

“I would like to see this idea where the card has different phrases everyone can believe in, like ‘Always put your best foot forward’, ‘Fight for BGSU’, or ‘Be engaged on campus’,” he said. “I want to see passion.”

Although there isn’t a set deadline for when the card might be finished, Neely hopes it will be done by next fall semester.

“The next meeting is next week, so we will start to narrow down what they think the creed should be,” she said.

Senior Sarah Shannon thinks the card is a good idea.

“It will be a good thing,” she said. “To be able to share and express the place you go to school, what it does for you to impact your life.”

However, Shannon would like to see more student voices in the creed.

“[The leader group] would be a good group to spearhead this but they need to ask as many students as they can,” she said.

Neely would like to have more student voices, and encouraged anyone who wants a say to come to the USG office in the Union or to contact her at [email protected].