Changing faces of Agriculture

It started in early October, while temperatures were cooling and daylight was waning. Three graduate students with diverse backgrounds got together and talked about their differences. They all knew their similarities: Their food science research agendas were the bonds that linked them together.

But this discussion was about what was different about Yashodhar Burgula from India, George Keene from Jamaica, and Kevin Mathias from Queensbury in upstate New York.

“We just started talking about the various games we play in each of our countries and how different they were,” Mathias says. “Sports like rugby and cricket.”

The next thing you know, Mathias, president of the Food Science Graduate Student Association, had organized an all-comers cricket game on the front lawn of the Food Science Building.

“Only a couple of us really knew anything about cricket,” Mathias says. “But we all thought it was a great idea to try. Our association doesn’t have much money, and somebody already had the equipment, so it didn’t cost much.”

Mathias even made allowances for the traditional all-white garb worn by cricket players: “We said it was OK for them to wear their lab coats during the game.”

The 60 members of the FSGSA hail from 16 nations. Many of those nations were represented on the Food Science pitch that October afternoon, swinging away at a tennis ball (a real cricket ball, they decided, was too hard and could injure the neophyte players).

“Playing cricket was just one way to get people together to do something as a group,” Mathias says. “We’ve got people who work on different floors of our building who never see one another. But playing cricket was one way of mixing with other people they may never otherwise see.”

Hearing this story brings a smile to the face of Pamala Morris, recently promoted to assistant dean of Purdue Agriculture and director of diversity programs.

“That’s a great example of what diversity is all about,” says Morris, also an associate professor of youth development and agricultural education.

“Whether they knew it or not, those graduate students created a cultural immersion experience, where they begin to understand other cultures, values, beliefs, traditions and customs.”

Morris may be the perfect person to help Purdue Agriculture achieve its goal of cultural competency and create a culture of inclusion, where everyone feels valued and respected.She started her teaching career with Indianapolis Public Schools in 1969, about the time desegregation was mandated throughout the corporation. Morris, a black woman, was assigned a sixth-grade class in a neighborhood largely populated by Appalachian whites.

Just weeks into her teaching career, with God and the school principal as witnesses, Morris was threatened by a parent who didn’t want a black woman disciplining his son.

“I can still see him,” Morris recalls. “I came back from lunch and he was waiting in the principal’s office.”

He said: “The next time you have harsh words with my son, you better not step outside the school building, because I’ll be waiting with a loaded shotgun. We’ll end it for you right there and then.”

Days later, he called the school principal to reinforce his threat: “Make sure Mrs. Morris understands I will take care of her if there are any more problems.”

A promising career, still measured in days, not years, was at a crossroads. Transferring to another school was not an option. Terms of her contract required she stay put for two years.

“It was either hang in there or end my teaching career,” Morris says. “But quitting was not me. They would either kill me, or I was going to make it. Those were the options. It was either do or die.”

She moved in and out of the school building in groups, never alone, stayed away from evening PTA meetings, and always studied the cars in the parking lot. But she survived 11 years at the school and even taught another member of that family, without incident.

Her perseverance is just one quality the College of Agriculture saw when it recruited Morris in 1992 as Purdue Extension program director in Marion County, a job that eventually led to her appointment as assistant dean in the College of Agriculture.

Her role is to help increase diversity and diversity awareness among students, faculty and staff, a primary agenda item of Randy Woodson, Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture.

“We are committed to building awareness of diversity issues within Purdue Agriculture,” Woodson says. “We recognize that everyone benefits from a climate that fosters and values diversity. Providing an environment that embraces our differences in thought, background and experience is essential as we prepare students for leadership positions in the workforce as well as in society. In order to thrive in the business community — at all levels of the food, agriculture and natural resource system and beyond — it is critical for our students to be able to interact with and value colleagues, customers and clients with diverse backgrounds and differing views.”