ONE-ON-ONE | Clarice Flint Perry Helping YSU reflect the community it serves

Q. You're a native of Farrell, Pa. How did you end up in Washington state?
A. I was in the military. I was a military police person, and I was stationed at the Yakima Research Station. I loved the state of Washington.
Q. Silly question, but what did you love about it?
A. I loved the scenery. I loved the mountains. I loved the water. Seattle is a very diverse city. Sometimes you have to remove yourself from your family to grow and find out who you are.
Q. Did you do that?
A. Yes I did.
Q. So, what did you find? Who is Clarice Flint Perry?
A. Boy, you go right to the core. (Laughs) I learned that I'm creative, that I truly enjoy education, much more than I ever thought. Once I started going to school, I've never stopped.
I've had the opportunity to see a lot of change. When I arrived in Seattle, downtown Seattle looked pretty much like Youngstown does today. As you know, Seattle now has a booming downtown. I believe the same can happen here and in my hometown.
Q. You started college in 1989?
A. Correct. I was 30 years old.
Q. So, you know what it's like to be a so-called non-traditional student.
A. Exactly.
Q. You were in Seattle, you were getting an education, you were growing. Why come back?
A. I had given a lot to other people's children and other people's communities, but I had never really given anything to my own. That was a big part of me returning home. And of course, my family.
Q. You still have family in Farrell?
A. Yes, my parents and my sister and brother. My father passed 90 days after I returned home. So, I had some time to spend with him, and that was very important.
Q. What was it like coming back home?
A. It took some time to adjust. I realized how busy life can be when you live in a big city. When I returned to Farrell, I remember my first week there they were going to pave the street and everybody in the neighborhood came outside to watch them pave the street. So, I realized the importance of community, family and not taking things so seriously.
Q. Do you like it?
A. Yes, I like it. I like it.
Q. What does your son think of this area?
A. I think he has adjusted, but I also think he'll be leaving soon.
Q. And what will mom think of that?
A. It'll be OK as long as he comes back and gives something back to home.
Q. How has Farrell changed since you grew up there?
A. Farrell was very community oriented, regardless of race, gender or creed. I think a lot of that had to do with the steel mill. The mill really brought a lot of people together. People were concerned about my education back then, about my character growing up. Today, there's not really a lot to do for young people, except hang out. They need some structure and they need the community to embrace them and everybody must have a concern about education.
Q. You don't think that concern about education is there like it was?
A. I have to be careful. My brother's on the school board. (Laughs) I think there's a stigma attached to the Farrell school district. There's some very bright students there, but I don't think they have the opportunities that most students have in the surrounding area.
Q. In your career, you've been involved in teaching and education. At what point did you become interested in diversity?
A. 1990. I took diversity training for the state of Washington for two weeks, and that's how I got hooked into it.
Q. I think when most people hear the word diversity, they think of racial diversity, but I know it's much more than that.
A. Everyone defines it differently, and I have been asked that question many times. I think it depends on where people are at a certain time. When I moved here, people seemed to focus more on race. But we also look at sexual orientation, class, gender, religious-orientation or even something like weight -- being thin versus being heavy. It could be anything. Hair color. You name it. What neighborhood you live in. Disability.
Q. So as someone involved in diversity issues, what is your role?
A. My main goal is to allow people to look at themselves. You can't do anything within a workplace, a university or even in your own home until you look at yourself. And when you look at yourself, you look at how you were raised, what your parents taught you, what you learned in school. You start looking at all of those things, then you can move forward and realize that we all have prejudices, we have to acknowledge them and only then will the playing field be equal.
Q. Diversity is a big priority not only at YSU, but across higher education nationwide. Why is that?
A. An educational institution needs to look around its campus and see who's missing and are you really giving your students a 100 percent education. When you're not global and you're not diverse in your population, you're short-changing your students because when they go out into the working world, they will work in a diverse environment.
Q. So, is one of the goals to make YSU, in its student body and employees, more closely reflect the community it serves?
A. Very much so.
Q. How do you do that?
A. Someone has to have a vision, and I believe that (YSU President David) Sweet has a vision.
Q. In a recent survey of YSU employees, a majority of the respondents said there is a great deal of racial tension on campus, and about one-third said they felt pressured to remain silent about injustices on campus. To me, that was relatively shocking. Should I have been surprised?
A. No. You shouldn't have. The good thing about the survey is that it gave people the chance to reflect. Now, I hope people are asking themselves, "I wonder why I answered this question that way? Does it have something to do with how I was raised? Does it have something to do with the city or town that I live in?" I think it's an eye-opener for us all to be able to reflect so we can move forward.
Q. So it's a way to start ...
A. To start the dialogue, and an opportunity to think about these issues, something we don't want to do that often.
Q. I've heard students, especially some minority students, say that they don't feel as comfortable at YSU or as welcome as they had hoped. Do you hear that from students?
A. I heard it when I first arrived, but I don't hear it that often because I don't have that much contact with students.
Q. That's part of why you're now surveying students.
A. Right. I'd like to know why they feel the way they do. I can remember coming to Youngstown State as a child for a gospel program. I think there's always been some imaginary boundaries around Youngstown State, like you just knew that you couldn't cross that line to come here. I don't know where that perception comes from, but that's the imaginary boundary that we need to remove ourselves from.
Q. I know you've only been here at YSU for a short time, so it's probably not fair to ask this, but what are your future career plans?
A. I have no plans at this moment. I just need to make sure that our diversity plan is implemented.
Q. But ultimately, what would you like to do?
A. Ultimately, I would love to teach. I teach part time now on campus in Africana studies. So I do enjoy teaching. That would be the ultimate goal.
Q. So you'd like a faculty job?
A. Yes.
Q. What do you like about teaching?
A. The power to open people's minds. I love when a student finally gets it.
UThe interview was conducted by Ron Cole, Vindicator education writer.