WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – When John Gates arrives at Purdue University April 1, as vice provost for diversity and inclusion, he’ll step into a role the university deemed expendable nearly four years ago.

Over summer break in 2015, Purdue quietly let Christine Taylor go, folding her position – created six years earlier by then-President France Córdova to be the lead diversity officer – into the duties of the provost. At the time, Provost Deba Dutta said, "We have made progress, but a lot more needs to be done.”

It was a move that caused friction, including providing lingering subtext for an Occupy Purdue protest that had a rotation of students sitting outside the Hovde Hall offices of President Mitch Daniels for the better part of a semester in 2017 to demand the university be more sensitive to racial issues.

Enter Gates, named to his post last week. Jay Akridge, provost since 2017, still carries the title of executive vice president for academic affairs and diversity. But by reconstituting a vice provost-level position gone for nearly four year, Akridge said Gates will be focused “on supporting a climate of respect and inclusion across our campus.

“I'll tell you, I'm not deeply steeped in the history of Purdue,” Gates said, when asked about what happened in 2015 and about reviving that position. “I have lots of learning to do, and I'm looking forward to that.”

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Gates, a Gary native and former associate dean who dealt with the budget at Harvard, will move from the University of Virginia, where he’s associate dean for diversity and inclusion.

Our conversation started with UVa, a campus that played unfortunate host to the white supremacist clashes in Charlottesville in summer 2017 and a state currently roiled a Statehouse leadership crisis that started with demands that Gov. Ralph Northam step aside for a blackface photo that appeared in his college yearbook.

Question: What a time to be coming from Virginia and speaking on diversity, right?

John Gates: Virginia has a long and complex history, so yes.

Q: What's your take on what's happening there? What's the scene like, on the ground?

Gates: I think to some degree people have gone from emotions of shock and horror, to dismay, disgust. Now, it's almost like it is what it is. It depends on with whom you speak. … I think lots of people here are shocked but not surprised.

Q: What was the attraction of coming to Purdue?

Gates: Mostly that Purdue is a large and complex university with a renowned faculty and research programs. It's among the very top institutions, public institutions, in the country, and so it has a reputation that long preceded my application for this, or my engagement in this research. Having come from being raised in Gary, I was raised knowing of Purdue. I have an older sister – the first person in my immediate family to go to college – went to Purdue, and so she was someone who kind of exemplified what could happen and the possibilities for my family.

Q: How's your new role been explained to you?

Gates: The position is a critically important one that will focus on three primary areas. The very first one is faculty, student and staff success. So, that's the climate and culture of the institution. That's performance levels. That's outcomes – progression academically and in the workplace. All of those things are critically important.

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The second thing is going to be recruitment and retention of under-represented and underserved populations. I say it in that way because there are a number of groups of people who might be under-represented and underserved in the institution, so that may very well include reaching out to areas of Indiana that are underserved in higher education within the state, as well.

The third area is going to be educational training, and I think that's really very important. The first, I think, fundamental thing we have to come to grips with is, what do we mean by diversity?

Q: OK. So, how do you define that?

Gates: I define it as excellence expressing itself through the intersections of perspectives and lived experiences I'll give you an example.

When I talk with people, with groups, and we talk about diversity, I ask them: What do you think my diversity is? And they will often say or want to say, “You're black. You're a black guy.” I will say that, indeed, I'm black. I'm a man, I'm gay, I'm a father, a grandfather, a scholar, an activist and usually a nice guy.

Q: Usually a nice guy? That’s it?

Gates: (Laughs.) Usually, right? But my diversity doesn't lie in any one of those things, but at the intersection of all of those things that makes up John. Then I ask them to tell me about their diversity. And often it's a white audience, and they have not thought of themselves as having diversity. I say, "If mine is as complex as I've described it to be, then surely you must have a diversity, as well."

And so we talk about them, and we come to understand that we all share this thing that we call diversity, because it's not race, it's not gender, it's not sexual orientation. Those are aspects of our diversity, but those are not our diversity, in and of itself. Our diversity is what makes up our excellence. Right? And so, the idea that diversity is excellence expressing itself through the intersection of perspectives and lived experiences means that white people have diversity, just like I do. Theirs may look differently, but it is the same thing that we're talking about.

Q: What is your perspective coming in on Purdue and what it's doing well in that regard?

Gates: Purdue has a fundamental commitment to access and a growing commitment to equity. And so, I think that for me, the fact that Purdue has held down tuition rates for the last number of years – that the nominal tuition rate in 2020 will be equal to or lower than the rate in 2012 – is a great testament to a diversity of excellence through access. That permits many more people who might not have had the opportunity to go to college, and to a great university like Purdue, to do so. That's important for the state. … I think Purdue is doing a phenomenal job with its cultural centers, which will be part of the Division of Diversity and Inclusion – a wonderful job to enhance a sense of inclusion among all people and to highlight the contributions of various demographics to the excellence of Purdue.

Q: You’re from Gary. Why not Purdue straight out of high school?

Gates: Well, I had a different pathway to college. I went to Lew Wallace High School in Gary, which is now closed. I had a son when I was a senior in high school, and I remember my counselor, when I told him that I wanted to go to college, said to me that I had not done very well in high school and that I probably wasn't ready, and that I should go to, at that time, Ivy Tech and prepare to be in the trades, in the steel mill like my father. And that disturbed me.

I was 23 when I decided that I would go to college. I went to Morehouse College, and that was because Martin Luther King, Jr. had gone there. … I wanted to go where black men had gone to become world class leaders. So, I went to Morehouse, and that was a life-validating experience.

Q: What's your take on Purdue's free speech policy – the Commitment to the Freedom of Expression, adopted a few years ago – and how that fits in with the limits of what people can say and do and still being an inclusive place?

Gates: I think free speech is critically important in advancing inclusion and in developing the sort of environment where we're able to grow collectively through dialogue. Free speech does not mean uncivil. Free speech does not mean harm. It means that we have to be able to hear each other, and sometimes that's uncomfortable. Part of my job will be to help the university develop the tools and mechanisms to learn from speech to be its very best itself.

Q: That was part of the Occupy Purdue movement, staging a semester of sit-ins at Hovde Hall, after a white supremacist posters went up around campus. Protesters said the university was not speaking against that strongly enough. I imagine you'll be called on put out fires along those lines. What can people expect from you and your style of handling those kind of moments on a campus where President Mitch Daniels has been adamant that free speech will be paramount?

Gates: I've thought about this quite a bit, and it really is like threading a needle. Free speech is critically important and paramount, and also it's the ability for everyone to feel valued and as though they belong in that and to create an educational environment that is productive. For me, I will depend heavily on the core values of the institution to guide how we engage. So, there are many things that we disagree on, but there are also some things that fundamentally hold us together as a community. Those values of civility, free speech, intellectual engagement, all of those values I think can weave together a tapestry within Purdue that permits everybody to be self-expressive, and for us to have the sort of vibrant educational community that we all need.

Q: The numbers of under-represented minorities on campus in applications and acceptance have gone up in recent years. There's still criticism about whether it's even close to enough. What's your sense of that going in?

Gates: We have a long way to go as a university, and we can all be proud of the strides that have been made. We can be proud that Purdue has among the highest retention rates from first to second year for African-American students among its peers. And yet, the proportion, the percentages of diverse, under-represented students at Purdue, do not mirror the state of Indiana for those who are in college.

Moreover, I'm coming from an engineering school. … Purdue has one of the top 10 engineering schools in the country. It has an extraordinary value and presence and can and should be a leader in advancing under-represented minorities in engineering for the state of Indiana and for the nation. So, I will be focused on increasing representation of populations. …

The same goes for faculty. While there's an impressive cadre of under-represented minority faculty at Purdue, and it is growing, I would hope that my presence there is an indication of the university's growth trajectory among faculty as well. There's more that we can do, and Provost Akridge has asked me to focus intently on that.

Q: What else should people on campus know as you're settling in?

Gates: As a thought leader, I will ask the university to consider some questions. One, is inclusion enough? Inclusion basically says that we enter into the stadium of possibility equally, but for under-represented groups we often enter into that stadium and take our seats in the stands – or we're escorted there. Engagement says that we enter into the stadium on the field of play in the creation of destiny.

I think it is insufficient to be in the stands – that higher education, that the work that we have to do, requires all of us to be on the field of play. So, to me, inclusion is an insufficient condition to reach the pinnacle of excellence. We need total engagement. Part of the question is: How do we get there?

Another thing is, I'll ask the university whether we can accept that diversity means “all of us.”

The third thing is that I don't believe that there is an issue too complex for us to solve or a challenge to great for us to meet. And the fourth thing is that this is a journey. We won't get there tomorrow, but with focus and strategy, we'll get there. And lastly, let's have fun.

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.