A discussion panel in Pruis Hall Wednesday night attempted to dispel stereotypes about poverty, Peggy Shaffer, assistant director of Freshman Connections, said.
Panelists included Lois Rockhill, executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank; Eva Zygmunt-Fillwalk, associate professor of elementary education; Cecil Bohanon, professor of economics; and Dorica Young, circles coordinator and coach from TeamWORK for Quality Living.
Each panelist had 10 to 15 minutes to speak about their expertise and how it relates to poverty before the discussion was open to the audience to ask questions.
Young defined poverty as "the extent to which an individual does without resources" and noted that those resources include not only financial aspects, but emotional and social aspects as well.
"When we don't look at poverty, then the community will not be able to sustain itself," she said. "Poverty is that crumbling foundation amongst the community sustainability."
Rockhill opened up the discussion by reading two letters, one of which student wrote after volunteering for Second Harvest. The student, who was unnamed, described a long line of cars of people needing food. The student said that he or she had misjudged the type of people who need food and realized that "poverty does, in fact, affect everyone."
Young focused on the social aspect of poverty. She emphasized that relationships are important to people in poverty and explained that is what TeamWORK for Quality Living does.
Zygmunt-Fillwalk focused on the stereotype that people in poverty do not value education.
She went on to explain several programs that Ball State has started to increase the awareness that early childhood education is a "huge factor" in predicting future income.
Bohanon told the audience the different definitions of poverty he found in a dictionary in his house and then related those definitions to "The Glass Castle" by Jeanette Walls, which was the Freshman Reader this year. He then mentioned that poverty is something that is not easy to define.
"All definitions of poverty are arbitrary and non-scientific," he said.
Bohanon cautioned the audience to be careful in how they define poverty.
"We're all poor in some margins, and in other margins, we're very rich," he said.
When the discussion was opened up to the audience, several aspects of poverty were discussed, including stereotypes with people in poverty who are physically and mentally disabled, outsourcing labor internationally and how certain family styles and living situations affect poverty rates.
Sophomore photojournalism major Alea Bowling attended the discussion because she had to write a cultural event paper for a class.
"There were a lot of different angles that I hadn't really ever thought of," she said. "It certainly wasn't exactly what I expected. I thought it was interesting. I thought it was neat that they had the economics perspective, the teacher's perspective and how there are so many different things that go into the cost of poverty."
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