Making Gumbo in the University

“Daddy liked his conversation the way he liked his gumbo.” So begins the story that leads up to Chancellor Marye Anne Fox being formally reprimanded by the North Carolina State University faculty.
What did that have to do with Gumbo? Drawing on his Louisiana black-Creole roots for the guiding metaphor, Making Gumbo In the University is the story of Professor Rupert W. Nacoste’s life of work on diversity, especially his two years as the ranking university administrator responsible for diversity at North Carolina State University. Rupert Nacoste's life has been all about trying to make gumbo.

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A powerful example of a sincere effort to practice what you live and what you preach. Making Gumbo helps us feel the discomfort that naturally occurs when an institution pursues diversity. It places the responsibility for diversity at all levels of the university, but emphasizes the critical role of leadership in this effort. Such leadership must at minimum be unwavering in its commitment to diversity and willing to take risks for change.

Craig C. Brookins, Director
Africana Studies, NC State University

The truths that come out here show what diversity really means. Particularly interesting were the challenges that Nacoste faced while trying to change the diversity culture at a major university in the South from one of entitlement to one of engagement. The struggles that Nacoste faced leading the diversity effort at North Carolina State University put him in the middle between a conservative, old-school black community both on campus and off, and an administration that was determined to not have race issues be front page news. I know about this first hand because I was there and I was part of this story.

Stuart L. Cooper, former Provost at
North Carolina State University

Dr. Nacoste convincingly establishes an unsettling truth: conflict is not only a necessary consequence of true diversity, it is the essence of diversity. . . I am reminded of the countless times I witnessed him address a rapt audience. He is a force of nature. With his booming voice, confident stride and dramatic presence, he demands attention. Often, his message was one of elegant simplicity: that people have profound effects on one another. Our attempts to navigate these effects comprise the central narrative of humanity. In Making Gumbo, Dr. Nacoste lends his distinct and assured voice to a nation confronted anew with perplexing questions of diversity.

Brandon Buskey, NCSU Graduate,
Staff Attorney, Equal Justice Initiative

Nacoste chooses the tantalizing metaphor of a gumbo to paint a picture of the powerful and intellectually stimulating life of a research university campus alive with diversity. He understands and communicates the value of a fundamental and clearly understood mission as the roux on which this delightful dish is built. He illustrates the essential importance of each ingredient in this gumbo-human beings with their history, their prejudices, their desire to learn. He celebrates the intellectual joy that comes with conflicts of ideas.
Nacoste writes a prescription for taking learning organizations of all kinds to high levels of true productivity, through the very practical implementation of ways to capitalize on the conflict of ideas with which a truly diverse community seethes.

C. Frank Abrams, Professor emeritus, Former Senior Vice Provost
and Chief of Staff, North Carolina State University

Dr. Rupert W. Nacoste is Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor of Psychology at North Carolina State University. The focus of Professor Nacoste's teaching and writing began during his service in the U.S. Navy (1972-1976). During the time of his service, the Navy was having significant racial troubles. Race riots aboard ships carrying weapons of mass destruction. To begin to change its racial climate, the Navy set in motion an intervention program that required all Navy personnel to attend a racial group discussion session that lasted two and one-half days, to improve the ways in which a racial mix of sailors interacted with each other. Selected and trained in the skills and art of facilitating racial group discussions in 1974, for two years he worked on race-relations issues as a facilitator of racial discussions in the U.S. Navy. Dr. Nacoste developed real interests in group dynamics and race relations and pursued those interests sought in higher education.

Since joining the NCSU faculty in 1988, all of Dr. Nacoste s research and public service efforts have focused on developing systematic understanding of the social psychology of social change in society, and using that scholarly understanding to help people learn to manage the social changes that are influencing their everyday lives. His research on the social psychology of affirmative action has earned him a national and international reputation for how that research illuminates the policy issues. Given that research, he has been asked by various groups to bring his expertise to bear on issues related to the management of diversity. That includes three summers as a Senior Visiting Scholar at the (Department of) Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (Patrick Air Force Base, FL).

To help North Carolina State University develop strategies for managing diversity, Dr. Nacoste served as the first Vice Provost for Diversity and African American Affairs. Since then, he has created a new undergraduate course to help students understand diversity dynamics in their everyday social interactions, Interpersonal Relationships and Race. Based on student writings from that course, in September, 2012, he self-published his book Howl of the Wolf: NCSU Students Call Out For Social Change to help create dialogue on the campus. He gave away 1,000 copies, free to students. A native of Opelousas, LA, a Louisiana black-Creole, Dr. Nacoste is always on the hunt for a bowl of good gumbo. When that search fails, he makes his own. No surprise, then, that the title of his memoir is Making Gumbo in the University (2010; Plain View Press: Austin, TX).

Dr. Nacoste received his BA degree in Psychology from the University of Florida (1978) and his PhD in Social Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1982).