Pacers coach shares wisdom

Isiah Thomas was the guest speaker at the Faculty and Staff for Student Excellence Mentoring program's 8th Annual Welcome Banquet Thursday night. The banquet, which has been held since 1994, brings eminent minority professionals to Bloomington to speak to the mentoring program's students and support staff as a kick-off event for the school year.\nPast speakers have included former surgeon general Jocelyn Elders, IU men's basketball coach Mike Davis and Lewis Sullivan, former secretary of health and human services under former president Bill Clinton.\nIn his speech, Thomas talked about the importance of helping others.\n"What values do you live by?" Thomas asked the audience. "This is not about your game; it's about your person."\nJune Cargile, the director of FASE, said the mentoring program was started in 1993 with a grant from the Lilly Endowment to combat the low retention rates of minority students at IU.\n"(IU) wanted to change the campus climate," Cargile said. "To make it more hospitable to children of color." White students were later included with the support of the Indiana 21st Century Scholars Program.\nSince then, FASE has seen retention rates increase dramatically. Rates for African American students staying past freshman year have risen from 66 percent to 90 percent, and Latino retention from 70 percent to 90 percent. \n"Students have personal contact with faculty members who care about them," Cargile said. "It takes this huge campus … and makes it smaller."\nThe welcome banquets started during the second year of the program, with the help of William Cook, president of Cook Corp.\n"He wanted to do something to help students get adjusted to campus," Cargile said.\nThomas told the story of his childhood in the Cabrini-Green housing project in south Chicago.\n"There were many nights that we didn't eat because my mother gave the food away, trying to help," he said. "My mother always talked to us about caring, giving and helping."\nThomas said he became a man because his mother taught him to care and be compassionate.\nAt IU, one of Thomas' biggest influences was Dr. William Wiggins, current chair of Afro-American Studies. Thomas said Wiggins was the first person to tell him he could do great things off the basketball court as well as on.\nThomas also said that Wiggins and another professor, Jimmy Ross, seemed to enjoy life because they helped other people.\n"When I found out I could do that, I haven't looked back since," Thomas said. \nThomas ended his speech with a challenge to the audience.\n"I hope you embrace the challenge of being a good person," Thomas said. "You never know who you will touch, you never know who they will grow up to be."\nThomas later said why he came back to speak with the FASE students.\n"Somebody always reached back to help me," he said. "What you see before you wasn't always this way"