UNCW was host to the “Taking the Pulse on Poverty” lecture last week. The event featured presentations from experts on the topic, a Q&A with students and an appearance by Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo.

“Poverty is not a recent condition, it’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about,” said Dr. Yolanda Burwell of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, Tuesday night’s keynote speaker.

Rather than the term poverty, Burwell prefers the phrase, “living on the economic margin,” meaning anyone who, if they lost their source of income, could not support themselves and their dependents for at least three months.

“Somewhere, the rules changed. The idea that if you work hard and keep your nose clean, you would always have a job is not true anymore. We no longer have clear pathways to move up the economic ladder,” said Burwell.

The presentation hit home with students when Burwell asked, “How many of you are concerned about not finding a job after college?” and almost every hand in the room went up. She followed with, “How many of you will graduate free of any debt?” and only four hands were raised.

Saffo, who showed up late for the event and left promptly after his speech, declared March to be poverty awareness month in Wilmington, and stressed why.

“We feel the impact of this poverty at the local level, with our police, our fire and our health services. It costs us money. I guarantee you your tax dollars are going to combat this problem. The faster we can get our hands around this and start making headway, the better we all are,” said Saffo. “Then we can use tax dollars on infrastructure and other things that we need as opposed to fighting poverty.”

Burwell echoed Saffo’s message in the closing line of her presentation, “Ya’ll, we all do better when we all do better.”

The speakers placed emphasis on education, asset building and income equality as solutions to poverty, but left the main responsibility of solving the issue largely to the students – the future professionals, gatekeepers and decision-makers.

The event was held in Cameron Hall as part of the Global Capitalism Lecture Series. About two-thirds of the seats were filled with an audience comprised of mostly students and a few professors.

Aubrey Emery, a UNCW senior and political science major, was encouraged to attend the presentation by her professors, and is glad she went.

“It’s interesting to learn that poverty is much more prevalent in our area than we realize,” said Emery, “but it is also good to learn that people are working to make things better and that the situation isn’t completely hopeless.”