Requiem for Gallaudet University - Part One

I have to second the statements from so many in the hearing loss community who have expressed regrets at the way the situation at Gallaudet ended. Of course, it hasn't really ended, as we'll see shortly.

The Gallaudet Board of Trustees voted on Sunday to rescind their appointment of Jane Fernandes as the next University President. In so doing they have hastened the demise of Gallaudet University as the institution we know today. It was doomed to go the way of previous "centers of Deaf culture" (Deaf clubs and residential schools) in any case; it will just happen that much faster now; hence the call for a requiem for Gallaudet University.

The Board of Trustees succumbed to the pressure applied by the faction that was determined that the next Gallaudet president be culturally Deaf. The Deaf militants have been denying that position throughout the demonstration, but their proclamations following the Board's decision made their motivation clear.

Dr. Chen Pichler summed it up pretty well in her statement to the New York Times (http://tinyurl.com/yh927c):

"Dr. Chen Pichler said that protesters doubted Dr. Fernandes's commitment to upholding the primacy of American Sign Language on campus, and that the next person selected would have to be strongly committed to reinforcing what is often referred to as Deaf culture - with a capital D - at Gallaudet.

"'While the university is open to students from all traditions - those who sign exclusively, who speak and read lips or who sign spoken language - many protesters want the university to ban spoken language in classes and official meetings because it is easier for deaf people to understand American Sign Language. The next group chosen for finalists have to be sensitive to that,' Dr. Chen Pichler said."

So the protest was never really about Dr. Fernandes' leadership style or management ability, as the protesters claimed. It was, as Dr. Fernandes has stated all along, about the fact that she isn't Deaf enough for the militants. It was about her unacceptable vision that Gallaudet welcome ALL students with hearing loss, not just those who are culturally Deaf; it was about the protesters' insistence that Gallaudet serve as the cultural center of the Deaf world.

The protest was really about who runs Gallaudet University, and now we know.

The New York Times article quoted above also reports on an email message written by student leader Joshua Toz as the demonstrators burned Jane Fernandes in effigy. He wrote, "We worked hard and finally broke the hold [Jane Fernandes] had on the president-designate's position. Gallaudet University is now ours."

So where does Gallaudet go from here?

As the "New York Times" noted in their October 31 article entitled, "At University for Deaf, Protesters Press Broader Demands", the ouster of Jane Fernandes is just the first item on the demonstrators' agenda. Now that that's been accomplished, the next item of business has to be the selection of the next president.

I. King Jordan is scheduled to step down on January 1, 2007, which is just two months away. There has been some speculation that the board might ask him to postpone his retirement, but the real powers at Gallaudet have already labeled that a non-starter. "Inside Higher Education" reports (http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/10/30/gallaudet):
:
"The Faculty Senate this month voted no confidence in Jordan - and protesters interviewed Sunday night on campus said that they would not support his staying on longer to deal with the leadership void. Said [Student Body President Noah] Beckman: 'He has to go.' . . .

" Richard Lytle, a professor of education, said that in the wake of the last few months, it would be 'a disaster' if the board kept Jordan on."

So we're looking at someone new, and that person should be in place by January 1. With two months remaining, there's no time to form another search committee, engage consultants, conduct interviews, select finalists, conduct more interviews, and finally select the next president. Fortunately, the Gallaudet community can forgo all that bureaucratic nonsense.

I'm sure the Board of Trustees has already come up with this idea, but if not, I suggest they convene the faculty and students who led the demonstrations and simply ASK them who the next Gallaudet president will be.

It may be that different factions initially prefer different Deaf individuals. Even so, they should be able to caucus and appoint the next president by Thursday or so. If it appears on Wednesday night that a Thursday anointment is in jeopardy, they can hasten the process by simply hanging a couple of pictures of Jane Fernandes in the conference room.