Deaf Students Raise Voices
Hundreds protest as Gallaudet’s hiring controversy escalates.
By Ben Adler
Thursday October 5, 2006
WASHINGTON — A makeshift campground has arisen in the middle of Gallaudet University’s attractive campus, an island of grass and red brick buildings in a drab section of Northeast Washington, D.C. Thirty-five tents form a large circle around the perimeter of the plaza in front of the Student Union. At night the tents house approximately 150 protestors. By day another 300 comrades come by to lend support. This diverse group of protestors—mostly students, but also faculty, alumni and staff—set up camp at the beginning of the semester on Monday, continuing a movement that culminated last May in a two week tent city camp out. They are there to protest the selection of university provost Dr. Jane K. Fernandes to replace long-serving icon Dr. I. King Jordan as the school’s president, and the manner in which she was chosen.
 The movement conveys its diversity—but little else—in its title: the Faculty Staff Student Alumni Coalition (FSSA). Though Fernandes’ appointment is the FSSA Coalition’s primary grievance, their concerns surrounding the presidential search and hiring process represent more basic issues of how much, or how little, the university respects and incorporates the views of its constituents.
Alison Aubrecht, who holds two degrees from Gallaudet and now works for the university as a personal counselor at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD), a high school run on Gallaudet’s campus, is one of the leaders of the FSSA. She held a sign and sports a shirt that both feature the phrase “Unity for Gallaudet.” She has a litany of problems with Fernandes and the way in which she was chosen. “Fernandes was provost for six years and her performance was unsatisfactory,” she began. “Fernandes was appointed by King Jordan without faculty participation, and the faculty gave her a vote of no confidence because she was unwilling to share governance with them.” This is the protestors’ most basic issue—that Fernandes was handpicked by former President Jordan and pushed through without support from the larger community. Graduate student Erin Moran complained, “[Jordan] should be neutral but he obviously has a bias towards Fernandes.”
“She’s oppressive in small ways,” continued Aubrecht. “One professor was a victim of harassment because of his sexual orientation and Fernandes fired him. They called it ‘non-reappointment’. She banned the yearbook with no explanation. The students [who had already ordered one] didn’t get their money back.”
But the protestors’ complaints run deeper than antipathy toward Fernandes.
“The presidential search committee did not accurately reflect the university in terms of diversity,” said Aubrecht. “Dr. Glenn Anderson, chairman of the Board of Trustees for twelve years, an African-American Ph.D who was well-liked [in the school community], was not seriously considered. The three finalists were all white. One had only a master’s. So that he was chosen over Dr. Anderson upset a lot of people.”
Student activists also complain that the administration has been unwilling to respond to any of their concerns. They claim their letters, going back to one sent last year about the lack of diversity on the search committee, have received no response. The Gallaudet public relations office told Campus Progress that the school spokesperson was too busy to answer any questions by press time for this article.
The FSSA Coalition movement is not limiting itself to the physical confines of campus. Various websites devoted to the protest movement have sprung up, including an event calendar at www.deafbison.net, and video broadcasts in sign language that are frequently updated at www.signcasts.com. And, according to Laurene Simms, an associate professor in the Education Department who received her MA in Deaf Education Programs from Gallaudet, there are alumni groups in the San Francisco Bay area and Wisconsin organizing to pressure the administration as well.
On campus, the tent city is only one manifestation of the protestors’ outrage. Other actions they have recently taken, or plan to take, include a rally, walkouts from classes, and a sit-in, according to movement leader Chris Corrigan, an undergraduate majoring in public relations and business with a minor in philosophy. Corrigan echoed Aubrecht’s complaints about Fernandes’ background, pointing to the fact that she was never a university professor (she worked at MSSD before becoming Gallaudet provost). Although their complaints are structural, the FSSA Coalition’s demands are only that Fernandes resign and the search process be re-opened, and that protestors not face any reprisals. Corrigan claimed overwhelming majorities of the student body and faculty oppose Fernandes’ appointment, and he thinks her unpopularity is itself confirmation of her poor qualifications for the job, arguing “a good leader would have a good following.”
--------
Comments
|
!
Finally, there’s an article that provides the insights of the Gallaudet University FSSA coalition. Many thanks for hearing us.
— PR - Oct 5, 02:44 PM - #Frankly, the insinuations that this decision is racially slanted are absurd. No, there has not been an African-American president, however, there has never been a female president either. If you are trying to reflect the diversity of the campus then you must recognize that there are at least as many women on campus as African-Americans.
— SR - Oct 5, 04:38 PM - #There are a number of insinuations present in this argument. What is “absurd” is to pay no notice to the rest of the insinuations. As a Gallaudet University student, I must comment that I have heard nothing of Fernandes “banning” the yearbook—especially since the yearbook’s pc was “stolen” and they couldn’t continue the production of the yearbook anyway. I question the factual accuracy presented by the extremely biased FSSA.
Gallaudet students and faculty have been displaying an interesting mix of ideas; all of which are being harmed by the actions that we have seen as of today. One student reportedly poured a drink on IKJ, current president. Others were screaming over the interpreters to prevent Board of Trustees members from hearing the voice interpretations of sign language.
All actions have left me in obvious dismay despite the truth behind protest reasons. I do wonder how people expect to gain respect when they are not giving respect.
What people are not stating in the list of facts include:
A nation-wide search process that was expected to take 18 months was completed over 4 months
Within the applicants, the final three were no where near as “qualified” as JK, though applicants who were equally qualified, including Glen Anderson—who resigned as chairman of the Board of Trustees to apply, were not included in the final three.
The problem? The search was rigged and students are angry for it.
Great reason to protest—but if students plan to protest, I should hope that as a whole we can increase our perceived levels of maturity.
— Brittney kleinemas - Oct 5, 06:20 PM - #You have my support. It’s nice to know that we have people like you willing to take a stand for injustices like this. Stay strong.
— David Martin - Oct 5, 08:52 PM - #Brittney,
Your comments are way out of line. You are simply focusing on one or two people who are not representative of the whole movement.
In my experience, the protesters are very well informed and very mature about what they are doing.
— Brian Riley - Oct 6, 01:44 AM - #I’ll be curious to see if you still believe that after today’s performances, Brian :-)
— Brittney kleinemas - Oct 6, 11:47 AM - #I wanted to add – Fernandes banned the yearbook back in 2001, when i was a student.
— Elisa - Oct 6, 11:19 PM - #That was before my time, thank you for sharing—I didn’t know about that.
— Brittney - Oct 7, 02:15 PM - #It’s understandable to confuse the post of Gallaudet President with some shadow Presidency of Deaf America, and therefore be possessed of the notion, however silly, that such a post should be democratically elected by all those eligible. What the students and other FSSA need to understand is, at this very moment, THEY are the face of Deaf America, and that face has turned BUTT UGLY. Whatever principle their objections were based on, it has been buried under a blanket of unreasonable demands, personal attacks, and irrational anger.
— Uh... what? - Oct 13, 04:55 PM - ##6 …. By the way, we won the protest on Oct 29, 2006.
— Brian Riley - Nov 4, 11:55 PM - #“won” is an interesting term considering the withdraw rate following the protest, the punished students, and the fact that the university is nearing the loss of their accreditation
— brittney - Feb 19, 09:54 PM - #OZPSL7
— click here - May 9, 01:18 PM - #