Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,160
- Reaction score
- 7
Intensity of Gallaudet Unrest Surprised Incoming Leader - washingtonpost.com
Until about a week ago, incoming president Jane K. Fernandes thought things were going well at Gallaudet University.
Since May, when protests erupted for two weeks after she was named the next leader of the school for the deaf, Fernandes said she has been trying to move forward, working with people on campus and developing a diversity plan to address issues of discrimination that are upsetting many in the community. And things were quiet over the summer. "So I was surprised by the intensity of this," she said.
Yesterday morning, a bomb threat -- the second in several days -- cleared the campus. Hundreds of students have taken over one of the main campus buildings, forcing dozens of classes to be relocated the week of midterm exams, as protesters demand a search for a different president. For more than a week, students have been leading angry, sometimes uncivil protests. Late last month, faculty members had a contentious meeting about the issue; and smaller support protests have occurred in places including California, Texas, Minnesota and Indianapolis.
In a letter to the Gallaudet community, two leaders of the National Association of the Deaf said: "This is, by any definition, a crisis."
Fernandes's supporters say she is the best hope for bringing the university, the heart of deaf culture for many worldwide, back together when she starts her new job Jan. 1.
"I have a huge responsibility . . . " she said, "to be president of a university for . . . all the different kinds of students we have here." She will lead an $800,000 initiative to further the school's diversity goals and, later this semester, to get "some expert assistance on how we can work with each other, to be respectful of each other on campus."
Her opponents say her response thus far proves what they've been saying all along: She's not a strong enough leader for a job that means much more than just directing an academic institution.
Since May, protesters say, the university has only become more deeply divided.
"What is her plan? And, what is she waiting for? She had all summer to bring the community together, but as you can see, [that] didn't happen," wrote Andrew J. Lange, president of the Gallaudet University Alumni Association, which is setting up an independent Web site because it cannot send e-mail to alumni without university approval.
The second wave of demonstrations began last week when the board of trustees met on campus. Protesters say that the way Fernandes was chosen was unfair and that the board has ignored people on campus for too long.
Last night, hundreds of students agreed to spend one more night in the classroom building. They awaited a response from administrators to a proposal that they would leave the building if the university satisfied 24 demands, including guaranteeing their right to protest in specific areas.
The students also are seeking a public apology from university President I. King Jordan, whom they accuse of making misleading statements about the protesters. The students are not backing down from their original demands to reopen the presidential search process and to guarantee that protesters would not be retaliated against.
In May, faculty members passed a series of no-confidence votes after it was announced that Fernandes, then the provost, would become president.
Trustees have said that their decision is nonnegotiable and that they have chosen the strongest candidate. This summer, Fernandes stepped down as provost to work on her transition to the presidency.
"Fernandes has demonstrated lack of leadership when she stated there was no problem at Gallaudet," student protest leader Latoya Plummer wrote in an e-mail. She and others said that when concerns were raised, Fernandes kept saying she didn't know about those things. "She demonstrated cluelessness in what is really going on.''
Some objected to Fernandes's characterization of the protest in the spring as a fight over whether she was "deaf enough," saying that was akin to playing a race card -- throwing in a divisive issue over what it means to be deaf in a world where changing technology makes it easier to hear and, potentially, threatens deaf culture.
Raychelle Harris, a 1995 alumna and doctoral candidate at Gallaudet, wrote to Fernandes and Jordan, criticizing them for not being responsive to messages from various organizations.
"Brushing us under the rug won't work," Harris wrote. "Deceiving our stakeholders won't work. . . . Work with us to make a better Gallaudet."
Fernandes said she stayed up Thursday night into Friday morning working with student government leaders and asking them to reopen the building. She has met with small groups to talk about the issues and move forward, board Chairman Brenda Jo Brueggemann said by e-mail.
Jordan, who is stepping down at the end of this year, said yesterday that Fernandes's leadership since May has been outstanding.
And, he added, it's not fair to assess her just over that period. She has been on campus 11 years. She is no longer provost and not yet president, so she's not in a leadership position right now, "but if you look back, you can see a great deal about the effectiveness of her leadership," he said.
Fernandes said she has begun teaching a freshman seminar as a way to get to know more students. She tried to enlist students to work on a diversity awareness project, she said, but the student government chose not to cooperate with her.
For more than a year, she has been working on two concerns of protesters, with a plan to address racism and audism, or discrimination against people who can't hear. Those issues have been dealt with only in a piecemeal way in the past, she said. When the plan is presented to the board in February, it will include recommendations from students, she said, such as spelling out higher expectations of American Sign Language proficiency for faculty.
"I firmly believe I have the clearest, the deepest and the best understanding of what Gallaudet and the deaf community is going through here," Fernandes said Friday, as students showed no sign of letting up on their takeover of Hall Memorial Building, with scrawled posters and sign-language chants that she had to go. "And it will take someone from inside the system, who knows the system, to fix the problem in the system."
Until about a week ago, incoming president Jane K. Fernandes thought things were going well at Gallaudet University.
Since May, when protests erupted for two weeks after she was named the next leader of the school for the deaf, Fernandes said she has been trying to move forward, working with people on campus and developing a diversity plan to address issues of discrimination that are upsetting many in the community. And things were quiet over the summer. "So I was surprised by the intensity of this," she said.
Yesterday morning, a bomb threat -- the second in several days -- cleared the campus. Hundreds of students have taken over one of the main campus buildings, forcing dozens of classes to be relocated the week of midterm exams, as protesters demand a search for a different president. For more than a week, students have been leading angry, sometimes uncivil protests. Late last month, faculty members had a contentious meeting about the issue; and smaller support protests have occurred in places including California, Texas, Minnesota and Indianapolis.
In a letter to the Gallaudet community, two leaders of the National Association of the Deaf said: "This is, by any definition, a crisis."
Fernandes's supporters say she is the best hope for bringing the university, the heart of deaf culture for many worldwide, back together when she starts her new job Jan. 1.
"I have a huge responsibility . . . " she said, "to be president of a university for . . . all the different kinds of students we have here." She will lead an $800,000 initiative to further the school's diversity goals and, later this semester, to get "some expert assistance on how we can work with each other, to be respectful of each other on campus."
Her opponents say her response thus far proves what they've been saying all along: She's not a strong enough leader for a job that means much more than just directing an academic institution.
Since May, protesters say, the university has only become more deeply divided.
"What is her plan? And, what is she waiting for? She had all summer to bring the community together, but as you can see, [that] didn't happen," wrote Andrew J. Lange, president of the Gallaudet University Alumni Association, which is setting up an independent Web site because it cannot send e-mail to alumni without university approval.
The second wave of demonstrations began last week when the board of trustees met on campus. Protesters say that the way Fernandes was chosen was unfair and that the board has ignored people on campus for too long.
Last night, hundreds of students agreed to spend one more night in the classroom building. They awaited a response from administrators to a proposal that they would leave the building if the university satisfied 24 demands, including guaranteeing their right to protest in specific areas.
The students also are seeking a public apology from university President I. King Jordan, whom they accuse of making misleading statements about the protesters. The students are not backing down from their original demands to reopen the presidential search process and to guarantee that protesters would not be retaliated against.
In May, faculty members passed a series of no-confidence votes after it was announced that Fernandes, then the provost, would become president.
Trustees have said that their decision is nonnegotiable and that they have chosen the strongest candidate. This summer, Fernandes stepped down as provost to work on her transition to the presidency.
"Fernandes has demonstrated lack of leadership when she stated there was no problem at Gallaudet," student protest leader Latoya Plummer wrote in an e-mail. She and others said that when concerns were raised, Fernandes kept saying she didn't know about those things. "She demonstrated cluelessness in what is really going on.''
Some objected to Fernandes's characterization of the protest in the spring as a fight over whether she was "deaf enough," saying that was akin to playing a race card -- throwing in a divisive issue over what it means to be deaf in a world where changing technology makes it easier to hear and, potentially, threatens deaf culture.
Raychelle Harris, a 1995 alumna and doctoral candidate at Gallaudet, wrote to Fernandes and Jordan, criticizing them for not being responsive to messages from various organizations.
"Brushing us under the rug won't work," Harris wrote. "Deceiving our stakeholders won't work. . . . Work with us to make a better Gallaudet."
Fernandes said she stayed up Thursday night into Friday morning working with student government leaders and asking them to reopen the building. She has met with small groups to talk about the issues and move forward, board Chairman Brenda Jo Brueggemann said by e-mail.
Jordan, who is stepping down at the end of this year, said yesterday that Fernandes's leadership since May has been outstanding.
And, he added, it's not fair to assess her just over that period. She has been on campus 11 years. She is no longer provost and not yet president, so she's not in a leadership position right now, "but if you look back, you can see a great deal about the effectiveness of her leadership," he said.
Fernandes said she has begun teaching a freshman seminar as a way to get to know more students. She tried to enlist students to work on a diversity awareness project, she said, but the student government chose not to cooperate with her.
For more than a year, she has been working on two concerns of protesters, with a plan to address racism and audism, or discrimination against people who can't hear. Those issues have been dealt with only in a piecemeal way in the past, she said. When the plan is presented to the board in February, it will include recommendations from students, she said, such as spelling out higher expectations of American Sign Language proficiency for faculty.
"I firmly believe I have the clearest, the deepest and the best understanding of what Gallaudet and the deaf community is going through here," Fernandes said Friday, as students showed no sign of letting up on their takeover of Hall Memorial Building, with scrawled posters and sign-language chants that she had to go. "And it will take someone from inside the system, who knows the system, to fix the problem in the system."