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NTID programs help deaf community thrive | Democrat and Chronicle | democratandchronicle.com
As a hard-of-hearing teenager from St. Louis, Gerard Buckley found his life transformed when he enrolled at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.
Now he's repaying the favor. As the first NTID alumnus to become its president, he's losing no time in creating new projects for this college at Rochester Institute of Technology.
To an unusual degree, Buckley has merged his identity with that of his alma mater. NTID was the first school to meet his needs as an increasingly deaf student. He has forged most of his administrative career there and become its most visible symbol.
"Being deaf himself, he is a great role model for deaf people," said Kim Kurz, chair of NTID's Interpreter Education Department. "He shows them that deaf people can climb the ladder."
In a way, Buckley may be considered an heir of the 1988 "Deaf President Now!" protest that helped install I. King Jordan as head of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. But Buckley also can credit his 21-year experience as an NTID administrator for taking the helm a year ago.
"I know about the issues and can get right to the heart of them," said Buckley, 56, a Macedon resident. "The faculty appreciates that fact."
"Being an alumnus gives him an intimate and deep connection to NTID," agreed Todd Pagano, associate professor in the science and mathematics department. "In return, he guides the institution with great competence and resolve."
But guiding NTID has never been easy, given the diverse needs of its 1,547 students and 587 staff and faculty members. Since it was launched in 1965, the federally funded school has weathered profound changes in deaf culture, academic priorities and financing. It seems to be entering a new period of stability and growth, as reflected in the following ventures:
This spring, the college begins construction of a 23,000-square-foot building to house research centers and student project areas. These will include an "Innovation and Entrepreneur's Lab," in keeping with RIT's strong focus on entrepreneurship.
The cost will be $8 million, with $1.75 million financed by the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund. Completion is expected by spring 2013.
NTID plans to launch a joint degree program with Gallaudet, a liberal arts school for deaf students. It would train health care workers and improve communication with deaf and hard-of-hearing patients.
Buckley considers health care a vital growth area for jobs — and he speaks from personal experience. His daughter, Jennie Miller of Macedon, is a deaf veterinarian and an NTID graduate. His son, Ryan, graduates from RIT this year and plans a career in health care.
The college will use a $1.2 million federal grant to recruit and train educators of the deaf and hard of hearing. Scholarships will go to certain NTID graduate students interested in teaching science, technology, engineering and math to this population. The program also will seek out participants who are African-American, Latin American, Native American and Asian-American.
Buckley recently created a program, "Emerging Leadership," to help NTID employees take up leadership roles as more than 200 workers prepare to retire in the next few years.
The scope of these ventures may surprise local residents not familiar with NTID. The school is arguably the heart of Rochester's deaf and hard-of-hearing population, which is considered to have America's largest per capita concentration. Previous surveys have found about 7,000 deaf and tens of thousands of hard-of-hearing residents in greater Rochester, though no formal census has ever been taken.
The college helps account for the area's many sign language users, deaf employees and public facilities equipped for deaf users. They make Rochester a more diverse community — but not nearly as diverse as NTID itself.
The school serves American and international students who speak, sign, read lips or use FM signals to their hearing aids. Some rely on visual aids, Web-based materials or individual tutors. When they take classes in other RIT colleges, interpreters and captioning devices are available.
Despite this range of services, NTID students often complain that too few of their teachers are deaf. Buckley is trying to increase their ranks.
This year, 111 of the 587 faculty and staff members are deaf or hard-of-hearing. That's a higher ratio than it may seem, since 200 are hearing interpreters and captionists. More than half of recent faculty hires are deaf.
Meanwhile, the character of the student body is undergoing changes. Twenty years ago, many students at Gallaudet and NTID championed a tight-knit deaf culture that used American Sign Language and rejected the notion of deafness as a handicap. That ideal is still around but faces a dramatic challenge — the growing acceptance of cochlear implants.
Surgically implanted in the inner ear, this device can restore partial hearing and improve speech. It was still a controversial procedure in the mid-1990s, when some NTID members called it a misplaced effort to "fix deafness."
The implants became more popular as their technology improved. Today, 330 NTID students have them, and the number keeps going up.
"Most of them had implants in middle school or high school," explained Buckley, who speaks and signs with equal facility. "But if a child gets an implant at age 1, he's more inclined to speak. We anticipate that we'll need to be ready for more of those students."
He doesn't see NTID's varied modes of communication as an educational hurdle. A more stubborn problem is that students' previous schools often had flimsy deaf support services, hampering their ability to learn. A record 71 percent of NTID's new students come from schools or colleges that serve both deaf and hearing students.
If these schools fail to help deaf students master basic academic skills, they face a tougher time at NTID. It's one reason that the college's graduation rate stands at 53 percent. But Buckley notes that NTID graduates have exceptional success in finding jobs — 90 percent within a year of graduation.
That statistic is helping win government money for the school. About $65 million of NTID's $89 million annual budget is federally funded. Both of Buckley's predecessors — former NTID leaders Robert Davila and T. Alan Hurwitz — vigorously promoted the college's interests on Capitol Hill.
Buckley and Hurwitz addressed the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Oct. 11. Buckley told legislators that NTID graduates' high employment rate means fewer deaf Americans relying on federal programs.
"For fiscal year 2011, we actually got an increase of $2.4 million," he said. "Our local delegation was wonderfully supportive."
In Washington and on campus, he has been a vocal booster for Rochester and the resources it provides for its deaf population. For that reason, he's dismayed by the small number of NTID students finding work here. Only 17 of the last 96 graduates to enter the labor force were hired in Rochester and its surrounding counties.
"A lot of them wanted to stay," he said. "But the local job market is so tight. So I encourage our graduates to become leaders elsewhere — and then come back."
As a hard-of-hearing teenager from St. Louis, Gerard Buckley found his life transformed when he enrolled at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.
Now he's repaying the favor. As the first NTID alumnus to become its president, he's losing no time in creating new projects for this college at Rochester Institute of Technology.
To an unusual degree, Buckley has merged his identity with that of his alma mater. NTID was the first school to meet his needs as an increasingly deaf student. He has forged most of his administrative career there and become its most visible symbol.
"Being deaf himself, he is a great role model for deaf people," said Kim Kurz, chair of NTID's Interpreter Education Department. "He shows them that deaf people can climb the ladder."
In a way, Buckley may be considered an heir of the 1988 "Deaf President Now!" protest that helped install I. King Jordan as head of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. But Buckley also can credit his 21-year experience as an NTID administrator for taking the helm a year ago.
"I know about the issues and can get right to the heart of them," said Buckley, 56, a Macedon resident. "The faculty appreciates that fact."
"Being an alumnus gives him an intimate and deep connection to NTID," agreed Todd Pagano, associate professor in the science and mathematics department. "In return, he guides the institution with great competence and resolve."
But guiding NTID has never been easy, given the diverse needs of its 1,547 students and 587 staff and faculty members. Since it was launched in 1965, the federally funded school has weathered profound changes in deaf culture, academic priorities and financing. It seems to be entering a new period of stability and growth, as reflected in the following ventures:
This spring, the college begins construction of a 23,000-square-foot building to house research centers and student project areas. These will include an "Innovation and Entrepreneur's Lab," in keeping with RIT's strong focus on entrepreneurship.
The cost will be $8 million, with $1.75 million financed by the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund. Completion is expected by spring 2013.
NTID plans to launch a joint degree program with Gallaudet, a liberal arts school for deaf students. It would train health care workers and improve communication with deaf and hard-of-hearing patients.
Buckley considers health care a vital growth area for jobs — and he speaks from personal experience. His daughter, Jennie Miller of Macedon, is a deaf veterinarian and an NTID graduate. His son, Ryan, graduates from RIT this year and plans a career in health care.
The college will use a $1.2 million federal grant to recruit and train educators of the deaf and hard of hearing. Scholarships will go to certain NTID graduate students interested in teaching science, technology, engineering and math to this population. The program also will seek out participants who are African-American, Latin American, Native American and Asian-American.
Buckley recently created a program, "Emerging Leadership," to help NTID employees take up leadership roles as more than 200 workers prepare to retire in the next few years.
The scope of these ventures may surprise local residents not familiar with NTID. The school is arguably the heart of Rochester's deaf and hard-of-hearing population, which is considered to have America's largest per capita concentration. Previous surveys have found about 7,000 deaf and tens of thousands of hard-of-hearing residents in greater Rochester, though no formal census has ever been taken.
The college helps account for the area's many sign language users, deaf employees and public facilities equipped for deaf users. They make Rochester a more diverse community — but not nearly as diverse as NTID itself.
The school serves American and international students who speak, sign, read lips or use FM signals to their hearing aids. Some rely on visual aids, Web-based materials or individual tutors. When they take classes in other RIT colleges, interpreters and captioning devices are available.
Despite this range of services, NTID students often complain that too few of their teachers are deaf. Buckley is trying to increase their ranks.
This year, 111 of the 587 faculty and staff members are deaf or hard-of-hearing. That's a higher ratio than it may seem, since 200 are hearing interpreters and captionists. More than half of recent faculty hires are deaf.
Meanwhile, the character of the student body is undergoing changes. Twenty years ago, many students at Gallaudet and NTID championed a tight-knit deaf culture that used American Sign Language and rejected the notion of deafness as a handicap. That ideal is still around but faces a dramatic challenge — the growing acceptance of cochlear implants.
Surgically implanted in the inner ear, this device can restore partial hearing and improve speech. It was still a controversial procedure in the mid-1990s, when some NTID members called it a misplaced effort to "fix deafness."
The implants became more popular as their technology improved. Today, 330 NTID students have them, and the number keeps going up.
"Most of them had implants in middle school or high school," explained Buckley, who speaks and signs with equal facility. "But if a child gets an implant at age 1, he's more inclined to speak. We anticipate that we'll need to be ready for more of those students."
He doesn't see NTID's varied modes of communication as an educational hurdle. A more stubborn problem is that students' previous schools often had flimsy deaf support services, hampering their ability to learn. A record 71 percent of NTID's new students come from schools or colleges that serve both deaf and hearing students.
If these schools fail to help deaf students master basic academic skills, they face a tougher time at NTID. It's one reason that the college's graduation rate stands at 53 percent. But Buckley notes that NTID graduates have exceptional success in finding jobs — 90 percent within a year of graduation.
That statistic is helping win government money for the school. About $65 million of NTID's $89 million annual budget is federally funded. Both of Buckley's predecessors — former NTID leaders Robert Davila and T. Alan Hurwitz — vigorously promoted the college's interests on Capitol Hill.
Buckley and Hurwitz addressed the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Oct. 11. Buckley told legislators that NTID graduates' high employment rate means fewer deaf Americans relying on federal programs.
"For fiscal year 2011, we actually got an increase of $2.4 million," he said. "Our local delegation was wonderfully supportive."
In Washington and on campus, he has been a vocal booster for Rochester and the resources it provides for its deaf population. For that reason, he's dismayed by the small number of NTID students finding work here. Only 17 of the last 96 graduates to enter the labor force were hired in Rochester and its surrounding counties.
"A lot of them wanted to stay," he said. "But the local job market is so tight. So I encourage our graduates to become leaders elsewhere — and then come back."