Gsllaudet University...Is the president good for the school or not?
By KCastleberry - Posted on May 6th, 2006
Tagged: Education
I know that I am new here and you all do not know this but I am a CODA which is a Child of Deaf Adults. Which means I am hearing and my parents are deaf. I grew up with the deaf community all my life. I receive emails weekly regarding events in here in Indiana and when something happens nationally, I get those emails too.
The last one I received was about Gallaudet University which is the world's only liberal arts college for the deaf. On Thursday, they had gone on their third day of protest over the naming of their new school president. Everyone says that Galludet's presidency is a vital post in the struggle for the dignity of the deaf but I don't understand why nothing was said about this new president during the interview process. If there were so many people not wanting this woman to be the president there why is this just coming up now and not before.
I know I am rambling here but what I would like to say is that not everyone can have what they want all the time. In 1988, the students of Gallaudet protested for a deaf president of the university. I am wondering if they think everytime they protest they will get what they want. If that is true then we should all be able to protest for free college educations, more pay at our jobs, free homes of our choice and free medical. I know I may not know the whole story behind why they are protesting this president of the university but to block traffic into the university and to forgo their education for at least three days to protest this woman, I am sure there are better ways for the university to stand up and listen to what the students want.
I will keep reading up about this protest and edit my posting when I get more information.
We DID say everything we could during the interview process, and that is precisely why we are protesting. A student poll approved by the Institutional Research Board showed that 83% of the students did NOT approve of Jane Fernandes, and the poll results were sent to the BOT, and many other ways of sharing our displeasure with Jane were shared throughout the entire process. That is why we are saying we were ignored, because we've question the process from the VERY BEGINNING.
I am protesting the students at Gallaudet behaving like bratty Helen Kellers. By refusing to grow up, and attend courses like mature adults, they are not learning how to work within the corporate capitalist system on which our nation runs. They may not like all of the decisions that others make in their lives, but they have to learn to live with them if they want to survive. They need to spend the time in the classroom getting the grades, and getting their education done and over with. The entire college experience is way over-rated in comparison with what they will have to do in the real world. I am 50 years old, and spent twenty years on active duty in the military on rotating shifts 24-7-365. That includes holidays. My husband did likewise. Now that we are retired, he works for a defense contractor, and I am now going back to college to finish a B.A. that I started back in 1974. If life were easy, there wouldn't be people committing suicide to get out of completing it. There are far more important contributions Gallaudet students could be making to the world, if they could see beyond their own academic-embracing world. What really matters is what you do with the education once you get it. The process is not that important in the end. Unless you are in some kind of outstanding world leadership position, the majority of the people in the world don't care where you got your education, what happened during it, or who was in charge of your institution of higher learning, unless it was Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, or Charles Manson. Most coworkers might not want to work with someone who was taught by those dudes. Employers just want you to do the work for which they hire you, in the same way that educators want you just get through their class so they can get the next one in progress, and get their paycheck for covering their bills. Colleges are in the business of educating, not being centers of government. They operate like corporate entities to stay in business. They will take your money, but they pay you in a GPA for the quality of the work you submit. They know that in the real world of work, GPA doesn't mean anything past that first corporate job. Most college presidents are just figure heads who sign on the dotted line to help the institution get as much funding as possible to acquire and maintain the best facilities and the best staff. The new president of Gallaudet knows the institution well enough to sell it as an investment to the rest of corporate America for financial support to keep the institution open and running. To think that she is any more important than that is to give her far more credibility and power than she has or deserves. She is not the president of the United States, but maybe we would be in better shape if she were. Heaven only knows ...
Yeah,
I've been keeping up with this story also. If a group of people don't like something then they have the right to protest even if they were asking for something outrageous. Its up to the authorities to decide whether or not they'll accomodate them or not. My complaint about the protest is that I think their reasoning is selfish and discriminatory. How can you say someone is not "deaf enough?" That's ridculous. Just because she learned how to speak before she learned sign language doesn't mean Incredible.
Now they are trying to change their argument. They are saying she doesn't have enough leadership skills. Yet they have no basis for their argument. Everyone else seems to think she's highly talented. She's been an invited speaker at conferences all over the country. They just needed a way to try to cover up their discriminatory ways and their dislike for those who are not as unfortunate as they are.
"Jane is not fluent with (American Sign Language), and as a minority group, we need a leader who has aura, who can lead instead of somebody who doesn't get along with students and doesn't sign fluently." This is what one student said about their new president. The problem is that they never gave her a chance to get along with them. She doesn't even take over until January 2006. Als, who are they to say she doesn't have an aura. It's because she had the priveledge of learning to speak and they didn't.
One more thing. Before 1988 the college didn't even have a deaf president so they should be honored that they have a president that can relate to them on that level. Whether a deaf person knows sign language or not its still not easy being deaf. How rude of them!
AshleyB-suckITup&keepMOVIN
I am happy that I got another response to this that didn't make me feel like me posting this was a mistake. I hope everything at Gallaudet works out best for all parties involved.
We have to remember that the news is not sharing the whole story on this protest just what is their take on what may shock the nation. I am a college student at Anne Arundel Community College taking ASL I. My teacher is deaf and an alumni from Gallaudet. My class was told by him that there was another candidate that was just as qualified if not more so but over looked for the position. Fernandez has been an administrator at Gallaudet and many students and faculty agree that she is not right for the position. The President of Gallaudet is not just responsible for the running of the school. The job also requires the President to be the face of the deaf community. The students have every right to protest her hiring if they feel that another person would have been better qualified for the position. I personally feel that the Student Government should have had a say in the hiring process. There is also another point that should be brought up. The position pays $500,000 a year and there is a 2 million dollar buy out option for the board should they decide that she should step down. Instead of just dumping the process into the current president's hands they should decide hoping that either she will step down or the students will grow tired and stop. Either Fernandez should step down knowing that the students do not want her, or the board needs to go ahead and listen to the students and let her go and restart the process.