[EDLING:2033] Gallaudet: protesters won, now what?

[Francis M Hult]

Via lg-policy...

> http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i12/12a03901.htm
> >From the issue dated November 10, 2006
> 
> 
> A Protest Topples a President
> At Gallaudet U., students and alumni who ousted their appointed leader
> must now confront new challenges
> 
> By ELIZABETH F. FARRELL
> 
> Washington
> 
> The protesters were ready to lock down the campus again. On October 29,
> even after three weeks of demonstrations that included arrests, hunger
> strikes, and two takeovers of campus buildings at Gallaudet University,
> dozens of students were prepared to continue their rebellion if the
> university's Board of Trustees decided to stand firm in their appointment
> of Jane K. Fernandes as president-designate of the university. But the
> standoff ended at 5:34 that evening when the trustees sent an e-mail
> message saying that they had decided to "terminate" Ms. Fernandes, the
> same woman whom, just two weeks earlier, they had described as the most
> qualified candidate to lead the nation's only liberal-arts university for
> the deaf. "Although undoubtedly there will be some members of the
> community who have differing views on the meaning of this decision," the
> statement said, "we believe it is a necessity at this point. ... The hope
> of the Board of Trustees is for our beloved community to come together to
> work for a stronger and better Gallaudet."
> 
> Gallaudet's leaders made their decision behind closed and heavily guarded
> doors at a Hyatt hotel in Dulles, Va., about 30 miles from the
> university's campus. In a hallway there, Bobbie Beth Scoggins, president
> of the National Association of the Deaf, read the news on her BlackBerry,
> then jumped up and down as she sprinted out of the lobby. "I have to get
> to Gallaudet now!" she signed excitedly. Almost everyone who cared about
> Gallaudet rushed to the campus that night, for there was much to discuss.
> Although the announcement gave critics of Ms. Fernandes the victory they
> sought, it did not resolve the underlying causes of their dissatisfaction
> with her appointment. During their sustained and passionate protest, the
> demands had been simple and specific: Ms. Fernandes must step down and the
> university must not punish students for their civil disobedience, which
> included blockading campus gates. After ousting the would-be president
> last week, however, they turned to broader, more complicated goals.
> 
> Students, alumni, and faculty members all say they want a deaf leader who
> will seek to build consensus among the university's various constituents.
> They also think their future president should speak out against audism the
> assumption that hearing is superior to deafness and racism, improve the
> university's academic standards, and represent both Gallaudet and the deaf
> community with charm and affability. That's quite a large order to fill,
> especially at a time when people at Gallaudet disagree over the best way
> make the campus inclusive of all deaf people while preserving the
> university's unique identity a debate that predates the controversy over
> Ms. Fernandes. "The problems we face are systemic, and they're not going
> to go away easily," says one of Gallaudet's trustees, who did not want to
> be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. "We're going to
> have to tackle them, and it's going to be a struggle for us all."
> 
> A Unifying Cause
> 
> The intensity of the conflict surprised some observers in academe, where
> protests now tend to involve only a handful of students and fizzle out
> after a few hours or days. "I can't recall another time since Vietnam that
> protests led to the closing of a campus," said Jonathan Knight, director
> of the program on academic freedom and tenure at the American Association
> of University Professors. "What was unusual here is not only how deeply
> the students became involved in protesting the selection of a new
> president, but also the steps they took to support their cause." A strong
> dislike of Ms. Fernandes's personality and management style motivated some
> protesters. When the university announced last April that she was one of
> the final three candidates for president, students were quick to post
> messages on blogs and e-mail lists recounting their interactions with Ms.
> Fernandes during her six years as Gallaudet's provost.
> 
> Some described her as having dismissed their concerns in private meetings,
> and said it was not uncommon for her to interrupt them in midsentence.
> After Ms. Fernandes outlined her vision for the university during a public
> presentation in the spring, students described her as "stiff" and
> "humorless," and complained that she had dodged their questions. Many of
> those questions, however, have no easy answers. How can a university
> become more inclusive to the widening spectrum of deaf students, some of
> whom now have partial hearing because of technological advancements, like
> cochlear implants and digital hearing aids? What, exactly, could Ms.
> Fernandes do to combat audism on campus and in society at large? And what
> are the best ways to improve race relations at the university? On most
> college campuses, students are content to leave debates over the future
> direction of a university and its academic philosophy to faculty members
> and administrators. At Gallaudet, however, many students are deeply
> invested in their university's identity because they believe it reflects
> their own.
> 
> The shared experience of being deaf unified Gallaudet students despite
> their diverse backgrounds and interests. That bond also helped the
> students garner tremendous support from alumni and national deaf-advocacy
> groups. Throughout the protest, adults the kind that wear suits and ties
> every day commingled with the students who had set up tents on Gallaudet's
> campus. Many of them had flown in from other cities to stand in solidarity
> with the students. Some had been Gallaudet students in 1988, when an
> earlier generation of student protesters started the "Deaf President Now"
> movement on the campus, which caused another president designate,
> Elisabeth A. Zinser, to step down. In her place, Gallaudet's trustees
> appointed I. King Jordan, the first deaf president, to lead the
> university. This fall alumni and deaf leaders passed on tactical advice to
> protesters.  Brian Riley, who earned his master's degree in linguistics at
> Gallaudet in 1987, was one of a handful of alumni who volunteered to
> publicize the protest. Between May and October, Mr. Riley often devoted 14
> hours a day to the cause. Once he called local television news crews at
> 3:30 in the morning to tell them the students had taken over a university
> building.
> 
> That considerable support network also gave the protesters thousands of
> dollars, as well as supplies. Their huge white tents were wellstocked with
> snacks, hot drinks, and meals throughout the three-week ordeal. And
> students who camped out each night received plenty of blankets. "What
> helped us go on through the protest, even when we were so exhausted, was
> the support we received from all over the world, and the hope we had,"
> says Leah Katz-Hernandez, a sophomore and one of the protest's student
> leaders. "Alumni were great in donating their time and efforts. ... There
> were people who always tried to make sure everybody was comfortable and
> wellfed."
> 
> Picture of a Provost
> 
> In recent weeks, protesters called Ms. Fernandes many names. They even
> likened her to an evil queen. Yet they said little about the job she had
> done during her six years as Gallaudet's provost, or about her plans for
> the university's future. Gallaudet's trustees, however, had picked Ms.
> Fernandes because of her experience at the university and the detailed and
> articulate plan she had outlined for its future. As provost, Ms. Fernandes
> helped build Gallaudet's deaf-studies program, which had been created in
> 1994 under the leadership of Mr. Jordan. She successfully recruited many
> new faculty members to the department. In the spring Ms. Fernandes
> introduced a plan to make Gallaudet a "visual-centric university," with an
> emphasis on visual learning. She said she would urge professors to boycott
> textbook companies that did not provide captions in their supplemental
> materials. And she promised that under her leadership, all written content
> on Gallaudet's Web site would be accompanied by videos with translations
> in American Sign Language.
> 
> "She was the only one of the candidates who had a clear vision for the
> institution," says one trustee. "Part of her vision included opening the
> community to all forms of deafness, and she consistently raised academic
> standards for both faculty and students." Yet Ms. Fernandes also offended
> some students and faculty members, who often felt she acted without
> considering their ideas and concerns. And some detractors claimed she was
> out of touch with deaf culture because she had grown up in an oral
> environment and had not learned to sign until she was 23. Some faculty
> members who opposed Ms. Fernandes say her greatest sins were those of
> omission. In 2003, for instance, the student government drafted a series
> of proposed changes in campus policies in an effort to improve the
> learning environment. The student leaders proposed a requirement that all
> staff and faculty members must continually improve their proficiency in
> American Sign Language, and that even hearing members of the faculty and
> staff must always use sign language on the campus, even when speaking to
> other hearing members in casual conversation.
> 
> Though Ms. Fernandes did establish a committee of students, faculty
> members, and administrators to review the proposals and explore ways the
> university could enact them, many members complained that because she
> failed to take further action, the committee rarely met and no real
> changes came about. Ms. Fernandes, who did not respond to The Chronicle's
> repeated requests for comment, has said previously that many Gallaudet
> students and alumni were hostile to her because they thought she was not
> "deaf enough." Following her appointment last May, some faculty members
> were dismayed that the trustees had picked someone who was widely
> unpopular. In a meeting on October 16, 138 of 168 faculty members who
> attended gave Ms.  Fernandes a vote of no confidence. At least some of
> that opposition was sewn into the past. When Ms.  Fernandes became
> Gallaudet's provost six years ago, the faculty gave her a vote of no
> confidence. Their objection was that Mr. Jordan, the president, had
> appointed her without consulting them, though he had sought their advice
> about previous appointments. So began the perception that Ms.  Fernandes
> was too chummy with Mr. Jordan.
> 
> Since then, Mr. Jordan has publicly said he erred in making the unilateral
> appointment. "I think that marked the downward spiral of relations between
> the faculty and the trustees," says Mark S. Weinberg, chairman of
> Gallaudet's faculty senate. "We were incensed that the board showed no
> concerns for the violation of due process and that they were highly
> deferential to Dr.  Jordan and his decisions."
> 
> The 'Idol' in the Room
> 
> Although faculty members had their differences with Mr. Jordan, he has
> long been admired by students, alumni, and deaf leaders. That changed
> after Ms. Fernandes's appointment this spring. Those frustrations were
> evident in the tense hours leading up to the trustees' decision last week,
> when the lobby at the Hyatt had the feel of a hospital waiting room. Andy
> Lange, president of Gallaudet's alumni association, and Ms. Scoggins, of
> the National Association of the Deaf, huddled on a sofa. At one point, Ms.
> Scoggins looked up from her BlackBerry and began thinking out loud. "How
> the heck did we get to this point?" she asked, then answered her own
> question. "In many ways, it's all of our faults because we put I. King
> Jordan up as an idol. When you look at someone [like] that, you allow many
> things to happen that shouldn't. We will never do that again." Some
> faculty members blame the board for giving Mr. Jordan what they describe
> as too much power, but many students and alumni agree with Ms.
> Scoggins's assessment. Some of the former students and deaf leaders who
> helped Mr. Jordan gain his position say they should have scrutinized him
> more.
> 
> During his 18 years at Gallaudet, Mr. Jordan has raised the endowment from
> under $10-million to $170-million, bringing in more than $100-million in
> federal money. He led the transition of Gallaudet from a college to a
> university. Yet the university's graduation rates have long hovered around
> 40 percent, a problem some protesters say the president should have done
> more to fix. On October 16, the faculty also voted no confidence in Mr.
> Jordan, who did not respond to The Chronicle's request for an interview.
> Since announcing their decision last week, the trustees have said little
> about plans for their renewed presidential search, though they expect to
> appoint an interim president after Mr. Jordan's scheduled departure, in
> December.
> 
> Last week protesters took down their tents and stepped back into their
> lives as full-time students. Many were confident about Gallaudet's future.
> "The level of scrutiny with the next president will be amazing, and it
> should be that way," says Ms. Katz-Hernandez, one of the student protest
> leaders. "Essential issues like audism and racism will undoubtedly come to
> the surface, and it's going to be challenging. But we will remain vigilant
> and make sure the search is fair." Students here have learned how to
> topple a president. Their next lesson:  the difficulty of finding a new
> one.
> 
> http://chronicle.com
> Section: Students
> Volume 53, Issue 12, Page A39