October 24, 2006
Gallaudet's Fernandes Gets Snippy in WaPo Chat
Post chats have never been good for university presidents. Just last year American University's Ben Ladner was accused of cherry-picking questions to avoid anything below the level of fawning adoration, and yesterday embattled Gallaudet University president-select Jane K. Fernandes did her cause no justice by confirming what many of her detractors have claimed as her biggest flaws -- that she's divisive and insensitive.
While saying she wanted there to be dialogue between her opponents and herself, she also expressed surprise that anyone would oppose her: "As the first deaf woman president of Gallaudet, my appointment should be cause for celebration. This protest is against me." We're not experts in conflict management, but telling the people protesting against you that they should be celebrating you is probably counter-productive.
Fernandes also claimed to have "a vast amount of support from what I see as a 'silent majority,'" despite the fact that she has been the subject of two no-confidence votes, the first when she was selected as provost and the second coming in May after she was selected to become president, as well as a recent vote where 82 percent of the faculty voted for her to resign or be removed. She described the presidential selection process, then said "After such an exhaustive and comprehensive process, it boggles the mind how students or faculty could believe the decision can be overturned."
Photo of lil' protester by Flickr user Dottielou
She also was taken to task about saying the protesting students were engaged in "anarchism and terrorism", which again is not exactly the way to get on somebody's good side. To her credit, she said terrorism was the wrong word to use, but added that, "Perhaps it would have been better to use words like 'discord,' 'tumult,' 'riot,' and 'insubordination.'" While the first three words are accurate if a little exaggerated, "insubordination" sounds more martial, like she's a general whose orders can't be questioned. Probably not the aura to give off when students complain about your leadership style.
Fernandes later seemed to walk right into another of the criticisms students have had, that she doesn't know what the protest is about: "I know there are two demands — I resign and no reprisals. But a protest has to be FOR something, so I want to LISTEN to those involved. I want you to tell me what you are FOR." It seems pretty obvious what the students are for: Fernandes' resignation. Throughout the protests and the chat Fernandes has been trying to shift the focus from herself to other issues, but the students weren't biting.
Whatever other issues there are at the nation's premier deaf university, such as race and the changing definition of being deaf, students seem united in their opposition to Fernandes. More importantly, though, she doesn't seem to want to address their claims. Fernandes certainly didn't help her cause with this chat.
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Finally someone gets it right. I love you, man.
It seems that the Gallaudet administration has taken a page straight from Carl Rove's playbook. Calling students, faculty, alumni and community members who are opposed to Dr. Fernandes appointment as Gallaudet's next president "terrorists," and continuing to provide misinformation about what the protest is all about, is classic Carl Rove strategy. The problem, however, is that we who are against her appointment are BOTH Democrats and Republicans so that Carl Rove strategy isn't going to work. Misinforming the public by saying we oppose Dr. Fernandes because she is not Deaf enough isn't going to work either because we have hearing, Deaf, and "not Deaf enough" folks like me opposed to her selection. Misinforming the public by saying that the demands keep changing doesn't work either because from Day 1 there have only been two demands - that (1) Dr. Fernandes resign and the selection process be started again, and (2) no reprisals. It's that simple.
Incredibly, Fernandes is not even president of the university yet and she has already started telling the Gallaudet Board of Trustees (BoT) how to do their job! Last week she told the BoT that they need to make it clear to those terrorists that the Board runs Gallaudet and not them. Ouch. Maybe this is what those BoT trustees want, someone telling them how to do their job.
Hmmm, you need to wonder why someone wants to lead a university where the faculty overwhelmingly (82%) does not want her, where students do not want her, where alumnae do not want her. Is Dr. Fernandes masochistic? Or, could it be, perhaps, the reportedly $400,000 - $600,000 salary that Dr. Fernandes is supposed to earn that keeps her saying "I will be President!"? Hey, for that kind of money I doubt anyone else would resign - except someone who cares more about the community than about dollars. If Dr. Fernandes cared about the community she is supposed to lead, she would have resigned a long time ago.
A few days ago Dr. Fernandes said she "would do anything to end this right now." All she has to do is resign. It's that simple. Ahhh, but those $$$....
This post really hit the spot! I'm glad you were able to observe what we've been living with. The entire campus community has been united in their opposition against Fernandes, much more than people may realize sometimes and this is exactly why. In times of crisis, true colors are shown and this crisis has shown exactly how Jane would carry herself as president. She's extremely paternalistic for anyone who has ever seen her in action, and in any public setting, she is a horrendous socialite and speaker. She says she's being discrimated because of her signing skills, when in fact it's her overall public speaking skills (which partly entails her signing must mostly involves body language, word choice, and talking points) that we take the most offense with. The more Jane is exposed to the public, the more people can understand who she is.
When Dr. Jordan leaves on December 31st and Jane is left on campus alone (it has to happen eventually), I don't see how Jane can handle things short of expelling our entire student body. The only way this will end are if our ever-changing demands are met:
1. Jane must resign
2. The search process must be reopened.
Got that, Jane? That's what this protest is about.
Claiming support of a "silent majority" seems a bit unfortunate.
How can you "negotiate" with someone when all you want is her to resign, i.e., to not be in a position to negotiate anymore? It seems that these "demands" be better put to the trustees rather than Dr. Fernandes. If all the protesters want is for her removal, why put the onus on her to resign rather than on the board to fire her? That's where the real power is.
Actually, in my reading of the online chat, I thought she came off sounding completely reasonable, in contrast with the irrational behavior and demands of the students.
"It seems pretty obvious what the students are for: Fernandes' resignation."
Yes, but why? They still haven't managed to answer that question in a unified, persuasive manner. Any missteps Fernandes may have made in her chat were miniscule compared to the student representative last Wednesday, who didn't seem capable of providing a brief summary of the specific grievances.
I have stayed out of this whole Gallaudet mess, but have to ask this question. Isn't the real issue here the fact that, as a university, Gallaudet is pretty second-rate, and that a deaf student can get a far better education at any other major university? Can Gallaudet attract top faculty? Can it provide top facilities and labs for students? Does it provide an intellectual community where students can learn from other motivated people? Given the limited pool of faculty and students, this is unlikely.
Colleges are now required, by law, to accomodate deaf students. When I taught classes at a large state university, I had several deaf students and the university provided me with an interpreter, and even provided captioning for a video I showed in class. There is absolutely no reason for a deaf student to attend Gallaudet, and even less of a reason for the federal government to fund more than 2/3 of the operating costs of Gallaudet at over $100 million per year.
So the issue of who the next president will be is, in the end, not the point. Whoever leads that place needs to start thinking about the real issues, including whether or not the US government should continue to support a school with a basic mission that is no longer needed in today's society and whether or not the students at Gallaudet are getting the best education possible.
tivo26 -
I am a Deaf graduate student attending a fairly prestigous college in the Northeast. I use interpreters and captions and if necessary notetakers. A Deaf student can get an adequate education everywhere thanks to the ADA.
But something I sorely miss and I often wish I had chosen to do is attend Gallaudet. Going to that school would allow me to be the majority instead of an isolated minority. It allows me to be able to converse with my peers and colleagues in ASL instead of constantly needing an intermediary to facilitate that. It celebrates my culture. It is the social portion of Gallaudet that must be preserved. Deaf people need the opportunity to have that experience. The things you take for granted everyday - to be able to speak to anyone on the street and be understood in return, to never worry about every single communication attempt, to not feel completely lost - shut out of a world that places value on auditory cues everywhere from cell phones to PA announcements, to be able to look around you and see other people like you everywhere. Gallaudet offers us the chance to have that social interaction you take for granted everyday. It's a rare and precious experience. Gallaudet has the potential to be an amazing university. Academics are not the question. CULTURE is.
Gallaudet is the center of American Deaf culture. To have a leader completely out of touch with that fails the university and the Deaf population. Fernandes needs to go. It's not because she's not Deaf enough. It's because she cannot lead these students, faculty, alumni, and staff. She doesn't understand the population which she aims to serve. She undermines them at every chance, subverts their efforts to be heard by spreading her own media message, and refuses to put the good of the University over her own wounded pride.
J.K OUT.
Danielle Loughlin
MSW Candidate
Boston College Graduate School of Social Work
15 memebers of my family attended Gallaudet University and most of them graduated. In May 2008, I will be in the gradaution march if only Dr. Fernandes is not there to celeberate my graduation. I am not going to let Dr. Fernandes to take away the real Gallaudet mystique feeling from the haunted Kendall Campus. I cannot sleep for months by knowing that Dr. Fernandes is going to taking away the Gallaudet mystique feeling. I must say that you need to be the four years student to develop the sense of Gallaudet and you will want to die for Gallaudet. Everday, I walk down the hallowed halls which my family alumnus strolled in black and white pictures time, I feel the goosebumps.
I am not going to let Dr. Fernandes continue taking away the students' rights. In Gallaudet logic, the President needs to graduate from Gallaudet as undergraduated to be in order to be a sucessful leader. It is how it works in Gallaudet University.
It is not about the "another college" in the crisis. It is about Gallaudet in the crisis.
Dr. Fernandes has no feeling for the deaf community culture, and shows no movitation to reach the students and empower them. I need to emphasis this, she is doing those in unfathomable apporach to the students. I was floored when I entered Gallaudet Fall 2005 and learned how little/weak students' rights are.
Dr. Fernandes reminded me as the missionary couple who flowned to Brazil and went down Amazon river and settled down in a village to spread God's gospels. One problem was that the couple became discomforted by innonect nakeness of the villagers. They ordered to bring in the white society clothes. The villagers accepted and tried to content the couple's comfortness by dressing up the clothes. Few months later, the villagers were nearly wiped out because they were servely ill, pneumonia, from using the clothes and got wet in them by being rained on. The village was located in tropical mountain, it rained regularly. So the villagers were better off when they were naked and allowed the rainwater running down and their skin became dry quickly. The villagers sometimes put on fat oil on their skin to allow them to be warm and dry. But the missionaries thought they knew best for the villagers but they were diasterously wrong and cost the villagers their lives and culture, and heritage. It is exact same thing that Dr. fernandes is doing right now.
Steve
Thank you for your analysis of Fernandes' communication style, which is for me a far more important issue than her communication modality. Her tendency to be divisive and dismissive is even more apparent when you interact with her in person and I think that this is perhaps one of the reasons that students have difficulty getting outsiders to understand their opposition to Fernandes. You really have to see her in action to get why so many members of the Gallaudet community are opposed to her. I would add just one more thing to your analysis - that Fernandes has very little interest in engaging with those of us she is supposed to lead. Indeed, Fernandes is talking to everyone BUT faculty and students. To date, she has done 3 online q&a forums with the Washington Post and numerous radio/ print interviews in which she repeatedly emphasizes her ability to lead Gallaudet. Yet, since the protests began again this semester, she has not called one meeting with faculty on her own initiative. During the takeover of HMB, the main classroom building on campus, Fernandes sent a team of 3 administrators to negotiate, but never appeared herself (and yet, in her Washington Post OpEd piece “Many Ways of Being Deaf,” she claimed to have stayed up until 3 am negotiating with students). And, she currently refuses to meet with students until they drop their demand for her to resign. What kind of leader is more concerned with spinning the general public than communicating with her own university community?
tivo26--
i am hearing, but i know many deaf people. I am hoping to attend gally for their graduate interpreting program...
the point of gallaudet is the no-language barrier there. I see you don't understand deaf culture very well and I can forgive you for that..
But it offends me you should suggest that Gallaudet is useless.