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