Student protests at Gallaudet

[shmeep]

Yesterday, a new president was named at Gallaudet University and she was one who is particularly disliked by the students so they blocked off the gates of the school and started a protest.

I find this interesting because my husband, who goes there, was barely able to get out to pick me up before everything got shut down and because we later drove past it and saw the demonstration.

Here is an account of it in The Washington Post:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/01/AR2006050100770.html

As stated in the article, the students held a protest in 1988 when a hearing person was again selected to lead the all Deaf university. The students had a peaceful demonstration which is referred to as DPN (Deaf President Now) and this is now looked back upon as a turning point in the history of Deaf people in the United States; their Civil Rights movement. Gallaudet gave in to their demands and Deaf people all over the United States felt empowered by the success. This demonstration is different. All of the final three applicants are Deaf, but the woman chosen is simply despised by the student body and they feel that their feelings were not taken into consideration when the decision was made.

I have no idea if anything will come of this protest, but my husband is hoping it doesn't interfere with his final exams this week. He also has a sneaking urge to join in and protest.

[housemouse]

This article appeared in today's LA Times:

WASHINGTON — The newly chosen president of Gallaudet University, the nation's only liberal arts college for the deaf, received a no-confidence vote from faculty Monday in a dispute that she said came down to whether she was "deaf enough" for the job.

The vote, which passed 93 to 43, is nonbinding. The fate of Jane K. Fernandes rests with the board of trustees, which has said it will not alter its decision to hire her.

Fernandes, who was selected by the board of trustees last week and is scheduled to take office in January, was born deaf but grew up speaking and did not learn American Sign Language until she was 23. Sign language is the preferred way of communicating at 1,900-student Gallaudet.

Dozens of students and alumni waited outside as the voting took place, and some cheered when the vote was announced.

"If the board ignores the faculty, they ignore the entire university," said Anthony Mowl, a spokesman for a group opposed to Fernandes. The English major from Fishers, Ind., graduates this week.

Fernandes, 49, who declined to be interviewed after the vote, said earlier she was caught in a cultural debate.

"There's a kind of perfect deaf person," said Fernandes, who described that as someone who is born deaf to deaf parents, learns ASL at home, attends deaf schools, marries a deaf person and has deaf children. "People like that will remain the core of the university."

Fernandes is married to a retired Gallaudet professor who can hear. So can the couple's two children. Some people who are deaf at birth can learn to speak through intensive speech therapy.

Fernandes was named to succeed I. King Jordan, who in 1988 became the first deaf president of Gallaudet since the school was founded by Congress in 1864. He got the job after student protesters marched to the Capitol demanding a "Deaf President Now" after the appointment of a president who could hear.

Jordan, who backed Fernandes' selection, said the current protest reflected "identity politics" and a refusal to accept change. "We are squabbling about what it means to be deaf," he said.

Deaf education has been roiled in recent years by the development of cochlear implants and other technology. Some say such developments threaten sign language and other aspects of what they call deaf culture; others welcome such advances.

The demonstrators demanded that the trustees reopen the selection process, with some complaining that Jordan had undue influence over the appointment of Fernandes, currently the school's provost. Others have complained that the process was not diverse enough, because all three candidates were white.

Jordan said that the selection of a president was not a "popularity contest" and that this movement should not be compared to the one that swept him into office. If the board gives in, he said, it would be dangerous for the governance of the school.

[shmeep]

Mouse, I meant to thank you for posting that article from the LA Times. Sorry it too me so long to acknowlege it.

I just came across a truly vexing article from some Arizona paper that annoyed me so much I sent a response to the author.

The headline alone made me mad. The term "deaf-mutes" has been offensive for over a hundred years. Ew!

Deaf-Mutes Make A Noisey Rucus
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Frederick Meekins
May 10, 2006

Normally, those with disabilities bring warm feelings to heart as they struggle to achieve and get ahead despite their limitations often with a positive outlook most of us could learn from. Ironically, though, the deaf seem to rank among the crabbiest leftwing activists out there.

At Gallaudet University in the Nation's Capital, students and faculty are holding protests because the new president of the school is not what they consider "deaf enough." It is not that she does not have a sufficient level of hearing loss to satisfy these rabblerousers but rather that she did not learn to speak sign language until early adulthood, married someone with hearing (so much for it being what's on the inside that counts), and dared to mother children who are themselves not deaf (talk about reverse Eugenics). And for good measure, Fernandes is a pariah because she is White (good radicals never let that one slide by).

The school's outgoing President I. Jordan King calls the protests an example of identity politics. For the organized deaf are not about empowering the individual but rather about keeping them dependent upon those running this particular ghetto.

For example, several years ago two deaf lesbians made headlines when they tried to conceive a deliberately deaf child. Furthermore, many with this affliction turn on those that seek relief from their condition through new technologies such as Cochlear implants. Shouldn't such decisions be up to the individual?

Though I am not deaf, I am blind in one eye. If I one day ever became a parent, though I function rather well, why in my right mind would I want this condition inflicted upon my child? Furthermore, though I was born this way and have known nothing else (I still remember my mom sitting me down as a kid and explaining it to me and to this day find it hard to imagine what it's like to see out of two eyes as I see out of my bad eye what you see out of the bottom of your foot), why should I have less sympathy for those who befall this condition later in life or begrudge someone able to have sight restored as if they were somehow a traitor to the nation or faith?

I do not see the airfilter visor of Star Trek’s Geordi LaForge or the electronic artificial eye of Narn Ambassador G'Kar on Babylon 5 as some kind of threat but rather as innovations to be anticipated no less amazing than the starships that allow these characters to sail across the cosmos. These same liberals always tell us our body our choice when it comes to killing babies, so why not the same attitude when it comes to enhancing life rather than destroying it?

Perhaps the auditorially challenged have not heard that the character of an individual is not judged by their disabilities but rather by what they do with their abilities.

--Frederick Meekins


Here is my response:

I knew when I saw the headline with the words "Deaf-mutes" in it that I was going to find your article annoying and offensive, but I didn't know the half of it.

My husband is a Deaf student at Gallaudet University. He can speak very well and learned to sign in his teens and I am hearing. No one in the Deaf community is down on us for being a Deaf/hearing couple.

Your article displayed, above all else, complete ignorance about the situation. The complaints about Jane Fernandes not being "Deaf enough" are mostly coming from her own quote and that is not the reason heard among the Deaf protesters. The reason I've heard most often? The students don't like her and don't want her to speak for them. They never have liked her and felt she did a poor job as provost and when the Board of Trustees selected her, they felt they weren't being heard and that the entire process was fishy. I know a lot of people involved in this protest. I know it has gotten out of hand at times, but I support the students and hope that Jane Fernandes has the grace to step down for the good of the university.

As for your ignorant talk about cochlear implants (which are meant to work on people who have lost hearing--I've interpreted for several students who have them and, guess what? They're still Deaf, despite the hype) and how wrong you feel it is for Deaf people to hope for Deaf children, you are overlooking that Deafness, aside from being a disability, is also a cultural group and has its own language. People naturally like their children to share in their culture and I see nothing wrong with that. I'm pregnant with a baby that has a 25% chance of being Deaf and that's fine with me.

[inuvik]

Great letter Shmeep!

Is it rude for me to ask about your baby having a 25% chance of being deaf? I would have thought it would be 50%.

[shmeep]

inuvik said:

Great letter Shmeep!

Is it rude for me to ask about your baby having a 25% chance of being deaf? I would have thought it would be 50%.

I know that seems like an odd percentage, considering my husband is Deaf. I'm almost positive (we may know for sure soon)that he has something called Waardenburg Syndrome, which is dominant but doesn't always result in deafness. Since it is dominant, that means I don't need any gene for it to be passed on. It's 50/50 that he will give it to the baby. Now, if the baby does have WS, there's an additional 50/50 chance that it will result in deafness. I'm not very mathy, but that seems to be about a 25% chance altogether of deafness. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. That isn't something we are intentionally planning to pass to our child, but if it happens, that's fine. We know we're an ideal couple to raise a Deaf child so it will always have a full language and a great education. Still, there's a greater chance that our children will be hearing and that's great too.