Howard Berkes: This was supposed to be a week of celebration for Gallaudet University, here in Washington, the world’s only university for the deaf students. A new president was named. Jane Fernandes is set to become only the second deaf president in the school’s 140 year history. But instead of celebrating, some students blocked the main entrance to Gallaudet, passed out petitions and held rallies, all protesting the appointment of Fernandes. NPR’s Joseph Shapiro has been covering the protest this week, and he says they are having an impact.
Joseph Shapiro: A few students walked out when Jane Fernandes’ name was announced on Monday. Now alumni have flown in from around the country to join them in their protest, and faculty as well.
HB: Now, this is not the first time that students at Gallaudet have been rallying like this. In fact, you covered a protest like this at Gallaudet 18 years ago.
JS: That’s right, and that was a historic moment for deaf people. Students shut down the school the last time they tried to pick a president. At first the Board of Trustees passed over all the deaf candidates and picked a hearing woman, someone who had no experience with deaf education. After they shut down the school, the Board of Trustees reversed itself, then picked a very popular dean, a deaf man, I. King Jordan. Many of the students who are leading this protest weren’t even born back then, or they were just babies. But they’ve all heard of that moment, when deaf people stood up to demand that the president of the world’s only university for the deaf be someone that was deaf.
HB: Well, Jane Fernandes, the newly appointed president of Gallaudet, is deaf, so what’s the problem this time around?
JS: Jane Fernandes is deaf, but she didn’t learn how to sign until she was 23. Some students have cited that she’s not “deaf enough.” But it’s hard to say exactly what the students are objecting to. They cite all sorts of things: The say the selection process was flawed; there were no minority candidates in the final round. And by the way, many people who object to her say she’s very well qualified. But they often raise objections that are based on her personality: She’s not warm enough, she doesn’t say “hi” to people when she passes them on the campus, she’s not inspirational enough.
HB: So some people may just simply not like her style.
JS: I think that’s right. Some of it, by the way, goes back to Gallaudet’s winning football season this year. Gallaudet’s played football since 1883. Some historians of football give them credit for developing the football huddle. That was a way to prevent people from stealing their signs. And they’ve had a lousy football team, I should say, for a long time, but they got a new football coach this year and went 9-0. And they celebrated after the last game, tore down the goalposts; some students were also celebrating at a hotel nearby and set off fire alarms. Jane Fernandes is the Provost of the school; she’s been Provost for 6 years. And she disciplined the students, and a lot of students felt like she was acting like she thought that she was their mother. It was her job as Provost to discipline them, but some people felt that she was too strict.
HB: So what’s the school doing to try to get past these protests this time?
JS: Jane Fernandes herself has started meeting everyday at noon with the students. They’re trying to explain how the choice was made, they’re trying to be open, and they’re hoping that they can heal this anger and try to come to some understanding of why she was appointed and what she can do for the school.
HB: I wonder if you could help me understand something. You covered this situation, a similar situation, 18 years ago that you’ve been covering again now. What do these protests at Gallaudet tell you about the evolution of Deaf Culture and sense of identity that Deaf people have?
JS: I think it shows that Gallaudet really matters to Deaf people. The protests 18 years ago changed the way that deaf people think about themselves; it changed the way hearing people look at Deaf people. One result was that deaf people have more choices now, they have more opportunities. They can go to any university now, they don’t have to go to Gallaudet. Interpreters are required by law to be provided at other schools and that protest 18 years ago helped that happen. So deaf people these days are trying to negotiate choices, trying to find out when to be part of the deaf world, when to be part of the hearing world; they’re struggling to define what it means to be “deaf,” and I think part of that means, “What qualities do we want in this person who’s sort of our number 1 representative to the world and to the deaf world. What qualities do we want in a president at Gallaudet?”