Protests Continue at University for Deaf
Protesters opposing the selection of a new president at Gallaudet in Washington have set up a tent city. A bomb threat forced the university to close its front gate during graduation ceremonies.
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
Published: May 13, 2006
WASHINGTON, May 12 — At Gallaudet University, the world's only university for the deaf, a bomb threat kept the front gate shut for graduation ceremonies on Friday and families and guests detoured away from protesters' tents scattered over a lawn, in signs of the tensions that have gripped the campus over the selection of the next president.
Jane K. Fernandes, the provost for academic affairs, was chosen to take over the top job next January, but a loose coalition of faculty members, students and alumni oppose her appointment. They say that she does not appreciate the primacy of American Sign Language at Gallaudet and in deaf culture and that she lacks leadership qualities.
Since the board chose Dr. Fernandes last week, the faculty has issued a vote of no-confidence in her; the chairwoman of the board has stepped down, citing "aggressive threats" she has received; and the board has spent the last few days not celebrating the end of another academic year, but holed up with protesters and mediators.
On Thursday night, the board issued a statement of support for Dr. Fernandes, saying she would step down as provost immediately to prepare for the job of president.
In an interview this week, Dr. Fernandes looked at the small tents pitched by protesters and said she thought of the contrast with her own vision for the university, which she sees as "one big tent for all."
With most young people who are hard of hearing using cochlear implants to improve their hearing and increasingly being educated in mainstream classes, Dr. Fernandes contends that Gallaudet (pronounced gal-eh-DET) must embrace "all kinds of deaf people" and the many ways they communicate. Though she sees American Sign Language as always being central to Gallaudet, she said she would like to see the institution become more inclusive of people who might not have grown up using sign language.
"We're in a fight for the survival of Gallaudet University," Dr. Fernandes said. "It's happening right now. It's absolutely essential that I stay."
Some deaf students and advocates disagree, saying they fear a weakening of American Sign Language at an institution that should be its standard-bearer. Deaf students here said that American Sign Language, which uses gestures to express words and ideas rather than specific letters, was easier for them to understand than other forms of communication that may translate letters and syntax that they have never heard and that are more difficult to grasp.
Erin Moran, who is studying for a master's in counseling and was handing out fliers opposing Dr. Fernandes, criticized her for not banning students from speaking in front of deaf students, instead of using only American Sign Language. When that happens, Ms. Moran said, deaf students feel shut out at an institution that should help strengthen their identity as deaf people with a right to participate fully in the world.
"It's about accessibility," Ms. Moran said. "It's a cultural issue. We couldn't access it if somebody is having a spoken conversation. It all needs to be accessible."
Some of the criticism of Dr. Fernandes has focused on her fluency in American Sign Language, which she learned only at age 23. Early in the protest, one flier attacked Dr. Fernandes because "her mother and brother are deaf" and use spoken language. Dr. Fernandes has dismissed this as criticism that she was not "deaf enough."
But by Friday, protesters complained that their discontent had been misinterpreted. Rather, they said, Dr. Fernandes lacks the charisma and leadership to represent deaf people to the world.
"It's not that she's not deaf enough," said one flier this week. "She's not enough of a leader."
Rene Vargas of the Rainbow Alliance for the Deaf said protesters were incensed that the search panel's process was not open enough. Because of that, Mr. Vargas said, whomever the committee chose would have been unacceptable.
Gallaudet is a small institution, with fewer than 2,000 students, and the president is expected to be much warmer and more involved than most other college presidents, who are usually off raising money and are seldom expected to know students' names. One protester on Friday complained that Dr. Fernandes did not say hello when she ran into students on campus.
At the same time, Gallaudet attracts the attention of deaf people around the world, so many who may never have set foot on campus feel that they have a stake in who leads the university. The departing president, I. King Jordan, took the job after widespread protests in 1988 forced the university to install its first deaf president.
As provost, Dr. Fernandes said, she has had to make unpopular decisions. She denied tenure to a faculty member and disciplined students for cheating, plagiarism and other infractions. She accused the dissenting faculty members of encouraging the protests and exploiting students' naïveté to settle scores with her. It is an accusation that teachers and students deny.
But much of the criticism also seems intensely personal. For four days this week, Dr. Fernandes met with her detractors in town-hall-style meetings in an atrium at the university. They complained that the search committee's work was insufficiently transparent and criticized her as aloof.
To each, she essentially responded that she was not in charge of the search committee and saw no reason to reopen the process. "This is not an election," she said. "I'm not here to get your vote."
