The Roving Activist’s Blog

Below is an article on Robert Davila, the new president of Gallaudet University. I thought I’d post this to give an update of sorts on the happenings at Gallaudet since Jane Fernandes’s er, departure, if you will.

A Sense of Urgency at the Top
School’s New President Hasn’t Been Waiting on Ceremony

By Susan Kinzie

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

For a month after Robert Davila was named president of Gallaudet University in December, he didn’t leave campus. There was too much to do. He was taking on a school that spent much of the fall in chaos, shut down by protesters for days, venomously divided over the presidency. A federal agency had criticized the school for the deaf, and its accreditation was at risk.

Davila was 74 years old, with a grandfather’ s warm smile and funny stories, but instead of retiring, he was launching into the toughest job of his life.

The clock is ticking on accreditation, he said recently. “We have to do it, because, long term, the impact on the university is most serious. The consequences are too frightening to ignore.”

Today, Davila will be formally installed as president. And although the challenges are still daunting, the campus is already a different place from when he arrived.

A year ago, protests began over the selection of a president. Last fall, after building takeovers and arrests, the board terminated the appointment of Jane K. Fernandes, the former Gallaudet provost.

Davila, who is well liked on campus, wanted to rebuild trust and community, to get everyone invested in moving forward. He wanted to improve academic accountability. And he wanted to make sure enough students were enrolling and graduating.

The first thing he asked was how many students had left during the protests: about 100. In fall 2005, total enrollment was about 1,900; in 2006, about 1,800, before the protests. Enrollment is especially important for Gallaudet now that federal law ensures that deaf students can get interpreters at any school. That’s another reason that accreditation matters: Students have so many options.

Davila said he has made faculty members more involved in recruiting and retaining students and has strengthened a transition program for freshmen. Applications were down this spring. He said he hopes that in another year, the school will have regained lost ground.

Several professors said Davila has worked with faculty leaders to give them a stronger voice, including having them help choose the new provost, Stephen Weiner, an associate professor who was greeted with a standing ovation on campus Monday. Several professors praised Davila for working to solve problems rather than hide them.

“Davila is doing a great job,” said LaToya Plummer, a student and former protest leader, “taking things in his own hands and trying to get the community to work together.”

Davila has talked with students about issues that include their trouble communicating with campus security officers. Now officers will be required to know sign language and will have more interpreters.

Davila started regular video blogs, or vlogs, in sign language to update the campus on matters such as accreditation, which was postponed last fall by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. By November 2008, the school must achieve compliance
with commission standards. It remains accredited in the meantime.

He is hiring someone to oversee institutional research, because the school has to prove that it is making progress.

He has critics, including people loyal to the previous administration. Some staff members said he has been too thin-skinned about criticism. But most people say he has made the place better.

He pulled a handful of pins that say “Team Gallaudet” out of his pocket the other day, rattling them around in his palm. When people ask to join, he kids them with a recital of the rules: “First, you are joining a team you can’t quit — you’re stuck on this team for life. Second, you have to do good things for Gallaudet. . . . Third, if you say anything about Gallaudet, and you have nothing good to say — say nothing.”

Almost no other university leader is being watched so closely and judged so much — by federal agencies, accreditors and by the deeply engaged and ever-blogging deaf community.

It is the timeline that worries him most. He took the job as an interim post, and he has a year and a half to reverse — or at least show positive trends in — decades-old problems such as graduation rates. “We don’t get rated for effort,” he said. “We get rated for outcomes.”

When he held an open meeting seeking volunteers to plunge into the issues, he expected 30, maybe 35. More than 150 signed up. Others have joined since. “I had to order a new set of pins,” he said. 

Source: Washington Post

In a special, all day, closed door session in a hotel near Dulles Airport, the Board of Trustees of Gallaudet University voted to terminate the appointment of Jane Fernandes as incoming president. The Board, in a statement released yesterday, said that the decision was made with ” much pain and regret”, but felt that the termination was in the best interests of the University, and stated that it understood the impact and issues that arise when a decision is re-examined in the face of protests. Gallaudet students, angered by the selection, had staged protests from May 1, when the decision was announced, until the end of the school year, then resumed the protests in September, when school reopened.

The Board’s termination of Fernandes’s appointment brought the protests to an end. Student protesters rejoiced at the decision, but say that they now will work on improving the search process. Some protest leaders met with Board members and will make a good faith effort to clean up the campus, open all entrances, and return to classes. The students who were arrested during the protest won’t automatically be expelled, but they won’t get off scot-free, either. They’ll have to face the music.

What will happen next at Gallaudet is hard to tell. The protests were every bit as divisive as they were uniting. I’m sure that the supporters of Mrs. Fernandes will have plenty to say, along with members of the public who didn’t understand the real issues, and who saw the protesters as nothing more than a bunch of malcontents who wanted to be in charge of the course that the school was taking. Fernandes, herself, was obviously saddened by the decision, but made it clear that this was the Board’s decision, not hers. She had vowed to stay the course. In the end, someone had to blink, and I guess that Mrs. Fernandes can take a perverse sort of pride in the fact that she didn’t quit. It’s too bad that it had to end like that. Fernandes should have taken her cue from another unwanted Gallaudet president, Elizabeth Zinzer, and gracefully stepped down. After all, how did she think that she would lead a school that really didn’t want her? Even if she were somehow able to stop the protests, the students were so determined that every day for her would have been a uphill battle. I feel that it was in everyone’s best interests that the Board summoned the courage to make their decision.

And what of the students? Their tenacity paid off, and they have learned not to give up in the face of adversity. Now comes the really hard part. Sure, the protests were hard, but as one who has done activism and protests for twenty years now, I know that the toughest part is dealing and working with the powers to be once you’ve won the battle. Sure, the kids are going to celebrate. That’s only natural, and should be done. They can’t party for long, though. The long, hard road towards a positive future for Gallaudet must begin with healing, conciliation, and a genuine commitment to work with all parties, and this effort must be led by the protesters, themselves.

Classes resumed Monday at Gallaudet University, but protests are still ongoing despite the arrest last Friday of 133 students. Those students were fined $50 and released. They returned to the campus on Monday. The school also cancelled homecoming, but that didn’t stop Gallaudet alumni from returning, anyway.

Gallaudet faculty voted overwhelmingly in favor of the students, and called for the resignation or removal of incoming president, Jane Fernandes, who assumes the office in January. They also issued a no-confidence vote for the Board of Trustees, and outgoing president, I. King Jordan. Fernandes, however, is resolute in her determination to stay on, and does have the support of some students and faculty at Gallaudet, as well as the Board of Trustees.

Students have now taken their fight to Capitol Hill to garner support for their stance. They feel that Mrs. Fernandes, the former provost, is a poor choice because she is cold, aloof, and disrespectful to students, and is not open to new ideas. The students also feel that she allows discrimination against them by employing faculty and staff who are unable to communicate with them. Though the Board of Trustees feels that Fernandes was the strongest candidate, students feel that the process was too rushed, and smacked of racism because several strong candidates were overlooked, including an African American who had served as Chair of the Board of Trustees. The Board, itself, is split over the issue, and some members have threatened to resign.

Many students, staff, faculty, and others hope that this situation will be resolved to that things can get back to normal at Gallaudet. A petition, started by some students, is demanding that very thing. It has over 300 signatures. I, too, hope that this can be resolved, but I fully support the students in their protest, and their right to do so. As for Mrs. Fernandes, my thought is this: While I understand her resolve to stand firm, she is at the center of this crisis, and while she is around, the bad feelings will remain, and the protests will continue. If, as she asserts, she loves and cares about the school and the students, perhaps she should seriously consider stepping down, if only for the good of all concerned. It would be a very difficult decision to make after such a long, hard, fight, and I can only imagine the pain and disappointment that she, her family, and her supporters would feel. However, at this point, it’s not all about her, but all about Gallaudet, and hopefully, after putting aside any pride and ego, Mrs. Fernandes will do some deep soul searching and do the right thing.

Student protesters at Gallaudet University have shut down all entrances to the school, effectively shutting down the entire campus for two days. Several days ago, sudents had taken over the main classroom building, but decided to shut down the school when incoming president, Jane Fernandes did not meet with them. Some faculty members have been allowed on campus for meetings, but have been guided by student protesters to certain areas, and watched closely to make sure that they don’t try to sneak off to their offices. 

Students say that the protest is because of the selection of Mrs. Fernandes, the former provost, by the school Board of Trustees, as incoming president. They feel that she would not be fit for the position because she is perceived as cold, aloof, and disrespectful to students. They are also angry that the Board of Trustees completed the selection process rather quicly, and passed over several strong candidates, including an African American who had been the Board chair for quite a while. Students also feel that the Board of Trustees have been dismissive of them and their concerns. Detracters say that this is about nothing more than deaf identity politics. The students are demanding the resignation of Mrs. Fernandes, and the appointment of an independent agency to conduct the selection of a new president. 

Police have been at the campus for a few days now, but there have been no arrests. Protest leaders were told by the police that the campus had to be reopened. Though the leaders agreed to open one entrance, when they went out to do this, the students blocking the gate at that entrance refused to leave, and the police went away.

A school official told the protesting students that Jane Fernandes would meet with them when they ceased holding the school hostage. The remark was met by jeers. Outgoing president, I. King Jordan told the students that they had the right to protest, but not to stop education. An elementary and high school for children who are deaf, also located on the university campus, has been closed as well, due to protests.

The students have been preparing themselves for arrest, practicing passive resistance tactics such as linking arms and going limp. They have been advised never to touch a police officer, even to get his or her attention. Arrests seem unlikely, though. Police superintendent Charles Ramsey feels that the protest is a Gallaudet issue, and that their role is only to monitor the situation. No arrests will be made unless there is property damage, or someone’s personal safety is at risk.

I’ll keep you posted…

Yesterday, student protesters at Gallaudet University took over the main classroom building on campus as protests continue over the selection of Jane Fernandes as the new school president. The police arrived on campus, but there has yet been no arrests. The student would like to have an independent oversight agency look into the selection process that led to mrs. Fernandes’s selection, as the students believe that there was racism involved in the selection process.

I’ll keep you posted…

The tents are back up at Gallaudet University. Students there are resuming their protest over the selection of Jane Fernandes as president. The students say that they are upset over the Board of Trustee’s selection process, including the lack of racial diversity in that process, and the student’s perception that Jane Fernandes is someone who isn’t suited to the post because she is cold and aloof, disrespectful to students, and is considered divisive. Students and faculty who support Fernandes including outgoing president, I. King Jordan, insist that the real problem is a matter of deaf culture, since Fernandes did not begin to use American Sign Language until she became an adult.

Personally, I belive that painting the cause of the student protests as merely a tiff over deaf culture, and who is or is not deaf enough is a slap in the face of the students. It implies that because they are deaf, they have no concerns about issues other than those related to being deaf. I believe that the protests have arisen due to a combination of all of the facts, and the powers that be at Gallaudet really need to be serious about addressing the concerns of the students. Though the selection of Mrs. Fernandes is a done deal, and more than likely, a lost cause for the students, the school needs to to make some real concessions or those tents will be there for a long, long time, and Gallaudet University will remain a house divided.

Protesters at Gallaudet University won’t be punished for staging rallies, faculty no-confidence votes and a tent city after the announcement of a new president at the school for the deaf, the board of trustees told the community yesterday.

A coalition of students, faculty, staff and alumni said the search process was badly flawed and demanded that it be reopened without reprisals for those who spoke out. When this did not happen, the protests began.

A faculty member had this to say about his view of the protests, and the students’ feelings about the new president: “In an attempt to divert observers and the Gallaudet University community from serious, underlying issues about her selection as the university’s next president, Jane K. Fernandes has endlessly spouted the official line that the protest is about identity politics, signing fluency and her being the wrong “kind” of deaf person. Nonsense. In 28 years as a faculty member at Gallaudet I have seen which faculty members have earned the students’ respect. Many of them are, of course, deaf or hard of hearing. However, a great number of these respected faculty members are hearing, and many of them are not fluent signers, but it doesn’t matter to the students. What students want most from their teachers is competence, a respectful rapport, and the ability to listen and respond sympathetically to their concerns. Without these qualities no teacher or administrator can ever earn the students’ trust or respect”. 

After listening to scores of people on campus last week and considering hundreds of messages from people off campus, the board met in closed session and decided that stepping down as provost would allow Fernandes time to work on resolving some of the issues raised by protesters. She will lead a national search for the next provost.  

Lots of things happened during the protests, including the resignations of two of its Board of Trustee leaders. Though the students didn’t get what they wanted, they agreed that the protests unified them, brought the issue before the Board of Trustees, and will ensure that Ms. Fernandes will be vigilant, and do a better job.

They also vowed that this is not over, and the protests will begin again when school reopens for the fall semester.

Today will mark the third day of protests and vigils by students at Gallaudet University, the world’s only college for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The protests are against their new school president, Jane Fernandes.

I remember another protest that took place at Gallaudet back in 1988. At that time, I was living in Chicago, and working for the Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind. I was in DC on my first national ADAPT action, and my then supervisor, who is deaf-blind and uses a wheelchair, wanted to join the protests in support of the students. I eagerly went along.

That protest was also over their board’s selection of a new president. That president, as were all the previous presidents, was not deaf, but hearing. The students were fed up with that, and staged protests and vigils, as well as marches on the Capitol and the White House. These historic events, of which I am honored to have participated in, resulted in the selection of Gallaudet’s first deaf president, I. King Jordan.

Fast forward 18 years. Several months ago, I. King Jordan announced his upcoming retirement, and the board set about choosing his successor. A few days ago, the successor was announced–Jane Fernandes, the school provost. Almost immediately, protests and vigils were organized. Sudents said that they don’t like her because they feel that she is aloof, cold, and disrespectful to them.

They also said they do not like Fernandes’s leadership style, the way the search was performed and the feeling that they have been ignored.

One alumnus said the disagreement was between those who want Gallaudet to be an academic institution and those who want it to be the center of deaf culture. Some students said the fight was about means of communication, as technology and medicine change the experience of deafness. Others said the issue was racial diversity: A strong black candidate did not even make the top three, they said.

she would work to improve relations with students over the next eight months — the period before Jordan steps down — and that they would get to know a new Jane Fernandes. The role of provost is very different from the role of president, she said afterward.

She said it will be hard to follow Jordan. “I’m more of a quiet leader,” she said. “Quiet but effective — I have a different style.”

She said a priority will be forging unity. “Because we have so many different aspects of the deaf community,” different ways of communicating, different backgrounds and different priorities, “we need Gallaudet to pull all of these together. I think I can help to do that.”

And, she added, “it’s important for me to clearly say that I see ASL as the fabric that holds together Gallaudet’s diverse community. So Gallaudet will always be a signing university. We will always use visual communication. We will always use that.”

Well, it sounds like Ms. Fernandes realizes that she is in an uphill battle with her students, and that she shas some major work to do to heal the hurt and dissatisfaction that the students feel. I will keep abreast of these protests, and give updates. Hopefully, there will be a resolution that both parties can agree to.