Monday, 14 July 2008
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published in the buff and blue, march 2007
War of Words
On the state of Gallaudet University, in the wake of the October Protests
Earl Mikell
It has become evident in recent weeks that the state of Gallaudet University is not good, to put it in the simplest terms possible. This dawning revelation is coming on the heels of what may have been the longest year of the university’s life, where in one year, from October 2005 to October 2006, we had the Hyatt incident, the goalpost drama, the turmoil in May following the selection of Jane Fernandes as the ninth president, and finally, the October protests. It was commonly assumed that things were bad, and it had been that way for a while, but it could have been much worse.
And then the MSA letter came out. It came out of the blue, and detonated with the full power of a smart bomb; things had gotten much, much worse than we expected. Now the university’s accreditation was in danger. The letter of January 13th threw around words like “fragile”, and “dismissive”, and acknowledged that there was a great deal of concern about Gallaudet’s compliance with the MSA’s accreditation standards. It painted a stark picture of the previous administration’s failure to take the process seriously, and its’ inability to understand the reality of the situation. They also revealed that they actually had to send three of their commissioners along with their staff liaison to make their concerns known, which, according to them, was unprecedented.
In short, the letter completely eviscerated any hope that I. King Jordan had of leaving with some semblance of a legacy, and bluntly told the Gallaudet community that we were on extremely thin ice. It also apportioned blame to all segments of the community for the current state of the university, as well. But the letter’s thrust was more geared towards criticizing the previous administration, and delved into more intimate details of the process between the MSA and College Hall. The term “dismissive” was used to describe the June 2006 review report by Jordan and his people, and presented an image of arrogance on Jordan’s part. Concerns about his administration’s handling of the accreditation process had been ongoing for some time, while Jordan painted a picture of a smoothly-running university, and has only now come to light.
Essentially, while stopping short of completely vindicating the Unity for Gallaudet movement of October 2006, the MSA letter of January 13th did provide the clearest rationale possible for why the movement fought the way it did to obtain Fernandes’ dismissal as president. A major issue driving the movement centered on the leadership ability of Fernandes and her close relationship to Jordan, and the letter put some teeth in it, by acknowledging the university’s poor enrollment numbers, low academic standards, and terrible graduation rate, along with its failure, overall, to meet some of the MSA’s standards for accreditation. Fernandes, as the university’s provost for academic affairs, did not take responsibility for the academic issues confronting Gallaudet, despite the MSA’s subtle point that a lot of their concerns went all the way back to 2001, the same year Fernandes became provost, and despite the fact that all these academic issues fell under the purview of her position.
One could even go so far as to say that all this is what the Gallaudet community was fighting to prevent, without even realizing that what we all feared was already in the process of occurring. Now, in the wake of the October Protests, a war of words has been ongoing between the Jordan/Fernandes faction and the Unity for Gallaudet faction, which is considerably larger in numbers and diversity of beliefs than the former. The MSA letter has added a great deal of ammunition to the verbal wrangling. Jordan and Fernandes have not helped the matter much, continuing to reiterate, long after the events of October, that the UFG movement only protested because Fernandes wasn’t deaf enough, and because, as Jordan referred to them in one interview, they were also absolutists. The duo continues to defend their time at the university, and deny the charges of their opponents, even though it’s plainly clear that they lost a lot of legitimacy when the letter came out.
Even long after their departure, the Gallaudet community is still embroiled in fighting for the soul and future of the University, known to all as the Mecca of the deaf world. Words continue to be slung back and forth between both sides, and both sides continue to try to gain more power over the other. It may still be too early to judge the victor of this undesired conflict, but all indications point to the UFG movement and the Gallaudet community at large as the winners, since the effort to save Gallaudet and it’s future should rightly fall on the shoulders of those who truly care about the true meaning of the University, and it seems that the movement desires to carry that burden.
As for why this should be so, one gets the feeling the other side isn’t really all that interested in keeping Gallaudet University as it has been and should be, but would rather make radical changes to its’ DNA. Perhaps it is a mistaken perception by the rest of us, but the responsibility falls upon them to correct that perception, not us. Nevertheless, they also claim to love the university too. If that is so, then the time is now for them to show it by joining with the UFG movement, and working together to help save Gallaudet, despite the differences and bad blood.
All in all, the state of the University is not one of a dazzling present and a bright future, as commented upon above. Some hard decisions are going to have to be made, and in President Robert Davila we may have the right man for the job. But the buck does not just stop there with Davila; it stops with all of us. What needs to happen is an end to the war of words, and what needs to begin is a good faith effort aimed at righting the ship of state here at Kendall Green, and it needs to happen right away. The Unity for Gallaudet movement did get some things right and some things wrong, but in the larger scheme of things they got one big thing right: with the sword of Damocles, the MSA, above us, the time is now for unity, not discord. Whatever else happens, we should all hope that’s the lesson we will take away from this debacle of a year when all is said and done.
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