Actually, it was y’all who said “Time for healing…” So, I did a post-termination poll. I sort of expected more “yes” than “no”. But it was the reverse. You see, I don’t go about assuming things here. I like to test it by doing polls. Though not a rigorous polling exercise but it does show a pattern, again and again.

Actually, WS, I supported the BoT’s initial (any) decision for the 9th president. What I don’t support is most of the protesters’ attitude or method in what they did. Like everybody said, it was a mess.

And no, it was never specifically about Jane not being “deaf enough” (your words) but about her not being “D”eaf enough as one of many potential underlying issues as a reason why many do not like her as a result. Most of my polls are centered around Deaf culture, Deaf-related issues, cochlear implant, cued speech/english, and so on seems to indicate or suggest time after time that the issue about “D”eafness has always been quite strong. And with other people personal experiences, mine, faculty members, the polls, and so on all seem to point in that direction that there are indeed other underlying (ie skeletons in the closet) issues other than just simply a leadership issue. It may be the biggest issue and most visible that sits on the forefront rather than about identity politics that may well likely lie behind the scenes.

Now, why is there going to be a Deafhood workshop on “Identity Politics” that’s to be planned at Gallaudet? I find that quite interesting in light of what was said about it back in May.

Virginia, you’re right. I am well aware of this. However, if you were in my shoes, you’d keep silent?

I’d like to point out that Jane’s “D”eaf identity AND her signing skills, or lack thereof, have always been an important factor in this protest. Not the only factor, no. The hyperbole-hysteria level rises exponentially whenever the subject of “not Deaf enough” comes up. The protest supporters would like for that particular phrase to vanish forever from our memories, but it won’t. I don’t think there is anything wrong whatsoever with wanting a president that is culturally deaf and fluent in ASL. I just think, number one, we all ought to be honest about what’s really going on, and number two, cultural deafness and ASL fluency should not be the only criteria we are looking for in a president. There’s just as much evidence attesting to her leadership as there is her lack of leadership — it’s all in the eye of the beholder, not an objective fact.

I know several people did not response to mcconnell’s Internet opinion poll (in his blog) for various reasons, thus the result of his poll does not represent the whole population. There is bias in the result.

WAD, most of the poll vote came from people who visited DeafRead or clicked on my linked via other deaf/hh/Deaf blogsite that had the Deafread RSS feed on their blogsite. All I have to do is look at my “Referrals” on my Sitemeter to see where people are coming from in visiting my polls. So, it is reasonable to say that most of the votes are from people that are deaf/hh/Deaf. But since it’s a Deafread site, I could also assume that most of those who visited my polls are in fact Deaf people.

Please do think of these people who did not want to response to your poll at all. There are many reasons that you may not realize or realize but not want to acknowledge. I am being realistic.

I didn’t want to respond to his ad, because it conflicted with what I thought.

I did think she WAS deaf enough to be the President.

But I didn’t think she should BE the president.

If I clicked on “yes”, and then the poll resulted in “yes” then, you can betcha people would have used to “prove” that only a minority supported her being out of office.

If I voted “no”, that would be a lie.. And we can all see now that the result “proves” that the protesters really thought she wasn’t deaf enough.

I didn’t want to get sucked into the Spin Zone *cue music*

The recent poll was a straightforward one without asking the presidency question. In regard to the presidency question, it was about whether she is “D”eaf enough to run as president. It’s no more than asking if Latoya is “D”eaf enough to run as president. Nothing about qualifications, PhDs, fund raising ability, etc, but about “D”eaf.

WAD, my assumption is a reasonable one about those who *DID* respond to my poll question. That is what polls are for. By those who wish to respond will get recorded rather than those who did not respond. You see those pollsters on the street in the city with a tablet in their hand asking people walking by if they want to do a poll, they read it and says “No, thank you.”

Well, now you are out here brandishing the poll, as if it “proves” anything. Hence, my concerns were not unfounded. I am certain others did not vote in the poll for the same reason. Also, a sample of approximately 200 people does not generate well to a community of thousands of people.

Pulled from the Internet…
“Norman Bradburn, director of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, coined the acronym SLOP (selection bias in polls and surveys)to describe polls that use selection bias to get their samples. SLOP is an acronym for self-selected listener opinion polls. He compares them to radio talk shows: they attract a slice of America that is not representative of the country as a whole. “As a result, SLOP surveys litter misinformation and confusion across serious policy and political debates, virtually wherever and whenever they are used” (Morin).

The inaccuracy of such polls should be obvious. Those who call in to give their opinion are self-selected rather than randomly selected. It appears that people who are willing to call in their opinion once will sometimes call in their opinion more than once.”

Again, the poll is biased.

not to mention that people like mcconnell who THINKS the protes was all about JKF not being deaf enough will click on ‘no’, not to reflect on their own personal opinion.

No, Ben. I have said many times that I believe that there are other *underlying issues* in regard to JKF as to why many people do not like her for various reasons. One of them is that they don’t see her as being “D”eaf enough.

Secondly, my recent poll only ask whether people consider her to be “D”eaf enough or not. Nothing about the presidency. Or are you saying that she is in fact “D”eaf enough for her to be a “D”eaf person?

And thirdly, the majority of those who voted came from DeafRead.com. And you can safely bet that the majority of DeafRead.com readers are in fact Deaf people.

Now, had I posed the same question seen in my recent poll on, god forbid, the Washington Post, you’d most likely see the majority voting for her that she is indeed “D”eaf enough.

Now, let me ask you Ben. Do you consider JKF “D”eaf enough to be a part of the “D”eaf community? Or “D”eaf enough to be considered as a “D”eaf person? A yes or no answer would suffice.

Run, Ben, Run! It’s a trap!

This is not about the presidency.

If you truly want Gallaudet to be accessible to everyone as the cultural deaf center, you should welcome the right of oral and hard-of-hearing students to communicate the way they want to whether it be in SEE, SimCom, and oral English. I don’t think they should be required to learn ASL.

Noelle, see below.

Maybe you’ll understand my confusion.

Well, believe it or not, oral deaf people consider themselves to be a part of the deaf community. And Gallaudet is a place where they can find other oral deaf people, just like at RIT/NTID. A lot of oral people don’t believe they need to learn ASL to be a part of the deaf community.

Another thing to consider, back then Gallaudet didn’t have CART services or real time captioning which is why signing would be a needed requirement. We didn’t have the technology back then but technology is rapidly changing the dynamics in the interaction of communication on university campuses. It is a bit of a conundrum when CART and sign language interpreters are used at Gallaudet’s conferences and such, but not in classrooms. When the day comes when instant on-demand-captioning can be done via speech recognition technology (or even ASL-recognition technology) will make it easier for all, regardless of communication preferences. That technology is rapidly fast approaching.

Do you consider yourself to be an accurate representative of the oral deaf community? You’re right about one thing: many oral deafies do not have to know ASL to be part of the deaf (no capital case emphasis, I noticed) community. It depends _which_ deaf community you are referring to. The existing one at Gallaudet is perceived as the mecca for Deaf culture by many people, so ASL goes hand in hand with Deaf culture at Gallaudet.

I consider oral students to be part of the deaf community too!

It’s just that like Ms. Incredulous Eyes said, Gallaudet *is* considered the mecca of deaf culture, so ASL does go hand in hand with Gallaudet life.

I agree that oral students should have their own space too, but it’s always seemed disingenious to me to come to Gallaudet and complain because the Professor doesn’t speak, or refuse to learn ASL.

p.s. Yes, you would be amazed. There ARE signing professors who are really brilliant and good teachers - I took classes with some of them. It was truly a pleasure.)

Even though there are excellent professors who sign, should signing be the only prequisite in hiring new faculty members?

No.

I think talent, skill, experience and references count for more.

That said, if you want to work/study at Gallaudet, then learn ASL! (and use itnerpreters while you are still learning).

I’d like to point out that sign proficiency is only one prerequisite. In fact, many job announcements for new positions at Gallaudet simply say “willingness to learn sign langauge.” The last 4 people hired in History and Government department have been hearing non-signers, and they were hired in part to increase the ethnic diversity of the department. In the English department, we are lucky to have a growing pool of candidates (sounds counter-intuitive in some ways, no?) and the last hearing person hired was already fluent in ASL (and again, represented an ethnic minority). Because so few deaf students of color go on to get PhDs, I think you will continue to see hearing non-signers hired to increase ethnic diversity. This doesn’t come at the cost of expertise in the field, either, as all of the younger faculty who I know are active scholars. Now the older professors, well, that CAN be a different story, as they came in at a time when both research and sign skill level requirements were quite different.

A little historical reminder: When William C. Stokoe first entered Gallaudet College in 1955, ASL was not yet heralded as a natural language in its own right. There were no classes that taught ASL as a language. Brand-new faculty members received three weeks’ worth of “some sign vocabulary” before they started teaching.

Jill Bradbury,

Thanks for your response, it helps us understand what goes on at Gallaudet and the motive and rationale behind their hiring decisions. Are Gallaudet professors expected to learn sign language over time after their hire? That is a point that some commenters brought up in this thread.

Jill, can you provide evidence that the current qualification requirements for most teaching positions at Gallaudet just require “willingness to learn sign language”?

I find it very interesting since I made the terrible assumption that all newly hired professors were required to have minimal knowledge of sign language. So, those who do not know how to sign would need to rely on qualified interpreters, correct?

I have a question for you all here. I remember when I was taking a challenging grad class at Gallaudet, I knew I wasn’t going to understand the professor’s awkward signing. But I didn’t make a fuss over it, just went to the Department and asked for an interpreter for the class. Know what happened? The professor was furious with me! I was like, wha, wha- she said you are saying that my signing is lousy. (In my mind, I was thinking, well, yeah, I mean, I do *need* to understand the lecture…)but I said nothing, looked at her like I was puzzled. Later that day, after talking with a fellow student, I realized why she was upset- she was working toward tenure, and to get tenure, you had to attain a certain level of proficiency. I was like, I see, but am I here to help someone get tenure, or am I here to learn?? So my question is, how do we do a win/win with this kind of scenario?

KBM, there’s no win/win scenario in that situation. You’re there to learn. She’s there to teach you the best she can, and if that means having an interpreter present… Too bad for her. That’ll give her more incentive to work harder on improving her signing skills.

It sucks, but I think you did the right thing in this situation, and more students should do that, regardless of the teacher’s reaction. If the teacher attempts retaliation because you requested an interpreter, then they deserve not only to be denied tenure, they also deserve to be fired.

~ Deaf Pundit

Thank you for your thoughts, Deaf Pundit. Good point. I think deaf graduate students at Gallaudet will be encountering such similiar situations from time to time.

I disagree, DP. There can be a win-win solution here but a policy needs to be clarified where professors shouldn’t fear about the possibility of having ONE student make a request for an interpreter when the rest of the students are doing fine. That ONE request shouldn’t matter at all. Tenure-track professors shouldn’t feel threatened with this should it happen.

Shane and Chris - Gallaudet provides interpreters for two years while non-signing faculty take courses. I don’t know when this policy was instituted, but all non-tenured faculty are now required to achieve a score of Intermediate Plus (or Advanced, sorry I can’t remember which exactly at the moment) on the ASLPI (formerly the SCPI - note the change from Signed Communication Profiency to ASL Proficiency, which happened last year). I believe there is currently a proposal being developed by one of the faculty committees to raise the requirement to Advanced Plus. It usually takes about 6 years to get tenure, so the requirement in doable (although it does require committment).
If you look at the faculty job postings on the Gallaudet website, you can get a sense of what language requirements are.

Oh, and the faculty recently passed a resolution asking the university to test all tenured faculty and to assign interpreters to all those who do not achieve intermediate plus or above.

When was this resolution? Where is the information?

I think it is a great step forward!

This is from the Faculty Governance web page, results of the special meeting on Oct 23. You can’t access it if you aren’t faculty, but I believe that several bloggers posted the results on their web pages. Keep it mind that this may not actually happen. It will cost a lot.

University Faculty Resolution #3

The University Faculty moves that Faculty Governance, through their official contacts with the Administration and the Board undertake this specific and positive action toward addressing the serious problems here at Gallaudet University:

Ask that Committee A and the Senate work together to facilitate discussion of a possible change in faculty guidelines such that all previously tenured faculty will be evaluated using the same ASL assessment procedures (including proficiency interviews, classroom observations, etc) that are used for assessing the ASL skills of untenured faculty. Gallaudet University (not individual departments) will provide interpreters in the class room for any currently tenured faculty member who does not demonstrate ASL skills at the same level required for new faculty to gain tenure. This would not replace the system of testing non-tenured faculty.

Standing vote:
75 Ayes
5 Nays
Resolution passed as amended

Hmm. I do see your point. I will admit that I could see how we could be more flexible with a policy like that. Then again, if he wanted a permament position, wouldn’t it behoove him to learn ASL? Just asking.

Yes, anybody can learn ASL. They may not reach the level of sign master, and only be able to communicate in PSE at most, but that’s fine with me.

wildstarryskies,

What may be “fine” with you, may not be fine with others. I would prefer to have a fluent ASL teacher or a teacher who speaks and uses a qualified ASL interpreter. It is difficult for me to follow a teacher who struggles to put together their thoughts and express themselves in a language that is not their primary language.

*giggle*

Yes, that’s true. I would prefer a teacher that’s pure ASL, but the thought of turning Al Gore away because he doesn’t sign ASL kind of swayed me there for a moment. I can’t help it. I idolize the guy.:)

I was also responding to all those who said that not everybody can learn to sign pure ASL, and that is true to a point. When I said PSE I was thinking more like ASL signs and concepts, but maybe presented in English-like word order. Not simcom.. that I wouldn’t find acceptable.

There ARE varying degrees of proficiency in ASL, and I’mnot saying Professors have to reach a level of fluency such as, say, Donalda Ammons or MJ Bienvieu, although they should be able to sign as well or better than (eventually, within a reasonable period of time), say, ummmmm I can’t think of a good example here, like, a recent graduate of an interpreting program who has signed for about 3-4 years. I can’t think of a better way to put it.

Their language is still clearly “accented” with English, but the basics are there and they usually get better as time goes on..

I’m playing devil’s advocate here. If a candidate is interested in teaching a class at an university like Gallaudet, then isn’t it inevitable that he or she would be expected by the students to know sign language since the preferred language is….ASL, am I wrong?

Let’s compare this to another university where the preferred language is Spanish. All faculty and students speak Spanish and I would assume that their qualification requirements for candidates to speak Spanish well enough to teach. Why would they need to hire translators since it would cost them additional funds?

Besides if I want to teach a political science course at Georgetown, for example, I would expect that the university would require me to teach the class….orally.

Ah, but your first question presupposes that sign language is ASL. No, there are several different flavors of sign language — Signed Exact English, SimCom, PSE, and, of course, ASL. The question is do we restrict the use of sign language only to ASL? This, of course, drives to the point that only ASL proficient individuals and there are only a few of those in the first instance (and certainly not enough to support an institution funded by federal dollars).

“Only a few of those”? I think the ASL community is a lot larger than it may seem to be.

I don’t have numbers, or anything. The assertion that there are only a few ASL users doesn’t seem right to me. When I was a student at Gallaudet, the majority used ASL. Even the students who entered Gallaudet using another method of communication eventually learned ASL and used it too.

While the majority of students may eventually come to use ASL if they do not in the first place, the total student population is increasingly becoming insufficient to support the funds expended on it, i.e., declining enrollment. I would also respectfully suggest that any negative attention to or pressure on the “resisters” referred to the Professor Wood letter linked below only serves to reinforce the impression that Gallaudet is by and for only Deaf individuals.

And not to mention, the letter itself reinforces the impression that the entire protest was about the fact that Fernandes was not Deaf enough. This is a common theme found throughout the protest, no matter how much GUFSSA backtracks at this point and no matter that the BoT caved in.

The question that everybody is sidestepping is — given the lack of inclusiveness and yes, I’m defining a strong unstated requirement that ASL is the official language of Gallaudet as not being inclusive given the majority of deaf and hard of hearing individuals don’t use sign in the first place — why should American taxpayers fund an institution like this? It would be on par with taxpayer dollars going to a whites only school. Not only in addition to having Congress stopping funding Gallaudet, the university runs the risk of having its tax-exempt status as a university revoked since it has been held that discriminatory policies violate public policy, period.

I think that many outside individuals would view any attempt to institute an ASL only requirement at Gallaudet as being discriminatory and violative of public policy.

Chris,

If you wanted to teach political science at Georgetown, wouldn’t the law require that the professors, being employees of the University, be provided with reasonable accomodations such as a sign language interpeter (to voice for the professor while he/she signs)?

I have heard of situations where deaf professors teach all-hearing classrooms at hearing Universities for courses that are not disability/ASL/Deaf Culture-related.

Yes - that would be under title I of the ADA and they would have to prove it’s an undue financial burden to provide sign language interpreters.

But, what I was trying to point out is that the teaching position requirements at Georgetown or a Spanish-speaking university would EXPECT candidates to be able to teach the class orally and I was trying to compare that with Gallaudet.

I was informed that interpreters would be provided for the first year only for professors who do not sign and after that, they’re on their own. Anyone can confirm that?

Christopher, also Section 504 applies to universities if they receive Federal funding. Nearly all university receive some sort of funding anyway.

Actually there’s a psychology professor at RIT who’s deaf, and teaches hearing students through an interpreter. Dr. Peter Hauser, I believe. I may have spelled his last name wrong. So this issue is pretty much moot.

~ Deaf Pundit

“No, there are several different flavors of sign language — Signed Exact English, SimCom, PSE, and, of course, ASL. ”

NO. There is ony ONE sign language in America. ASL. The others are just half-way imitations that mix together ASL and English.

All the linguistic research the past few decades have made this very clear.

Now, I’m not saying those COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS aren’t valid for communication purposes, but they are NOT fully developed languages, not like English or ASL.

I wanted to make that clear.

Deaf Pundit - RIT has a large deaf student population, so it isn’t so surprising that there is a deaf professor teaching a hearing class there.

Why is it surprising that there’s a deaf professor teaching a hearing class there?

Dr. Frank Bowe teaches at Hofstra, and so does a deaf professor at Syracuse Law. I believe they have an interpreter with them.

As for adjunct professorship at Gallaudet, I’m not sure if ASL proficiency is required. There was this TV guy who taught for a year at Gallaudet with an interpreter while he was working on projects for the Smithsonian Institute, and also there was this deaf British professor from Bristol who came for a year but I imagine he picked up ASL quickly.

From my experience, some things just CANNOT be translated well from English into ASL. For example, a specific term used during a meeting and then repeated later in email can be completely lost on me, unless the interpreter takes precautionary measures by spelling out the specific word (rarely the case). This is one of the many reasons why I wish I knew Cued Speech; this wouldn’t be an issue.

I believe that NTID had a nice solution for this- they would offer “NTID sections” for most freshmen courses- so that deaf students could either go with mainstreamed or deaf classes- whatever toots their horn. Likewise, Gallaudet should do the same; offer classes taught via the oral method, ASL, and so on. And then let the students choose.

That would be nice. I’m not sure there are enough classes or students to make this choice, though.

If we had 6,000 students, I’d say, go for it. But if we’re gonna offer different kinds of classes, does that mean we’ll have to hire more professors, , one to teach four different classes on the same subject, each using a different communication method?

What if 20 students sign up? So then there’ll be three classes - 1 for ASL, 1 for simcom, and 1 for oral. Woudln’t that put a damper on the learning environment, where students need to interact and learn from each other?

Jt, exactly. That’s another possibility outside of the technology spectrum (ie CART, speech to text..). This way, the social fabric outside of the classroom can still remain intact as an ASL-oriented campus (along with of course those still learning ASL to those using SEE2 trying to learn ASL along the way). It’s about giving students equal participation based on their communication needs. Although, supposed their isn’t enough students to split the class into two but have them altogether and perhaps technology can help in this regard (e.g. CART, other future advanced communication technology).

Wow. I never thought I’d see “McConnell” and “ASL-oriented campus” in the same sentence without an expletive in there somewhere.

“Yes, anybody can learn ASL. They may not reach the level of sign master, and only be able to communicate in PSE at most, but that’s fine with me.”

and I never thought I’d be seeing you write THIS, wildstarryskies. :-)

LOL. I always said I wanted people to learn ASL. I never said that they had to attain the sign master kung fu woo hooo level.

:)

test

off the top of my head, I’d say the next president of Gallaudet should have practical skills and experience in school administration, management, fund-raising, and communication. It’s a bonus if that same person has a friendly personality and can make conversation with a variety of people. It’s also nice if that same person can be a visionary, but in my experience, not very likely. The traits that make a good college administrator may be mutually exclusive to the traits that make a visionary, except in rare cases. My vision of what makes a good president is simply the ability to provide direction on a large scale, and to have a good grasp of the brush strokes as well as the big picture, like a symphony orchestra conductor, to mix metaphors. He or She is not necessarily the person who does it all, but knows how to delegate and coordinate the efforts of others in setting and accomplishing goals. In the case of Jordan, he just happened to be the extroverted sort who enjoyed the spotlight and the political aspects of the presidency, but another president wouldn’t mind putting others in the spotlight and sharing the glory. In the case of Gallaudet, there’s plenty of stars that shine.

Ms. Incredulous Eyes, Noelle, Jt, McConnell & Curious Eyes - let me pull you back to the original question: what kind of leader do you think Gallaudet needs? So far, I haven’t heard anything about what the faculty and students want for the next president. It would be helpful for all of you to share your thoughts.

I believe Erin Esposito responded to your question much better than I could ever have:

http://dhh-community.com/blog/?p=145

Thanks for clarifying what you said. You brought up very good points. Yes, you are absolutely correct. If we do adopt a bilingual policy, we have to be careful about how it is impelemented.

True!

We should study successful bilingual programs around the world to see how they implement their policies, not just one ones that include sign language.

Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work already! Implementing ASL as one of the two official languages of Gallaudet University would be a radical and perhaps empowering move. Some people might perceive it as a new kind of linguistic elitism, but given the superglobal and lingua franca status of English (as well as its linguistic history of colonialism along with French, Spanish and Italian), I don’t share their perspective. It has only been less than 50 years since ASL was pronounced to be a language in its own right.

So do I.

The difference between your and my arguemeent (it seems) is that I want PROFESSORS to sign ASL. I want ASL to be the “default” for usage in classes.

Students may sign what they like, but I personally think they are really missing out if they don’t make an effort to learn ASL. That’s just a personal opinion. I don’t have a problem with students communicating the way they want. I even have no problem accomodating people’s individual communication styles as well. I can simcom quite well myself.

Just.. open your mind. Learn ASL. It’ll be good for you. That’s all.

You cannot force someone to learn ASL if she doesn’t want to learn it. I can respect her decision. If she wants to go to Gallaudet, she’s more than welcome to take advantage of the CART servicse for full accessibility to the academic environment. But I leave the social situation in her hands.

I belong to the first generation of children who got their cochlear implants when great vehemence and hostility towards them existed. I grew up oral and mainstreamed for the majority of life. And somewhere in my teenage and college years, I picked up ASL by socializing with deaf signers. That opened up a new world for me.

I still have deaf friends who identify themselves as “oral” and who do not have minimal knowledge of ASL, much less grasp its distinct grammar and syntax. We still speak to each other in English. That is fine with me, as long as we respect each other for who we are and for the choices we make.

Gallaudet University’s Communication Statement here:
“Our community will incorporate and respect ASL and recognize that students, faculty members, and staff members may each have different visual communication needs.” http://www.gallaudet.edu/x281.xml

Right, MIE.

Um, please tell me, where did I use the word “force”.

Please don’t assign motives to me that I didn’t articulate. I just said I WISHED everybody would learn ASL, and that it would really benefit the university if it did.

I wanted to clear that up.

I noticed something funny that later became a pattern to me- starting with my own parents. My parents took ASL classes with me when I was in my teens, but we never really got to use it much at home. Years later, my mother wants to re-learn sign language, but she has a difficult time remembering how to execute just one sign. My dad, sometimes out of the blue once in a while, would sign something you don’t expect a novice to remember, but he did. Then when I went off to school, I had a professor whose spouse was a grad student at Galladuet. She *really* wanted to be fluent in ASL, but it was still difficult for her even through I worked with her on it…but her husband- that’s my professor- he picked it up like a sponge. Mastered the ABCs in one week. If I demonstrate just one sign just once, he produces it weeks later!
My point? People have different brains. Some brains makes language learning challenging. Others facilitates language learning like crazy, so we need to be aware of that. I’m not saying we should excuse professors who have been there for centuries and cannot sign to save their life, I’m saying we cannot round up all the professors (who need training) in an intensive ASL bootcamp with Drill Sergeant Flying Fingers and expect most of them to come out at the end of a certain time period fluent in ASL. They should at least be better at it than when they went in.

Correct, KMB. There is a certain amount of unrealistic expectation that all professors (or students for that matter) to sign as expertly or as fluently as native signers. Which is why many still sign in SimCom. Pidgin. Or whatever. Each of our brain is wired differently on how we process language better whether spatially or by words (ie SimCom).

It’s like envying students who have the ability to absorb the subject in class and get A’s easily while others just simply struggle and get B’s or C’s and put in more hours than those who aced their exams or did their homework well.

This is what we are given in life. This is why I don’t discriminate against those who don’t, can’t or are slow in how one signs whether it’s ASL, SEE2, or SimCom.

Don’t be ridlicios. I dont think anybody is advocating that all professors should be like native signers.

There are varying degrees of proficiency in any language, including ASL. It is very possible to sign ASL “pretty good”, as compared to “sign master level”.

I only feel that the professors should strive for signing ASL “well”.

Oh, and I would want to make one point. If you really want to learn ASL, then total immersion is the key. If you just attend classes a couple times of the week then don’t use ASL the rest of the time, then no, you won’t get much out of it.

WS, which is why I said “there is a certain amount..” (though I should’ve clarified further which is what I’m doing now).

How many incoming Freshmen who already know ASL or sign language had the expectation that all of the professors on campus to sign very well or even expertly so? How many of them actually realize that there is a 2:1 ratio of hearing professors to that of deaf?

As a math tutor, I’ve had students tell me they expected a lot from professors when it came to signing and some of them were disappointed and realized that once they set foot on campus expecting heaven.

I always thought JKF and IKJ signed “pretty well.” They could teach my classes any day. I always understood everything they said on videos. No one would mistake them for native signers, but so what? JKF got attacked for calling herself fluent, when she merely signs “proficiently.” The comments here about exactly how proficient a professor or student or administrator at Gallaudet should be seem just a little eensy-weensy bit hypocritical to me. Please don’t yell at me for saying it.

Clarification, CE, on linguistic terminology (and not a comment on anything you said - smile)…
“fluent,” as used by linguists, only refers to basic competence in a language - enough to talk about your day, order a meal, and so on.
“proficient” refers to the level of competence required to take a college class in that class.
Fernandes is NOT proficient in ASL, though I agree with her assessment that she is “fluent,” able to carry on conversations in ASL.
If anyone wants to check this out, Google “Cummins,” “BICS,” and “CALP.”

Thanks, Cali! I stand corrected.

And if may I indulge in a “whine,” wildstarryskies: JKF IS FLUENT. so there! ;-)

=D Anytime, Curious Eyes.

Define “proficient” in ASL. Where is the line that is crossed from fluent to proficient? Or is there a thing called “borderline”?

McConnell, I don’t know for sure, but think the ASLPI test has levels in a rubric-type of format that differentiate between Intermediate, Advanced, etc. Probably some aspects of ASL that you’d expect to see in a proficient user of ASL is the correct use of classifiers, syntax, body position, non-manual signals, and use of space. This is in addition to what a fluent user might display, such as a basic vocabulary and general knowledge of ASL grammar. Maybe the ASL linguists out there would like to reply in more detail?

yeah, where is that “magic” line where one crosses over from fluent to proficient?

When was that?

I think Carl *might* be referring to the prep section - the pre-freshman school across D.C. which was closed in 1996 or so. Not sure though. But a lot of students went there for a year or so, and learned ASL there. Then afterwards, they were ready to set foot on the main campus of Gallaudet.

~ Deaf Pundit

Personally, I knew of several professors/teachers at that prepatory school who were enormously pissed off at the administration for closing it down. Alot bemoaned the fact (correctly, I may add) that many of the students would never be prepared for Gallaudet as freshmen. Many also were laid off in the process furthering angering them.

I wonder if JKF had anything to do with that??!? Anyone?

I doubt it Aquafina. JK wasn’t provost until the Gally murders, and that was in 2000. The prep school was closed several years before that.

But don’t take my word on it. I’m not *that* familiar with what JK’s duties were prior to her becoming provost.

~ Deaf Pundit

That 900,000 count probably came from me by my own estimate that I produced earlier on DeafDC that’s now floating around and in Deaf cyberspace. It was based on my 13 page research result I did a few years ago on examining Deaf population in the United States.

Noelle–

You aren’t alone with that “discrimination” you encountered from other “D”eafies. I, too, encountered the same. In fact, some Deaf professors at Gallaudet said to me when I was visiting Gallaudet many years ago that I would NEVER be a part of the deaf community because of my oralism. I retorted that he was unable to FUNCTION in the hearing world at all and had to resort to pen and paper unlike myself. That was when I was I believe 16 years old visiting Gally then (Many eons ago). He shut up pretty fast after that comment because he knew that I put him in his place after that. (That was during the days when many deafies were graduating and returning to work at Gallaudet preferrin g to be insulated from the outside world or working in the Post Office or Washington Post (they had, for years, utilized many deaf people in the printing and press room because of the high noise levels back then.)

It took a long time for me to be accepted by the “hard core” deafies after grudgingly learning their language BUT if they want people to learn THEIR language, WHY DON’T they make the effort to learn how to speak???

IT GOES BOTH WAYS. I’ll learn your language if you learn my language. Not the “my way or its the highway” mentality here. That is what some people feel here.

I have had several deaf friends explain to me many years back that ONE of the main reasons why many don’t want to learn how to speak is because they are lazy or give up too easily (not my words, but theirs). I didn’t know what to believe here and I am pretty confident that this is gonna open a can of worms here on the blog and ignite a storm (or flurry) of denials, defensive remarks, or agreements. I don’t know what I’ll be expecting on here but thought I’d bring it up *wincing here*.

This reminds me of a hearing guy I once dated. He wouldn’t sign with me, unless I spoke. And at the time, I agreed with him; this seemed like a perfectly reasonable request. If I wanted him to go the extra mile, then I should, too. Seriously, how can you argue with that rationale?

If he understands your signs, why does he expect you to speak with him?

No. I meant that he learn how to sign *himself*, so that I could understand him better. Luckily I eventually married a much nicer and understanding guy. :)

Aquafina, it’s very true that it goes both ways. However, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect all deaf people to be able to speak. I read and write just fine, but I can’t speak worth a damn.

There’s a price for everything, you know. If I wanted to speak well, I would have to sacrifice a lot of time away from my other endeavors, such as my education. So, to me, and for many others, the price of being able to speak well is too high.

Hope that made sense. :p

~ Deaf Pundit

I respect your thoughts and opinions here…but what I’m wondering about after reading your blog entry is why couldn’t you do it WHILE you were in school. Gallaudet and RIT both have speech therapy clinics on campus (unless you went to a hearing university in which case you can’t attend such a clinic.)

Care to digress? I totally understand there is a price for everything as I had less time to go outside and play while having speech therapy when I was much younger :)

Thanks for commenting!

Well. This requires a bit of background here. My dad has a Ph.D. in physics, and my mom spoke 3 languages before she learned ASL, and she has a M.A. in communications. (Later on she took courses in ASL linguistics as well.) I’m profoundly deaf - with hearing aids, speech is still unintelligible, and even if I wanted a CI, I’m not eligible for one.

So anyway, when my parents found out that I was deaf, they both did independent research on deafness. With their knowledge in how sounds work, and language development, they separately came to the conclusion that sign language was the best way to educate me, and not the Oral method.

I did have speech therapy briefly when I was a child, because the school wanted me to have it, but it required so much effort, and it took me out of classes, so my parents had it stopped. My mom was also particularly concerned about balancing my education with me having a social life. She thought it wasn’t worth depriving both my education and social life when I was a child, just so I could have intelligible speech. She told me later on that she had met so many deaf adults who were illiterate, and after decades of speech therapy, she still had to get used to their speech. She didn’t want that for me.

I could’ve had speech therapy at Gallaudet, since I did go there, but raised the way I was, I didn’t really see the point. I wanted to focus on my classes, and building up my social life at college. Even if I could speak well, lip-reading isn’t very effective. Communication is a 2 way street. So, that’s why I’m not using my speech, nor will I really aspire to. :)

~ Deaf Pundit

I don’t think technology takes away from ASL! I actually agree with you on this position.. I am all for technology!

However, Virgina does have a point - if technology is really all it takes, then why bother coming to Gallaudet at all?

hey, why don’t we just do ASL and everybody else can use technology to acceess information at a hearing university?

Just kidding. :)

WSS, ASL has been a boon for me as well. I did not see any need to learn ASL when I first enrolled in college, after being a solitary in the mainstream for 12 years. But it changed my life for the better, absolutely. I’m thinking about the fact that an ever-growing percentage of college-bound students are coming from the mainstream where they are using something other than ASL. I agree with you, they should learn and it will be good for them! But requiring all instruction to be given in ASL might not motivate them to enroll at Gallaudet in the first place, if they don’t already know ASL. I see this emphasis on ASL as the instructional language to be more attractive to students coming from schools for the deaf, a smaller proportion of future college students. What Gallaudet should emphasize is that all communication modes will be accommodated. I recognize that deaf college students whose sole language is ASL need some place to go where they can get direct instruction in ASL — not sim-com, not signed English, not interpreted. I’m just not sure that group is entitled to be the only ones who get to have instruction in their preferred mode, just because Gallaudet is the only signing university in the world.

By the way, McConnell…

I’m curious. I’ve noticed that you have made a number of comments to various blogs on this blogsite, but they all seem to be little more than opportunities to spout your own rhetoric, to wax poetic on your own viewpoints, your own beliefs, your own issues.

That’s all fine and good, but it seems as if the conversation becomes somewhat one-sided, with you asking everyone to listen to what YOU have to say, but not appearing to give them much of the same courtesy.

As an example…you’ve talked about technology and the issues of deaf/Deaf and your poll and all that. Well that’s all fine and good, and you are certainly entitled to your right to express your own opinion and thoughts.

Yet at the same time, I have posted a blog (which took a considerable amount of time and thought on my part) in which I share MY thoughts and MY viewpoints…in which I identify what I see as being the issues and the concerns and the problems which need to be addressed. I even went so far as to post some questions in hopes of encouraging some thought provoking, intelligent discussion.

But I have yet to see one single comment from you in the blog, expressing any thoughts on any of the issues which I have mentioned.

Care to explain???

Questions, such as?

Virginia, with all due respect, I don’t think I’ve commented on your blog either. Thank you for asking? :-)

When you said: “Yes, I can sense it now … people rolling their eyes and thinking, ‘What kind of horse manure is this woman trying to preach at us? This all sounds like New Age hooey-dooey to me! I’m not falling for that Witchy Voodoo crap!’

well… that pretty much covers it for me. If you asked a question further down, I never got to it.

Virginia: “I have posted a blog…”

Also, I’m confused. Which or what blog are you referring to?

this one, McConnell.

http://www.deafdc.com/blog/gue.....-part-one/

there was a Part II, also.

I posted a blog entitled “Understanding the Protest - Part 2″ in which I discuss some of the issues surrounding the protest - issues of power, change, conflict, etc.

Recognizing that some people may indeed have difficulty understanding the point of the blog, in the commentary section afterwards, I posted four Questions in hopes of generating some thought provoking discussion.

It was my intention to hopefully encourage people to think about these issues and talk about them in a context where we could start to express thoughts about issues of power, conflict, change, etc. and how to go about applying such to resolving the issues such as those you have mentioned in various comments on this blogsite.

As for those who want to view this blog as little more than “horse manure,” that is certainly your prerogative.

your words, not mine. I did read it again and didn’t see any questions that weren’t rhetorical.

Oooh, I see now.

I haven’t even read those blogs yet! I don’t read each and every one of the blogs every single time on DeafDC. I pick and choose as I go along. And then I get caught up in answering people replies and have questions of my own in response in the already read blogs.

Virginia, why do you assume that I have read your blog? Is it because it’s on DeafDC?

I, too, spend *considerable* amount of time on my blogs. In fact 967 blogs later in 2 years and 3 weeks. That’s 1.7 blogs a day. Some short ones. Many of them quite long. Longer than yours. I put my own time, thoughts and efforts into them. I don’t expect everybody to read my blogs nor do I demand them to read my blogs. Nor do I demand or ask that they make comments on my blogs either. “I build it, they will come.” Just like any other blogs. But I don’t have the convenience on having multiple authors to contribute to my blogsite just to keep the crowd satiated with news, facts and opinions. I’m basically a one-man army here doing my thing on what I do best. And that’s to blog.

Eventually, I may get around to your blog and make some comments. Then maybe I won’t considering what has just happened.

My apologies…I’m quite new both to this site and to blogging itself.

I guess I just assumed, from reading the various comments that you have posted here, that from all the statements you have made regarding your views of what the protest was all about and how you understood it, that you would be interested in reading someone else’s views of how they understood it.

Apparently I was wrong.

Virginia….

Take a deep breath.. I’ve been there. :)

I went to your blog and responded to some of the questions.

:)

Thanks, Starry…deep breath taken! (Actually, I think I needed to take a couple, but whatever…)

Thanks for your posts!

For those who couldn’t find the questions I am referring to, they are NOT within the blog itself - you will need to scroll down to the commentary section beneath the blog to find them. These questions are based upon the blog itself, and were posted to help people better grasp where I was coming from, and give us all some food for thought.

I always try to take the time to read the comments to the blogs, because I often find that by reading people’s responses, I gain a better understanding of what the blog itself is all about, and it helps to fuel some of my own thinking…

Question… this may show my complete ignorance because I’m not familiar with how CART works… but if you use CART, don’t you first need someone to translate the ASL into spoken English, and then a CART person to transcribe everything?

And wouldn’t providing that service be prohibitively expensive? I mean, two extra employees on full-time salary (unless there are CART operators proficient in ASL/English interpretation) per class, plus the technology?

I’m oral, and I’m not familiar with sign language. Basically CART involves a third party, usually a court-trained reporter who sits in the classroom and transcribes everything the professor or the class says. There’s also Remote CART, in which you basically hook up your laptop (it helps if the classroom or the school has a wireless campus), connect to the CART reporter online who hears the professor through the audio feed from the professor’s mike, and transcribes everything. It removes the CART reporter as a direct third party and involves her indirectly. I liked that better.

One solution for Gallaudet would be someone who’s proficient in both ASL and English for CART reporting.

I had no problem getting a CART reporter into all of my classes, except for two only because the professors were so easy to understand and the class size was under ten people.

Why not train a bilingual person to translate the ASL into written English, to be entered directly in CART? I think this could really work. A graduate assistant, with training, could do this job, no? Especially if it was their field of speciality, it would benefit them as well. Plus they’d have the opportunity to earn some money and great notes they can use for themselves too.

Let’s say it’s a history class. Have a grad history student come in and do the CART work. The grad student could establish a mentor relationship with the teacher they do CART for. The student would have access to the teacher’s personal notes and be able to satisfy their preferences for language usage and specific termology.

I’m really liking this idea..

Ooho, and what if the grad student worked as a tutor for history too? The students in that CART class could go to that specific grad student for tutor services.

I’m envisioning a new position that combines the positions of CART translator and tutor supported by a mentor relationship between the teacher and the grad student. The student would help the teacher organize their notes and determine the material taught. They would already have prior knowledge of what would happen that day in the classroom.

Is this a great idea or what?

Your idea sounds like an extremely feasible idea. It would basically expand the role of the TAs in the classroom, but still…CART reporting requires knowledge of typing in shorthand, which means that the graduate student would have to be trained in shorthand.

I think I’d keep the graduate student out of the CART reporting, and instead have him or her function as a tutor for the students in the class.

I agree with Noelle- a captionist sitting in some remote location, and transcribing everything for you to read on your laptop. I have used this service frequently on the job and can’t say enough good things about it. I think it costs maybe $150 an hour, which is cheaper (and far more accurate) than what SLA would charge for two interpreters an hour. Plus, it benefits not only you but the rest of students if they are given copies of the transcript.

As McConnell said, technology is really the answer. Perhaps Gallaudet can obtain some consulting from NTID/RIT.

“not everyone can learn how to sign”

I don’t believe that. Not by a mile. Learning a new language takes time and effort, yes, but everybody can do it.

talk is very cheap- I agree 100% with you, it will never be eliminated, but it can be greatly minimized via conscious awareness. It’s tricky now- people think racism is something that has to be obvious without realizing that it can be hidden within a system- that is the most troublesome. Individual racist behaviors, we can deal with them in various ways- from ignoring them and taking our business else where, giving them a piece of our mind - either verbally or physically, filing a complaint against them, etc. Systematic racism, a much harder target to catch, and tend to be something many people cannot see because of white privilege making it seems like it’s normal, everyday life for everybody.

For example- why is reparations an on-going item of discussion in the black communities for years? Many are for it, many are against it, for various reasons. I’m not making an argument for or against it here, that’s not the scope of my comments here. But one thing most of them will agree upon it that slavery did have a very long arm striking the black communities 131 years after it ended. How?

Remember the promise of 40 acres and a mule? That promise was broken by the next three Presidents after Lincoln- especially Rutherford Hayes, who agreed to let Southerns handle race relations themselves, initating a pattern of presidential inaction on the issue not broken until the middle of the 20th century.

You may think, I cannot see how a lowly mule and 40 acres in 1800s can help the black community today? It has much to do with asset transfer and land ownership. If we read books about history of wealth, setting aside the group who are “new money”, we see how people amass important assets over generations. Many people today are on solid financial grounding because of their ancestors’ assets. Their ancestors owned land- an important asset- among other valuable assets, was able to pass these on to their families.

Ex-slaves? After the failure of the Reconstruction, their political rights taken back like it was never there, they had nothing to work with, and had to start from scratch. Many migrated to the North, but we know the North was no utopia. Most southern farms were worked by free slaves, who did not own the land. The system of sharecropping was inefficient and kept thousands of them trapped and poor, unable to earn enough profit to own the land. (I am one of the lucky few- my ancestors *did* own their land down in GA, no clue how they managed to buy it, I have a fantasic copy of a preserved letter to the bank saying they put on collateral a mule, two cows, and some interesting stuff if they failed to make a payment, but today it is in our parents’ hands and will be passed onto us when they are gone.)We were starting to make some strides…then world wars came.

Remember the GI Bill- soldiers who came back alive would get some moola, get some college education, something toward a mortgage? Wonderful idea, it helped thousands of soliders complete college, get well-paying jobs, et cetera. Did the black soliders get that GI Bill? See the quotes below I found on Internet (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/08/14/paint_it_white/?page=2)-

Did you see the number “2″ as in loans awarded to someone black (possibly light-skinned enough to pass for white)? That number shocked even me. Then I went researching a little more and came across this:
http://www.newsreel.org/transcripts/race3.htm

I think it is a good question to end here.

no :woosh: here
Just a *klunk*

Salute! Comrade greeting card!

Death to bourgious oppressors of the masses, so will the proletariat rise up and quash the blockages in our path. The righteosness of the actions will speak for themselves

Thats you.

And you are hillarious. I havent laughed like that, well since your first post above.

Simple conversation. Oh mercy. This from someone who believes in conspiracies.

Look my friend, you have no idea about Deaf issues we are facing every day. You talk like a spoiled baby who was allowed to go near a laptop and now spilling out by enshrining his embedded extreme left-wing ideologies.

Well, you are free to mock us and laugh on our miseries, just go ahead and enjoy it ’till you are blue.

We don’t care about people like you. Our fights and struggles are real and we won’t stop.

But it does bother you. The very fact that I don’t accept what you say to be gospel truth bothers you.

You rant and rave about this and that conspiracy. You say that the BOT terminated JKF because she blackmailed them, but then you say there is a movement. Which is it?

Look, I dont deal well with radicals, especially stupid ones. Your ideas are completely worthless because only you believe them. And don’t think for a second that you are some new prophet and that your ideas will blossom just because you spout them.

Again, I have to be the bearer of bad news here, but the second your little movement starts with making Gallaudet a completely Deaf university. Zip goes your federal funding, and you are out $100 million.

We live in a real world with real consequences. I worked for the Green party for a while, but I never voted for them because their ideal society never will and never has existed.

Who are you, my friend, to say all this? Who are you? Until we know where your insane hatred against the Deaf is coming from, your utterances are worth of zero. Live with that, please.

Gee, wow. Ok.

Ya need to calm down skippy.

I dont deal well with people who claim pre-eminence and that the world will follow them or else.

the Deaf, the very fact that you capitalize it is insane. Do blind people call themselves Blind. Or do handicapped say I am Handicapped. Thats nuts.

Call it culture, call it a lifestyle, but the second you take a disability check, well its a disability. The second you take a handout from the government to support you and demand that life suits you by requiring ASL, then tax dollars will not support discrimination.

Your ideas of oppression stem from some delusion. I have not heard from any other person on this board, except for you talk about absolute oppression. And you do it in such a way that cannot be believed.

Testing The Truth-

Ignore him. He feeds off it. He’s a troll.

Just my advice.

Testing the Truth, Johan, and Wildstarryskies - let me pull all of you back to the original question: what kind of leader do you think Gallaudet needs?

wildstarryskies

Oh, I’m a troll am I.

I see, so radical thinking and make believe ideas of oppression are fine with you.
I counter that testing the truth is a troll with his ideas that the JKF blackmailed, lied, may have embezzled, and was close to becoming something of a dicatator at your school.

Choose to be a bit more intelligent in what you say. It is very sad to see someone supporting a madman.

Christopher Brown

I think someone who is deaf should be a prerequiste. However, understanding that the role of a University President is not to really run the school, it should be someone who is not centered in the Deaf culture at Gallaudet, so they can interact with other outside bodies. Notably Congress, as well as other universities and mostly from donors. The key reason why there is a university president is to raise private funds.

Secondly, The president should have some capability as a leader. While most University presidents don’t interact with the students or the faculty that much there will be times when they will. have to. Backing, or at least general apathy by the students gives the president that ability.

Third, Either a pretty face or a reserved respected face. If you think I am joking, image means a lot. Good looks will make a big difference and while it is innappropriate to point out, it is an absolute truth in society.

Lastly, someone with experience in running a school. Someone who knows how the university is run and doesn’t bring in too many changes when implementing their strategic vision. Knowledge of what is possible in their position is a boon to everyone.

Johan, you may not have read the blackmailing email Fernandes sent to the Board before their meeting that was published in part in the Washington Post by Susan Kinzie. It is not only an allegation that she tried to intimifate the Board into conceding to her presidency, it is a fact, something you can read black-and-white in media.

It was a desperately miscalculated move on her part. Of course I am not surprised that the Board found it necessary to immediately terminate the woman. We don’t need this arrogant mentality in Gallaudet leadership.

Chris,

I have difficulty answering that question. I know what I want but I have not yet found how to articulate it. I have this image in my head I find hard to describe. How can I reconcile between my ideal image with what is out there in reality?

I don’t mean to dodge your question, but I will throw out a few thoughts I’ve had.

1) Either fluent in ASL or fully respecting of ASL as a full language. I’m sorry, none of that “communication diversity” stuff. I’d like to see Gallaudet as an signing university. Communication methods are up to the person, but if you’re going to attend Gallaudet, then have some respect for Gallaudet as the center of Deaf Culture and be willing to learn ASL.

2) deaf, part of the deaf community, not someone who is audist and secretly thinks that signing ASL and/or being part of Deaf Culture is a negative thing, and wants to water down Gallaudet’s original mission of being an signing university.

4)Someone who can build a good relationship with the F, S, S, and A (I don’t mean the coalition, the population as a whole), and who can engage in open dialogue, instead of relying on PR spin to make their case heard. I guess I’m saying I don’t want a politican. I want an administrator, a leader, a visionary.

That’s all the thoughts I really have at this point. I’m still healing from the conflict and I have not yet put together my thoughts coherently and I am still exploring the emotions I’ve experienced during this protest.

Goodness, it’s almost as if there are no intellectual standards at Gallaudet. Perhaps the protesters should have been focusing on more rigorous academic standards on the part of the faculty?

Sheesh.

She says she’s been at Gallaudet for sixteen years and she’s still an associate professor of English? Something’s wrong and I don’t think it’s due to the “Apparatus of Oppression.”

I think exhibit A is the letter for intellectual flabbiness.

http://www.gallyfssa.org/index.....a331fd4ca7

“MoveOn” and Richard Roehm in the same boat! I am not surprised at all. It is just right to embrace each other for the same kinds of people. ;(((((((

Allison, Jill, Richard, Move On, & Anonymous - I would like to do what I have asked the others here - pulling you all back to the original question: what kind of leader do you think Gallaudet needs? What kind of qualifications will the leader need that would meet the students and faculty’ expectations?

You really should submit it to the Washington Post letters section in response.

“Not all deaf students belong at Gallaudet University. It is certainly not for those who reject Deaf culture and American Sign Language (ASL).”

I question that, “segregation mentality”. Are you talking about those who do not believe in Deaf Culture and ASL, or are you talking about that person who believes that the Gallaudet University is for people who values and cherish Deaf Culture and ASL? Which side are you pointing at that is considered segregation mentality? *just curious*

What I do question is the logic that by making Gallaudet a fully accessible university, purely bilingual (ASL/English), it will somehow hinder the ability of students to prepare for the ‘real world”.

Isn’t the creation of safe spaces such as Gallaudet intended to provide an area of barrier-free learning that will provide students with complete access to information? Isn’t the intention to allow students to grow and learn as much as they can without facing the barriers normally faced in the hearing world?

Does the fact that a student went to Gallaudet necessarily makes them unprepared for the “real world”? Think of it. At any other university, most deaf students would not have the opportunity nor be able to run for positions such as SBG President, work as a tutor, etc:. You might even say that there are LESS opportunities for deaf students to grow and learn at a hearing university, than there is at Gallaudet, and in fact, that students who attend a hearing university are missing opportunities they could only receive at Gallaudet…

That said, I’m 100% with you on the quality of education itself. It’s not only the non-signing teachers, it’s the low enrollment standards and soft bigotry of low expectations that penetrates the campus. That is something we do need to focus on.

I think that EVERYONE is oppressed one way or another at Gallaudet. Yes, it is oppressive to except deaf students who learn ASL to pay a lot of money, only to end up in a class with a professor who barely can communicate, even after years of working at Gallaudet.

I do not know what students with an oral/non-signing background experience, but yes, I will admit right then and there, there ARE people who DO discriminate against them.

I just rebuke the notion that Gallaudet as a WHOLE is a place such as that. I’ve met people from all walks of life there, with all degrees of varying ability, and they were all accepted within their own circles, just like any other University.

Well, I’ve said a mouthful…

I’ve talked to my hearing professors outside of classrooms at Gallaudet in their offices. Even requested that they talk instead of signing so I can hear and listen to the conversations while we sat inside the office, away from nobody else’s business. It was no different when I talked to hearing professors at my graduate school in Idaho. Only that time I talked to them anywhere on campus, out in the open. You may call it “audistic”, I call it my personal choice.

I would like to add, if it’s not too late for anybody to read that, that I read a note from Kathy Wood on Gally L-Net, adn we corresponded back and forth a little bit to help her clarify the position she took.

1) The article she wrote wasn’t the same one in the paper. They butchered it, cut out whole parts of it.

2) She added that “teaching freshman English for 17 years”, she explained that currently, “1/3 and 1/2 is highly fluent in ASL, another 1/4 semi fluent or emerging fluency, and about 1/4 are brand new with no fluency”.

3) a tiny handful are what she calls resisters, who have a disain of ASL and deaf culture, who make audist comments in front of classmates, who talk to me without signing even after she tries to gently explain it to them.

4)”who are coddled at Gallaudet and not learn anything abt being cultural appropriate in asl and with deaf people… no, I do not think they have a place at gallaudet. it is not acadmically or morally right for me or our fine institution to support their audist and socially/scholastically limiting attiitudes abut wanting to be monolingual and not learn abt another culture”.

“just like a racist at howard”…..

“maybe 2/3 of a given freshman clas who come to Gallaudet want to assimiliate.. a tiny fraction of gallaudet students are resisters”

On a personal note (me WS) would like to add that she said..

“I work my butt off to help them (resistes) achieve their goals all the while lwetting them know that they are limiting themselves for internships, majors, and jobs. That NOT knowing antoher culture and not knowing another language is not something that they should be proud of.. or that will help them get ahead.”

she added a good point - “we cannot be the jack of all trades and the master of none. We cannot and should not ne everything to everyone”

Hope that makes her position more clear.

Khay Jhay, I meant that I want to know what you thought of the article. Maybe a short summary of the main points. I just don’t want to read the entire article within the blog, and then nothing from you at the end. okay? This blog is getting long and takes a long time to download.

Sparking Action
Now that Jane Fernandez was terminated, doesn’t it feel like everything is being left in the air? The cold silence is actually here. What kind of changes would the world or the people of Gallaudet University would like to see a leader to make? What kind of changes that would be considered worthy or acceptable for us to see happen at Gallaudet University? What kind of leaders in the “office” of Board of Trustees would we want? Do we need the “one that enables the public to visualize the large-scale transformation needed in their circumstances and then to act on that realization?” For example, there was an idea of offering courses online, but it’s been turned down. I wonder why that is? Since we have been using VLOG, BLOGS with a lot of videos… what is it that is stopping us from educating the world through internet? Why are we resisting that kind of change? Hmm??

Communicating Who You Are
Since the majority of the deaf community in the world do not trust Jane Fernandez, Irving King Jordan, and Board of Trustees, we need to have leaders who we can trust, but in order to trust the leaders, we need to know who these people are, where are these people from, and what kind of views/values/objectives/goals do these people have, and why? Are the leaders sensitive to diversity in race, gender, and sexuality within the Deaf culture? Will the leaders be able to open the door and allow us all to come together and beat the oppressive behaviors that WE, the public, have? What is Deaf Culture? Deaf Culture in 1920’s isn’t the same as Deaf Culture in 2006(7). Surely, we all need to realize that, and maybe we do, yet we still act otherwise. We know that a leader wouldn’t be able to lead the public through intensive changes if the trust doesn’t exist. Empathy is the key to this relationship between leaders and the public.

Transmitting Values
Are we looking for leaders, who can, without false information or lies, communicate with the public to understand how things are the way things are, or how things will be? Will the leaders listen to the public’s concern about the way things are going inside and outside of Gallaudet University? What kind of strategy will the leaders use to enable us to feel empowered at the same time interweaved without undermining our Deaf Identity? Gallaudet University went through this kind of oppression from Irving King Jordan and Public Relations. It was really amazing, wasn’t it?

Fostering Collaboration
We have been getting these quotes on how we should be working together to achieve goals, however where’s the HOW on making that happen in real-life? We’ve been COMMUNICATING with encouragement to work together, but how do we do that? Where do we start? When will people get to say, “Okay, the problem within Deaf community is that we’ve been oppressing each other for so long. It’s time to stop.” Reason I’ve been emphasizing on oppression is because people, in administration level of every organization and the public would say, “It WILL happen, now is not the time. People aren’t ready for that kind of change.” My question is WHEN?! When will hearing people stop oppressing Deaf people? How do we educate OURSELVES to stop oppressing our own people, especially within the DEAF community. How?

Taming the Grapevine
Information of any kind are usually powerful because we thrive on them. It is human nature to react to the information of any kind. During the recent protest, Jane Fernandez and Irving King Jordan were unable to defuse those rumors or information. Because of that, the leaders were giving the rumors or information its credibility. One question, though, how did the public get the access to these information? How did they become true? Remember how the public asked the Board of Trustees for the inside information on how Jane Fernandes became appointed? What did BoTs say? They said that they can not share information, well, look what happened, the public found them. Please do not misunderstand, I’m asking if the leaders should communicate all information just so there won’t be any struggle and perhaps it’ll allow us to understand why things are happening the way they are?

This lead to Sharing Knowledge:
“In a corporate setting, stories about problems don’t flow easily, not only because people fear the consequences of admitting mistakes, but also because, in the flush of success, people tend to forget what they learned along the way. As a result, the knowledge-sharing story cannot be compelled; it has to be teased out. That is, a discussion of successes may be needed to get people to talk about what has gone wrong and how it can be fixed.” Isn’t this self-explanatory? If not, okay, why is it so hard for leaders to confess that there are problems in Gallaudet University that need to be looked at, analyzed, and make progressive effort to change the problem into solutions? What kind of successes did Gallaudet University accomplish, if any? Has it been communicated to the public? What kind of successes does the public want to see happen at and from Gallaudet University? What kind of the future does the public want for the Deaf Community?

Leading People to the Future
What is the future? Define the future for the Deaf Community. Can the leaders communicate the public to understand and accept the direction that the Gallaudet is going? Can the public become comfortable and familiar with the changes and ideas that are so new and unimaginable? What kind of leaders has the ability to make the public become visionaries?

Does this make sense?? If leaders have the skills to do all of above, then that’s the kind of leaders Gallaudet University may need.

wow! Good questions. This post deserves a blog of its own… how about it, DeafDC? I could respond to this one at length, and I bet others could too.