- Experience in educational administration or management and fund-raising strategies

- Ability to direct people in accomplishing the vision and delegate & coordinate efforts

- Direct and communicate the administrative policies and practices to the faculty and students

- Ability to engage in open and honest communication/dialogue among the Board of Trustees & the Gallaudet, alumni, and deaf communities

- Possess strong public speaking skills

- Possess charisma, trustworthiness, and good looks

- Possess a strong deaf identity, but respects and welcomes all individuals who have hearing loss

- Establish ASL as the “official” language at Gallaudet

Of course, some of these qualities are debatable, but from this list, I see a strong emphasis on the communication between the administration and the faculty & students on Gallaudet’s administrative procedures. More students and faculty want to have information and participation on improving or reforming its policies to suit their academic and cultural/social interests and needs.

Before closing, I wanted to thank Khay Jhay for addressing these questions – what kind of future does Gallaudet envision? This is a crucial question because it would require the administration to review and redefine their purpose of this university. Sure, we all know that it is a place of higher education for the deaf & hard of hearing, but after today’s candid article exposing Gallaudet’s academic standards in the Washington Post, it is time for us to pick a leader that will fix this university.

(Comments should be posted on Shane Feldman’s Gallaudet Academic Standards article for further discussion)

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

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!

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

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