For civil disobedience to be effective, the tactics used need to be reasonable. If tactics require breaking the law, the breach must be morally excusable.
The direct actions used by the protestors have been neither reasonable or excusable.
They have been deplorable and disrespectful - and they have given Gallaudet and the worldwide deaf community a very, very bad name.
- The act of disrupting the educacións and lives of students and employees, many of whom work hard to make ends meet, is wrong.
- Obscene heckling as witnessed at a ceremony held in I. King Jordan’s honor - is childish.
- Negotiating in poor faith is bad.
- And the biggest sin? Halting the important learning process for the deaf children at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School. As a mother, I understand the importance of ensuring the children’s uninterrupted exposure to signed educacións.
- On and on.
In summary, the actions of the FSSA Coalition and the protestors are condemnable and illegitimatizing.
Vergüenza en ti. El dios de puedo misericordia en el alma de Gallaudet.
Shame on you. May God have mercy on Gallaudet’s soul.
The issue of Dr. Fernandes’ lackluster leadership is real. I understand and even empathize. After all, if any university has received failing marks by a governing body, why would it want a member of its previous administration to lead?It is no secret that American deaf educación is a failure. The world continues to search for effective deaf educación methods. Scandanavia is getting somewhere. Gallaudet has even become inclusive of our international brothers and sisters in a concerted learning effort.
And are Drs I. King Jordan and Jane Fernandes really to blame?
If anyone is to be receiving the civilized wrath of our community, it should be these people:
- The US Department of Educación for supporting continuous substandard quality of deaf educacións at most schools for the deaf.
- The superintendents of those schools.
- The deaf educación researchers at Gallaudet and elsewhere who seem to have gotten nowhere.
- And the Gallaudet professors who can’t write diddly squat.
El perico dice lo que sabe, pero no sabe lo que dice.
The parrot says what he knows, but doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
It is time to let those who are responsible be responsible. The Board of Trustees. It is time to begin healing. Gallaudet and the worldwide deaf community bleeds.There is a spanish proverb that says,
Cuando se desahoga el sentimiento, la pena es menor.
Only when our frustrations become vented can our pain be eased.
It is time to lower our defenses and allow Dr. Jane Fernandes to become the 9th President of Gallaudet University.
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I agree. I’ve also been disappointed with the “disunification” of the Gallaudet SBG leaders in the protest, with the students directly contradicting the agreements that the SBG leaders had made with the administration.
However, the faculty members ought to share the blame as well for poor educational outcomes of those who graduated from Gallaudet. They are the ones who teach their students day in and day out. But let’s not stop there. Blame the students for their own mess as well because they didn’t study hard enough. Or didn’t take advantage of free tutors. Or take extra courses or efforts to achieve a greater learning potential. Why? Well, Gallaudet University is very sociable environment and it’s easy to get caught up in that kind of atmosphere, especially for newcomers. It’s an uphill battle for students in the first place. The students ought to be prepared *before* coming to Gallaudet. Not afterwards. It’s no different than me trying to prepare myself so I can qualify my entrance into MIT, Yale or Harvard.
This isn’t Harvard to begin with. But the scapegoating isn’t doing anybody any good when it’s everybody’s mess to begin with and nobody is acknowledging their own mess to begin with!
“Faculty should be blamed for poor educaationa outcomes as well.” This is a statement by Mcconnell. Let me disagree with you. Its is the Deaf students themselves who are product of Deaf residential schools and homes where they cannot communicate with their parents.
Deaf education does not suck. It is deafness itself that suck. Early access to communication in the home whether it is ASL, CASE, or Aural/verbal increases academic success. It’s access and a good home with supportive, motivated parents.
Are you saying by implication that the parents of deafist Gally students suck?
That comment’s going to stir up a hornet’s nest.
Comments:
-The tactics that have been used are not exactly pretty, but they are effective. Nobody can deny this. Had the protestors continued the camp out and allow the University to function, I doubt anything would have happened. I agreed with the football team, it was time to bring things to a head. Time to settle it all now. So, everybody can move on with their lives.
-I do think that the protestors need to open up 2 gates for MSSD and KDES. They can shut down the rest of the campus by setting blockades. Yes, it would be a lot of work (open soccer field and etc..), but it needs to be done, IMO.
-This blog entry should generate A LOT of responses…..
J.J.
Right now the facts about your second point are not clear. The protesters claim that the administration shut down MSSD and KDES.
Your choice for the title: The Week the World Snubbed Gallaudet? Interesting… Not exactly a great title for your blog entry.
I don’t know — Maybe it is just a figment of my warped imagination when I saw this:
http://www.deafeye.com/?page_id=5
The HEARING world. You know, taxpayers? The ones who generously provided the funds for Gallaudet’s future?
Are there enough deaf people to even come close to donating the funds for this University?
Yes and no. Depends how much money they are willing to give away.
The cost seen in the FY07 annual budget is $155,000,000 to run and operate the university.
http://af.gallaudet.edu/pdf/26.....xt_Low.pdf
There are over 14,000 Gallaudet alumni.
http://www.betterhearing.org/r.....cation.cfm
So, you will need from each alumnus over $11,000 each, every year. Or at least raise $155,000,000 EVERY YEAR to ensure that Gallaudet continues to run and function as it were. Not even considering that this price continues to go up every year.
But it’s not just the alumni but families who are DoD or whatever. In my own 13 page research paper I’ve estimated that there are some 900,000 Deaf people in the United States. About 1/3 of them are adults, meaning they’re wage earners. So that leaves anywhere from 200,000 to 300,000 Deaf adults who are wage earners.
Assuming that all 200,000 to 300,000 of them *WILL* contribute to the newly established all-ASL, Deaf-only private University for deaf and hard of hearing, the annual funding requirement from each Deaf adult person would amount to anywhere from $500 to 775 dollars a year from each adult wage earners at the most. Or to make it palatable, that’s anywhere from $42 to 65 dollars a month. Cheaper than your monthly Sidekick phone bill. Though not a guarantee that this will happen but it’s an idea worth exploring considering what has happened lately.
In essence, it’d be the largest continual endowment fund for the express purpose to run the first ever largest and private Deaf University for deaf and hard of hearing students. In fact, if one cannot get a Deaf town up and running in South Dakota, this’ll be the next, best and easiest thing to have. Take complete control over the university by buying it from the Government with the intention showing the world that Deaf people can do anything.
Not only would you get Gallaudet University as your prize, the endowment of some $165,000,000 will be your booty to have in helping with the transition and establish new Deaf programs.
There are enough Deaf people out there and alumni to make this work. Although the politics of it in making such a move could become contentitious.
You are forgetting to take into account the cost of the University. A site like that in the middle of DC even, without the historic buildings, would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. And then there would be the search for the faculty who could satisfy the requirements, etc.
It’s the money to run the campus, not own the buildings, and have it become a private University with no favors from the govt. Gallaudet already uses it’s own money, up to 30% of the total budget to run the university. It’s a matter of getting control of all 100%, and then Gallaudet can set stricter standards as a truly private institution.
As I said, this doesn’t come without costs if one truly wants to buy all of the buildings, the land and the cost of running it. Would be high. It may cost 300,000,000 just to buy all the buildings and such. Then would the 300,000 Deaf adults mind just for the first year donate $160 - 240 per month or $40 to 60 a week? And then the next year’s donation would only then require $40 to $65 a month to help run the university. Things like that.
There are lot of ways and maneuvers one can do to ensure it become a private institution. It’s really up to Deaf people if that have that kind of committment.
I’m sorry but the cacophony of messages plus the deafist attitude of the protesters just isn’t generating an outpouring of sympathy. There may be legitimate issues about Fernandes but it’s getting overshadowed by the mistaken tactics and constant cries of audism.
Oh, please!
If you look at an excerpt from Dr. Jane K. Fernandes’ address at the Iowa Association of the Deaf: “Divided we will fail; united there is nothing that can stop us.”
Look who is talking!? The current Administration at Gallaudet University has not been responsive to issues put forth by FSSAs in the very beginning and what they have been doing is try to divide the community. They are the ones who are now beginning to fail.
Unity for Gallaudet has been growing in significant numbers here and elsewhere. For one I am proud to go on record for supporting FSSA all the way! It is time now! Nothing is going to stop FSSA even if Gallaudet University is to be re-opened again.
Wake up! Gallaudet University is the only liberal arts university in the world. All of us are equally stakeholders and have as much as a right to make deafening noises if our next president cannot effectively lead.
We will prevail!
Constant cries of unity ring hollow if you already have a preconceived notion of the outcome.
Like your shrimp enchiladas, what you’re professing is caca. The whole world is observing and talking behind the scenes because students at Gallaudet is setting an example for others. They deserve much more credit for that. Too bad there is ZERO to be said of students in their controlled schools at Mexico.
The comment about shrimp enchiladas was uncalled for. If anything, they’re delicious.
DA, comas caca!
Why can’t you people see that what the protestors are doing is wrong. They are breaking laws, and with no question, they are doing more harm than good for the Deaf community. There are some student leaders who enjoy wreaking havoc, partying, and vandalizing the campus while the IKJ Administration, faculty and staff, and students are waiting for someone to blow the whistle and have them arrested. I know most Deaf people will deny this but it is pretty obvious that the IKJ Administration is trying not to cause any more stir with the Deaf community, by not having student leaders and student protestors arrested right away. He could have done that,- furiously fast but he hasn’t. Can’t you guys give him some credit? He has done so much for Gallaudet, and it is possible that he is trying to sort things out with the Deaf community, while acknowledging that there are many conflicting agendas and ulterior motives in the Deaf community. As much as we hate to admit it, the Deaf community is surprisingly puerile and volaite. Every time a Deaf person gets upset, he will cause an uproar, a wailing cry to get attention right away. Deaf people are like that. Manners isn’t their area of strength, and I believe it is what is stopping Deaf people from getting advanced in life.
With no question, Deaf Education is in shambles, and IKJ and JKF have absolutely NOTHING to do with it. It is always easy to blame the wrong people- but seriously, it’s the Deaf community’s fault for not doing anything about it for years on end.
And now…MSSD and KDES are closed. We are depriving them of their education just so college students don’t have to go to classes and get on with their lives. Don’t tell me the protest is about the flawed process because the message the FSSA has been giving is MIXED and CONFLICTING!
The lose-lose situation is the appointment of an inept, arrogant, consciuosless leader, Jane Kelleher Fernandes, who will completely destroy Gallaudet University in a matter of a few years.
Give her a chance FIRST. If she proves to be an inept leader, then students can protest against her, but not before because it makes students (and deaf people) look stupid and childish.
Are you trying too hard to be “different” ?
I second your question!
Are you trying too hard to be like everyone else?
So, here’s a fun question to start the weekend off:
This started because of some displeasure on the BOT’s selection of the new president. Students protested, faculty gave their vote, yadda yadda yadda. Because they weren’t getting their way, we have the current situation, which escalated from the occupance of one buiding to blocking the entire campus - which has been noted elsewhere is depriving elementary and high school students of the education which is their right.
So, if the Board does decide to cave in to the protesters’ demands, what then? The tactic worked. Now they know how to get what they want. Disapprove of the next selection? Repeat process until a candidate is selected that they like. This could be taken to tuition hikes, new or increased fees, unpopular changes to rules or policy, the list could go on.
It’s clear the students have made their point. They’ve also shown they can cripple a university, high school and elementary school, keep people from their paying jobs (campus staff and parents of younger students), and in some cases block law enforcement personel. Before taking issue with that, I am solidly against “police brutality” and believe that any officer of the law who performs actions excessively or unnecessarily, which lead to needless or severe injury must be rightly punished for those actions.
The protesters have gotten the attention across the board. It’s time to solve this problem, and restore the academic programs to continue. One week of courses has been lost. How many more can students afford to lose before the semester is washed out? What of the out-of-pocket funds paid by some students and/or their families? What about loans which need to be repaid - with interest? Sure there are plenty with grants or money from state rehabilitation services, but with increased scrutiny on expenditures, can or will they justify sending the same person back for the same courses, at the following year’s rate? I’m sure that a refund policy may be instituted in this case, but that is MAY. They may claim that since it was the fault of the students, and not an unforseen disaster, that it’s “tough luck”. How about students requiring on pre-requisite courses? Some are only taught during one semester. This could throw graduation off by an extra year. For some who may be graduating in the Fall, this poses another problem, if it’s seen that the final courses they need are only available in the Fall. If the blocking of students’ education continues, then who wins? It becomes a lose-lose situation for the world’s premier educational facility for the deaf.
Keep it up. By next week, Jay Leno will be cracking lame jokes about deaf people protesting.
We need to maintain our dignity or otherwise we’ll be a quick fodder for late night talk show hosts.
Muchas Gracias! Mi casa es su casa! I would love to have you over amiga to amiga and discuss this. I support the protestors although I question many of their tactics. Your Latina views are refreshing and I can identify on many levels.
Agreed.
I’m just imagining the possibilities — and wincing.
Q. Did you hear about the Gallaudet student who didn’t get mustard on his hotdog at the football game?
A. He started a protest and closed the campus.
Q. Two Gallaudet students got a C on their papers. What did they do?
A. Started a protest and closed the campus.
etc.
Good start! Keep the jokes flowing and I guarantee Jay’ll use it next week!
Q: How many Gallaudet adminstrators does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: No one knows: no Gallaudet administrator has ever tried to change anything
That’s funny.
yes, because being “protected” by people who don’t speak your language is the same as a deficiency in mustard or grades.
It is not about the flawed process. Maybe you guys don’t realize this- it is about students going against the Board of Trustees’ decision. HOw ridiculous. What makes you think you are better than them? What makes you think you have better judgment? What makes you think you have the right to determine what is best for the university when you guys have done nothing but partying, bad-mouthing IKJ and Jane nonstop, vandalizing, and blocking students from getting education? Some vlogs disgusted me because of students’ behaviors which reminded me the reason why I couldn’t stay at Gallaudet when I was a student.
I really feel your disgust…NOT!
How long did you stay at Gallaudet? And did you go to a different university?
Vergüenza en ti. El dios de mayo tiene misericordia en el alma de Gallaudet.
Shame on you. May God have mercy on Gallaudet’s soul.
Just FYI: “El dios de mayo” means “the God of May,” as opposed to “the God of June, or of July, or of January.”
I think what you’re looking for is pueda el dios tiene la misericordia en el alma de Gallaudet.
thanks. I was a little concerned about that…
Who are you, a critic or a freaking English-language emperor?
I too took issue with the translations as it seems it came from a web-translator. At any rate the proper phrase is: ( not the literal translation)
Que Dios tenga misericordia en el alma de Gallaudet.
This protest has accomplished nothing but making otherwise intelligent deaf people look like morons. This is about as horrific as the deaf parents who wanted to make their hearing child deaf so he would grow up in their lifestyle. It’s just plain stupid. You want to protest things? Go for it, just choose something that isn’t completely idiotic.
Do you have a link to that report? I haven’t heard anything about that. If you mean they wanted to make him medically deaf, then that’s wrong. If they wanted to immerse him in ASL, I really don’t see any problems with that.
I think Ms. Benson is referring to the “A World of Their Own” article in the Washington Post Magazine in 2002. The Deaf lesbian couple in that article did not want to make a hearing child deaf; they wanted to have a deaf child. There’s a difference, and if you look at signing deaf people as a linguistic minority, it makes a lot of sense.
It does make sense, but it still raises ethical concerns.
nobody I’ve spoken to has said Deaf people are morons.
YES! You are right, Noelle.
The protest is not over. The fight for social justice may have suffered one transient setback but all the more will it come alive again, with more power and more resolve. Heavens have mercy on the perpetuators of the outrageous rape and terror against Gallaudet protestors and the Deaf community.
I read in today’s Express paper. Someone commented what would happen when those Gallaudet students enter the workforce in the near future? If someone hired a boss they didn’t like, would they go on a strike? They have to learn to ACCEPT fate and cannot control everything they like or dislike. Sometimes people should be given a chance. Maybe all of this commotion up to this point should make Jane at least aware how to act as a President by now.
i think they would join a Union like I did and fight for their rights at work. Like they should. :)
excellent response. :)
Exactly. What student protestors are doing right now is an embarrassment. I hope they will get arrested tonight. I am utterly disappointed in IKJ for being passive and patient= if I were the President, I would have everybody arrested and let them rot in cells for god knows how long
Whew - thank god you’re not the President.
Then quit dissing IKJ and JFK.
Meanwhile in Oaxaca…
I wonder if they Spanish proverbs that don’t involve selling out struggle to the administration!
This rape of social justice will not go into oblivion. Now, you are free to feast on the brave protestors who showed the world their courage and their stance for social justice. Now you spit and mock. You spit on your own face and mock your own cowardice.
not being a cannibal, I don’t wish to feast on anyone. You are in serious need of a life.
I agree with Gary 110%. When I saw the students in the Washington Post newspaper. I feel like I could puke on them. They look uneducated and dumb! I don’t know if I should call them students…maybe little kids? I agree with Linda on other subject. The Gally little kids really need to get out and let the unprotesters go on with their education.
You protesters ought to be ashamed for your childish behavior and your diapers need to be changed!!
funny… but who gonna change it? Their diapers gone mad! :P
You should be ashamed for using this unmature language. Gally protestors are heros and they will win, because they stand for something. Unlike from you…
Really? From what I’ve heard and seen, they have been partying-drinking and smoking marijuana-, and vandalizing the campus. Don’t paint them as heroes when they have ulterior motives and agendas, and do not represent the entire Gallaudet community.
The whole Gallaudet protest doesn’t impress me one iota at all. In fact, I think its pretty much stupid–even to the point of being called “much ado about nothing”.
There are so many viewpoints, accusations, yadda yadda and so on that has resulted from this so-called protest. The administration claim that they are working with the student protest leaders in a faithful and honest manner and that the student protest leaders are reneging endlessly on their promises; on the other hand, the student leaders claim that the administration is continually lying to them and that their requests are not being met, yadda yadda. Both camps are agreeing to disagree, which is what I’m seeing here.
Granted that Irving Jordan is going down as a pariah because he’s ordered the arrest of the students that have for years have viewed him as if he was a demi-god, which I could never understand. First off from what I have learned from several sources, he was NOT born deaf at all and learned sign language late in life (in his twenties, I surmise) — does this mean he’s “deaf enough” for these students, I wonder. On the flip side of the coin, J. Fernades was born deaf, was raised in the oral method and eschewed sign language went to public schools, yadda yadda…even though she has learned sign language, she’s considered “not deaf enough” by many, according to what the media has reported. (I know, I know..that one shouldn’t always trust what the media reports, which I don’t.)
Why do I think this whole protest is stupid, you may ask. First of all, I learned that many of the student protesters learned that the police were going to be showing up at the 6th street gate instead of the main gate so they went on over there so that they can get themselves arrested. What for? What were arrests going to prove to everyone, including me? I even saw the pictures and was shaking my head in bewilderment. Why? Many of the pictures were showing some of the students laughing and smiling as they were being carried away by the university police. What’s so funny about being arrested? I thought protests were supposedly to be a serious matter? What was the point of smiling and laughing for the cameras? Sounds like they enjoyed being placed under arrest. To make this point even more clearer, I even saw a picture of a disabled student protester who was in a motorized scooter demanding that he be arrested as well while all of his other friends were being arrested one by one. This was kind of stupid because it seemed to me to be like the case of “Meeeee too, Meeee too”…Give me a break. Furthermore, many of the protesters have reportedly vandalized one of the campus buildings, threatened and intimidated other students who aren’t participating in the protests, and tried to bar/block people and cars (and even a fire engine) from entering campus. This is so asinine and they probably don’t really understand the graveness or severity of it all. In fact, this is indeed illegal and they should be barred or expelled from Gallaudet for destruction of property, intimidation, preventing people free access to Gallaudet among other things.
Secondly, I noticed one thing: there were an estimated 300-350 students protesting. This out of a student body of roughly 2,000??? That isn’t an impressive number at all. It just shows that a minority portion of the student body supports the dissention whereas the majority either doesn’t care about the protest or they don’t agree with the tactics that the student protesters are using.
This protest is stupid because it doesn’t prove anything at all. It only causes a lot of inconvenience to the elementary and high school students who go to KDES and MSSD as well as to the staff that work on Gallaudet Campus. How much money is Gallaudet paying the staff and faculty while Gallaudet is closed?
Honestly, I think this protest is NOT about Fernandes’ deafness or management skills. I think this is more about the students being afraid of Fernandes’ reputation for being tough on students that don’t perform well at Gallaudet. Students should be afraid of her because she’s there to ensure that students get an education, not to party their heads off. I am well aware that the AVERAGE Gallaudet student enters Gallaudet with a reading level of a fourth/fifth grader and is incapable of understanding and reading a typical college textbook. (Thank God I didn’t go to Gallaudet (or even to NTID).) I often wonder how Gallaudet can award students “degrees” when they are seriously woefully undereducated. I can understand why many corporations and government agencies are gravely concerned about the education standards of Gallaudet.
I honestly think the students and staff/faculty are afraid of Fernandes being tough on them. They should be because Fernandes, to my understanding, wants to improve the level of education at Gallaudet so many more students would graduate with a better level of education than what they have been getting up to now.
Just my .02 and sorry its so long, but I wanted to get it off my chest. I wish to remain anonymous because I am very well known in the deaf community.
it will never change. The IQ’s drop sharply every year. look-it… Jane Fernandez is the president, the adminstration heard you the first time. Why o’ why, did I go to gallaudet? Fricken deaf-o’s are going to make it impossible for me to find a job with the label “Graduated from gallaudet university.” It’s bad enough going to a restaurant and getting terrible service because of the “bad tipper” stereotype that Deaf people have selfishly developed.
on top of that, to all those people that got arrested, yer a loser, you will always be a loser, this will be on your record for the REST of you life. Please do something with your life and quit interfering with people who are making use of the gifts our Government has given us out of empathy. (SSDI, VRE, and so forth) I’ve never been for either one of those financial options, but I would rather see someone make better use of the opporunities they have been given rather then see them arrested or drowning in their vomit to celebrate their failure and ability to party their asses off on gov’t dime and drop out after homecoming. GO YOU!!!