Students, alumni, teachers, staff, non-students, and even those who have never once set foot on campus all are deeply invested in the outcome of this BDPN movement. Which surely leads to our next question: “Why? Why do we all care so deeply about the next President of Gallaudet University?”
According to Gallaudet’s website:
Gallaudet University leads the world in undergraduate liberal arts education, career development, and outstanding graduate programs for deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing students. The University also enjoys international renown for its research on the history, language, and culture of deaf people.
This half-assed introduction barely does justice to Gallaudet’s true role in our community. I sincerely hope that one of the new President’s first orders will be to revise this paragraph.
Regardless of my personal take (on whom the next Gallaudet President should be), I want the whole world to understand why this matters…that it’s not just about fighting against the “cannots” of our “disability.”
What exactly makes Gallaudet “ours?” Why cannot other universities and colleges even hold a candle to our fiery cohesion? Why do we rebel strongly against the very secrecy of the BoT’s protocols? Do we feel threatened by outsiders? What, if any, precedent are we setting forth for other educational institutions–and will it at all be retroactive? And are we really setting ourselves up for universal opprobrium, as some observors have suggested?
If you think you have the answers to these questions, I’d love to hear them.
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Isn’t the BoT diversity?
Well said, Julie. Gallaudet isn’t just a university. It’s an icon of our deaf community. And there are unfortunately some people who are afraid to let Gallaudet metamorphose into a symbol of “hearing diversity” instead of its historical and stereotypical representation of the ASL/culturally deaf community.
I guess, as Bobby says, that the perception now is that the president of Gallaudet must also capture the hearts and minds of the deaf community.
The debate, I feel, is around whether that should be a necessary requirement for being president of Gallaudet. I hate to christen the title “Leader of the Deaf World” on an university president, but those are some people’s expectations.
So, I don’t know, it’s like picking the Pope? You want one that represents your interests and your community. So, that’s one thing to care deeply about.
That’s the main issue for people *outside* of Gallaudet, I think. I suspect that within Kendall Green, the issue is different. It’s about whether the students and faculty/staff are being heard (and they should be). They feel they are not being listened to. That’s an incredibly demoralizing feeling to have, whether you’re in a corporation or an university.
The Unify Gallaudet slogan is a great step in that direction of creating a grassroots movement to ensure that the key stakeholders remain involved and united to promote a better Gallaudet.
That’s true Adam. They (ie protesters) should ensure a process to hold JKF’s feet to the fire as president of Gallaudet University. But they would also have to give her their support and give her a chance to prove herself that she can be just as valuable in helping preserve the values at Gallaudet University that many people hold dear to.
Oh, and do all that (hold JKF’s feet to the fire), they can certainly come out on top and save face.
That statement about Gallaudet University makes me sick. If it leads the world in education why does it have such low admissions standards. Gallaudet needs to raise the bar and expect more from its students. If Gallaudet wants to lead the Deaf community, it needs to convince the world that a majority its students will graduate into educated leaders and pave the way for many others. I did not choose to go to Gallaudet because it was so easy to get in and there was no allure at all.
That is an aweful consequence of babying down education by leaders who do not have a shot about managing a university’s academic life. The job market sensed a degradation of outcoming Gallaudet graduates. It is too bad, because once the reputation is gone, it cannot be rebuilt overnight…
the key is, take consortium classes and pay gally’s tuitions and not the university’s. This way, you have more challenging classes. That’s what I did at GWU. Although the Honors Program at the time was a joke. I bailed out of that after a year and focused on consortium classes.
And get toilet paper for a diploma when you graduate? No thanks. It’s hard enough getting into classes through the consortium. Gallaudet totally made it difficult for me to take Deaf Psychology classes while I was a student in a consortium college. I got enough grants and scholarships from my consortium college so the tuition cost didn’t matter either way.
Hard to get into? It was easy for me back then (1988-1991). Gally was just a stepping stone to get my master’s at Univ. of Idaho, and eventually a PhD acceptance at Univ. of Md.
Yeah, how’s the job market for new Gallaudet graduates?
What I heard of it is no good. A Gally degree makes the employers think twice before hiring the holder. Why is that? No reputation?
As usual you are on the money Julie. If you lose this one, you’ll lose the Provost position which may actually mean more to the academic side of the university and to the success of Gallaudet graduates than the presidency. But students and the Deaf Community hurt themselves by limiting the university’s reach through exclusionary practices. Why is everyone afraid to compete with a hearing candidate? Talk about homogenizing your pool of candidates: Looking for a University President of Exceptional Stature; Only Deaf May Apply.
Quite the irony… easy for Gallaudet students to take consortium classes but hard for other consortium college students to take classes at Gallaudet. So messed up– talk about reciprocity!