From Andy Imparato, President, AAPD
May, 2006

Dear Members:

On May 1, the Board of Trustees of Gallaudet University announced their selection of Dr. Jane K. Fernandes to be the Ninth President of Gallaudet University when AAPD co-founder Dr. I. King Jordan retires at the end of this calendar year. Dr. Jordan, who became president after Gallaudet students and alumni demanded a deaf president as part of the Deaf President Now (DPN) protest in 1988, quickly announced his strong support for Dr. Fernandes, a deaf woman whom Dr. Jordan selected for Gallaudet Provost in 2000.

After the Board of Trustees announced their decision, a group of students, staff, faculty and alumni reacted negatively and shut down the main entrance to the campus, created a tent city near the entrance as a visible expression of their dissent, and banded together as the “Facutly, Students, Staff and Alumni Coalition (FSSA).”

Why did the selection of Dr. Fernandes spur such a strong reaction from many diverse segments of the Gallaudet community? According to Dr. Fernandes and Dr. Jordan, the protestors are upset because Dr. Fernandes was not raised in a culturally Deaf environment with deaf parents. Some people are angry because they don’t believe Dr. Fernandes is “deaf enough,” they explained. The national media quickly accepted that explanation, and the sound bite became that the protest was a culture war about what it means to be deaf in the 21st century.

After going to the campus and spending several hours meeting with the protestors and the Board of Trustees to try to facilitate a resolution to the conflict, I am convinced that the reasons for the ongoing protest are much more complicated than the mainstream media explanation would have us believe.

The protestors have demanded that the Board of Trustees reopen the search process because they believe the process that produced Dr. Fernandes was fundamentally unfair. The protestors note that one of the three white finalists presented to the Board of Trustees by the search committee did not have a Ph.D., whereas an African-American semi-finalist (Dr. Glenn Anderson) did have a Ph.D. and had served successfully as Chair of the Board of Trustees up until 2005.

Perhaps more significantly, the protestors note that the overwhelming majority of students and faculty have indicated to the Board of Trustees that they do not favor Dr. Fernandes, and they do not have confidence in her ability to bring the diverse campus together, increase academic excellence at the university, and/or inspire the international deaf community in the way that Dr. Jordan has in his 18 years as the university’s eighth president. Having worked with her for six years as Provost and five years before that as the head of the pre-college program at Gallaudet, some of the protestors see Dr. Fernandes as divisive, autocratic, and lacking in leadership qualities. They are concerned that her demonstrated shortcomings, accompanied with the increase power that would accompany her new role, will result in serious harm to the campus climate and standing of the university among alumni and donors.

It is difficult to discern what path the Gallaudet Board of Trustees should take over the Summer and into the Fall to try to reassure thousands of angry alumni, faculty, staff and students. On May 12, the day of commencement, the Board announced that Dr. Fernandes would be stepping down from her current duties as Provost so that she can lead a search to find a replacement for that position, and so that she can have more time to address some of the diversity and justice issues that the protestors had been raising since May 1. The protestors, many of whom are risking their jobs and their careers, have issued statements since May 12 expressing their resolve to keep the protest going until the Board reopens the search process.

So why should all of this matter to AAPD members? First, the Deaf President Now (DPN) protest at Gallaudet in 1988 was a critical victory for the concept that disabled people are able to lead large institutions that were created for our benefit. Inspired by the national consciousness-raising that accompanied DPN, many disability advocates were able to leverage that success into broader support in Congress for the Americans with Disabilities Act (which passed two years later in 1990).

By portraying the protest as part of a larger culture war in the deaf community, the mainstream media have tainted the image of Gallaudet and the deaf community in the public consciousness. The largely-deaf protestors have been branded as militant, somewhat petty, and unwilling to accept 21st century realities that more and more deaf and hard of hearing people are getting cochlear implants. Having spent several hours with the protestors and the Board of Trustees, I believe that everyone involved loves the university, appreciates and values the diverse constituencies that work and study there, and has a compelling vision for the future of the university. Although the protestors are resolute in their demands, I have not experienced them to be militant, petty, or out of touch. If anything, I have found them to be magnanimous, loving, and remarkably unified in their message and strategy. Their slogan, “Unity for Gallaudet,” certainly communicates their core desire and belief.

I encourage AAPD members to visit the protestors’ website at www.gallyfssa.org and visit the official university website at www.gallaudet.edu to see both sides of this issue. I stand ready to work with the Board of Trustees and the broader campus community to seek an equitable resolution of this ongoing leadership crisis, and I ask for the support of AAPD members around the country for Dr. Jordan, Dr. Fernandes, the FSSA, and the broader Gallaudet community as they struggle to resolve a difficult situation.