Debate over new president divides District’s deaf campus
In response to continued protests over the selection of Jane K. Fernandes as the next president of Gallaudet University, current President I. King Jordan announced on Tuesday that homecoming has been postponed this year.
The news only intensified the rift between the administration and members of the Gallaudet community, who plan to celebrate homecoming notwithstanding, according to the Gallaudet University Faculty, Staff, Students & Alumni web site. GUFSSA is a coalition created to oppose Fernandes’ appointment.
Protesters made up primarily of students and alumni of Gallaudet, a nationally renowned deaf university located in Northeast D.C., have been demonstrating against Fernandes’ appointment for over two weeks, including a three-day shutdown of campus which ended on Friday with the arrest of roughly 135 students.
Gallaudet’s administration has stood strongly behind Fernandes.
“Jane Fernandes deserves to be the next President of Gallaudet University, faculty resolutions not withstanding,” Jordan wrote Tuesday in a statement for the Gallaudet community. “I continue to support her right to be Gallaudet University’s 9th President.”
The student protesters claim that Fernandes, Gallaudet’s current provost, was selected through a flawed process and lacks the leadership ability to be Gallaudet’s next president.
“She doesn’t listen to students when they have problems,” protester Tim Monigan (Gallaudet ‘94), who is deaf, wrote. “They have appealed to her, she put it under the rug … it’s been going on for six years.”
Monigan wrote his responses on a notepad during an interview last Tuesday outside the university entrance. He was temporarily sheltered from the rain by one of the many awnings in “Tent City,” the colorful encampment of over three dozen tents the protesters have set up to blockade Gallaudet’s 8th Street entrance.
The student and alumni protesters aren’t alone.
In a meeting held on Monday, Gallaudet’s faculty supported Fernandes’ removal by a vote of 138 to 24, with six abstentions, according to the GUFSSA website. The resolution was the fifth passed by the faculty opposing Fernandes’ appointment.
Jordan reiterated that he had no intention of agreeing to either of the protesters’ demands: that Fernandes be removed and that there be no reprisals against the protesters.
“In a civil society do we permit some members of the campus to hold the University hostage to their demands? I think not,” he wrote.
In addition to camping out, several of the protesters, including David Simmons (Gallaudet ‘07), two-time former student body government president, are fasting.
“We, 10 hunger strikers, are combining forces to send [a] clear message to the president and board of trustees,” Simmons wrote.
The “first day [of fasting] was tough.” Simmons experienced “headaches due [to] withdrawal” and dreamt about food.
“Afterwards it is pretty manageable,” Simmons wrote. He had fasted for four days as of Tuesday.
With both sides refusing to budge, the question of how the impasse will be resolved is a mystery to all involved.
“Recently, a faculty member confronted me, informing me that rumors are circulating that the school may be shut down within weeks due to a lot of people withdrawing,” wrote Valerie MacDonald (Gallaudet ‘07) in an e-mail.
“I have no idea what is in store for us around the corner.”
