Two years after Gallaudet University’s administration faced overwhelming protests over its presidential appointment, the Board of Trustees is beginning a new presidential search. This time they are seeking to increase engagement with the University community and avoid the controversy that marked the University’s last attempt to fill the vacancy.
Last Thursday, the Board announced the formation of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee, which will advise the Board throughout the selection process. A tentative timeline is in place, and according to the projected goals, the Board hopes to appoint a new president in January 2010.
“It is our intention to take full advantage of lessons learned from the last search process,” Jim Macfadden, chair of the PSAC, wrote in the announcement.
Macfadden said several things would make the selection process inclusive this time. The PSAC will set up an email account dedicated to receiving questions and comments from the University community, which will be published on the PSAC website. In addition, the PSAC expects to host town hall meetings to explain the search process and keep the community updated on the progress being made.
In the fall of 2006, the Board of Trustees picked provost Jane Fernandes to replace outgoing President I. King Jordan in a process that students, faculty, and alumni criticized as rushed. Students objected to being unable to voice their concerns during the selection.
Students also sometimes perceived Fernandes, who is deaf, as too distant from the deaf community or “not deaf enough,” though protesters denied that this was their chief concern. In a video plea that became central to the protests, then-graduate student Ryan Commerson objected that Fernandes did not sufficiently respect American Sign Language and represented a culture of audism-discrimination against the hard of hearing-within the university’s administration.
Protests against Fernandes ultimately forced the Board to terminate her appointment.
In the absence of a president designate, Robert Davila, who was the CEO of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf from 1999-2006, has served as interim president since Jordan’s resignation. The University has also faced an accreditation crisis. In June, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, responsible for accrediting universities in the District of Columbia, reaffirmed Gallaudet’s accreditation, according to Rosalyn Prickett in Gallaudet University’s Office of Public Relations.
