Pondering The Postponement
The last time I heard, there is no riot, no mayhem, no vandalism (ok there was a small thing: the damage of SAC’s new name, but that can be seen as a protest against the symbol of that sign). The PR office stated that there were damage in HMB, but when I was there, everything looked just fine… with the exception of the damage created by the DPS when they stormed in. Everything else on the campus was intact. The Gallaudet Community remains peaceful and civil. The people in the human tunnel cheered when vehicles entered yesterday am, with the exception of two people (guess who?) who have inflicted so much damage on this treasured community.
A punitive action? To punish students for daring to protest? As if they were still in High School? To imply that all who are coming to celebrate Homecoming also support the protest? Many people made plans to come long before the protest was resumed.
A gesture to try to silence us? Knowing that the alumni are coming in force, especially in light of the nonsensical arrest of 135 students last Friday?
Does this mean that the reservations at GUKCC are canceled? Can Gallaudet afford to return the money? What about the nonrefundable plane and train tickets? Who would be responsible for the monies lost?
What is Jordan thinking? Does anyone understand what motivates him? Is this the ultimate act of paternalism?
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Wow – great analogy!!!! it should be spread all over!!!
What is Jordan THINKING?????
Joey
Feel free to share this with others. I really don’t understand Jordan’s actions, to be honest.
All of us (who are planning) are coming to Homecoming at Gally except Jordan who will be Homestaying by himself. He is being cornered thus resulted in his monkey decision. We are coming to Gally en masse to show what unity is all about!
I guess Jordan is under lot of pressure resulted in many of oddball decisions/actions he made recently which adds more fuel to the fire. Humans do darnest things under pressure. I guess that is our advantage.
It is very difficult to deal with people who have clearly lost their minds. It seems as if IKJ and JKF need to be fitted with matching straightjackets!
Agreed completely. What is Jordan thinking? It makes no sense to me how he decides to postpone homecoming; furthermore, LAST MINUTE NOTICE anybody? he tells us at the beginning of homecoming week!
Paternalism is going to die hard at Gallaudet, but it definitely will die. People are not going to accept being treated like naughty children.
IKJ said in his email this morning and he specifically defined what reprisal meant and it is an act of retalitaton or revenge. He promised that the administration does not condone this action. BUT reprisal was made when homecoming was postponed. What is going on!?
Peaceful does not equal lawful. Were the protesters simply at the gates, without obstructing the normal daily business, then that would have been peaceful and lawful. Under other similar protests, arrests have been made much swifter. The arrested students knew this, and took their stand (and arrest) for their cause. These arrests could have taken place one week earlier during the occupation and blockading of HMB.
The moves here are almost predictable. Board approves unpopular candidate. The students protest adamantly against the selection. The administration does not agree to the protests. Students hold one building hostage with their demands. The administration again stated their commitment to the BOT decision, and reschedule classes. The situation escalates as students block access to the campus. Situation brews as neither side wants to budge. Ultimately, admin moves to arrest protesters who block access to the campus, preventing the normal flow of business. Students have called on alumni, friends, and other supporters to come, and assist in the protest. Postponing/cancelling the homecoming events should have been as visible as a giant flashing neon sign. With feelings as they are, there’s probably a fear from administration that the situation from last week may be repeated, with greater numbers, or worse that the situation could escalate from peaceful to otherwise. I am NOT saying that this would happen, however under the tense situations of the last two weeks, it is not far-fetched, but it’s against the claims of several protest leaders. All it may take is one either well-intentioned but foolish, or one seriously lacking moral character, to throw things int chaos. So far, there have been a few allegations against DPS. Imagine how it would hit the fan if one bonehead (yes, anyone who would do this is one) sparked something ugly and things got out of control.
I could see this writing on the wall when I started reading of the alumni support, and the calls for alumni to come to the campus. On one hand, it’s like giving the finger to the students & alumni, but I can also see how it could be viewed as a “damage prevention” method. It seems alumni are still coming, though. It’s great, the feeling for their alma mater, that the alumni have. While I’m against the tactics of holding a building or campus “hostage”, it’s great to see the drawing together of the community, even if some factions have different agendas, the common goal is the same – to make Gallaudet University a better place.
Funny when the students closed the university during DPN, they were lauded as heroes, but when the students closed the university during Unity for Gallaudet, they were treated like criminals. How ironic that one leader of DPN ended up arrested.
The students behaved appropriately. The DPS didn’t. Don’t blame it on students. I spoke with them few minutes after the DPS incident that morning. I believed them. I felt their terror. The pictures proved it. How terrible is it that the university doesn’t believe the students and didn’t even offer assistance?
Many alumni had plans to come to the HC long before the protest resumed. Please don’t assume they all are coming to support the protest. Many want to see old friends, just like they did every year.
If the administrators were trying to do damage control, they did a very poor job. They only alienated everybody with this decision.
I was surprised at the announcement but at same time… wait.. did you feel that? That’s bullets hitting the floor coming thru IKJ’s foot. That’s right, he shot himself in the foot twice. First was when he had protesters arrested resulting in a surge in support beyond Gallaudet’s fences. Now this. Man, what a move he made.
I know that almuni will come anyway so all he did was to make himself look bad. I told a friend earlier today before I heard about Andy Lange’s declaration that I predict that alumni will come anyway so there will be a huge crowd over the weekend protesting then when HC actually happens, there will be one other big crowd of supporters coming if the situation has not been resolved by then.
But Lange’s declaration is terrific act of defiance.
IKJ’s decisions only serve to solidify the already strong unity among pro-Gallaudet protesters (sorry, JKF and IKJ no longer represent Gallaudet to me now).
“The students behaved appropriately. The DPS didn’t. ”
This is only a partial truth. I’ll say for most of the time, this is true. It became inappropriate at the point where it interfered with other students rights to an education. Two instances – HMB and the gates – were what I spoke of. In most other circumstances, protesters would have been removed or arrested much faster.
I do hope that you didn’t assume that I meant alumni intended to stir up trouble on campus. Far from it, in fact. As some have noted in letters, many have flagged this date in their calendars for a long time. Likewise, despite the unlawful actions which led to the protester arrests, most things have been peaceful in nature. In fact the arrestees put up no struggle. It’s a big thing for the alumni and students alike. However, if you stepped in admin’s shoes for a minute, you could logically see the possibility – from their perspective. Considerall the calls for alumni to come, and help shore up the defense of the gates, and help in the protest. A claim for “the safety of the campus as a whole” or some odd line of the sort, and you have the current situation. Hopefully, everyone keeps it relatively “calm”… ie nothing that will either cause arrests, or give a black eye to the movement. The eyes of DC and the world are on Gallaudet. The media would chew up a story about a bad apple, and that one bad apple could put a black eye on the protesters which would hurt their external support.
Alumni will come anyway, and with activities cancelled, they will have nothing better to do than join the protest. Hey Irv, how does that solve anything? Oh I forgot, you are not a problem-solver, you are a problem-maker.
Hawk, I disagree. IKJ, JKF, and BoT give Gallaudet a black eye by refusing to do any dialogue with the students, their consumers. Their inaction and failure to address the persistent issues with the students drove the students into taking desperate actions that they feel may force the administration to listen and do something constructively. However the administration refused to do anything except to apply oppression through DPS, then again with Police. Is that all they are capable of… using force rather than sitting down with the students, setting up dialogues to followed by constructive actions? It sure sounds like that not only to me, but also to countless outsiders. Even a crisis management expert commented on this.
Unfortunately, due to the avoidance of the administrators and BoT in facing the issues with Gallaudet Community, this isn’t going away any time soon. The culprits are IKJ, JKF, and BoT, not the students, faculty nor the alumni.
Make no mistake, MZ, I am not saying anything against the cause. Were there acts of desperation? yes Were the actions correct? That’s hard to tell, because everything is still about the same, however both sides are highly polarized and dug in. Personally, I believe whole-heartedly in accountability for ones actions. This includes myself. When I foul up, there may be something that prompted it… maybe having misread directions, or making a bad guess, or working with incomplete information. End result, I accept the fact that I did it, and don’t try to pin it on someone else. I’ve had friends arrested for similar “peaceful protests” They obstructed access to various buildings because they believed in their cause. They were warned, they were arrested, they still believe and are active. The student movement likewise has stayed strong.
The black eye that I spoke of, would be if some fool, whether chemically impaired or otherwise, were to cause damage this weekend. It ne4ed only be one guy throwing a rock through a window, or a beer bottle at IKJ’s house, or such, and you can just see the headline for the article: “Deaf Protesters Vandalize Campus”. I sincerely wish nothing of that sort to happen. I’m sure that the alumni & students will be more mature than that
Keep up with the good work. I’m not sure what will prove ultimately successful. With the exception of two tactics used, I think this has been going pretty good… or at least as good as can be expected.