BoT Should Not Surrender Their Principles : Wash Post Editoral

Backbone for the Board
Gallaudet’s trustees should not surrender their
principles.

Friday, October 20, 2006; A20
Backbone for the Board – washingtonpost.com
TRUSTEES AT Gallaudet University knew they weren’t
making the most popular decision when they selected
Jane K. Fernandes to be the school’s next president.
But they believed she was the best choice to lead the
renowned school for the deaf. If the trustees are to
take seriously their obligation to the university,
they must not surrender their principles to mob rule.

Weeks of unruly protests that have disrupted the
university, a faculty vote of no confidence and
unrelenting bad publicity appear to be weakening the
resolve of some members of the board of trustees. As
reported by The Post’s Susan Kinzie, as many as seven
of the 20 trustees (cloaked, of course, by anonymity)
are having second thoughts about Ms. Fernandes and
think she should step aside. This is the board that
just six months ago unanimously appointed her and
that, as recently as five days ago, called her “the
most qualified candidate to run the institution.”

Contrary to the false claims of protesters, Ms.
Fernandes was picked after a careful six-month search
by a 17-member committee that included people of color
as well as deaf and hard-of-hearing representatives.
The majority of the committee was made up of faculty,
students, staff and alumni — all appointed because of
their good standing on campus. Ms. Fernandes emerged
as a finalist after she and five other candidates were
interviewed. Such facts don’t appear to matter to
those students and faculty members who have just one
goal in mind: to get their own way. It is instructive
that even now they have offered no cogent explanation
of what they see as so wrong with Ms. Fernandes.
Indeed, even her harshest critics concede that “on
paper” she is qualified.

It is clear, however, that one factor that went into
the faculty’s vote of no confidence and that is now
affecting the board is a belief that it would just be
easier for Ms. Fernandes to leave so the university
can move on. How, though, will the university ever
function if the people who are charged with its
interests go against their best judgment and give up
their legal authority to individuals who behave so
badly?

Ms. Fernandes knows the answer, and that’s why she, at
least, is standing by her principles. She should not
be left standing alone.