Can We End The Hostile Environment?
Dear GallyNetters,
What sense I had when I entered the auditorium to attend Fernandes’s Open Forum presentation on the 21st of April was the hostile environment. (!) There were were DPS
police there and Fernandes supporters with paranoid and hostile expressions on their faces.
That was something that I had never experienced in my whole life. Not even during the 1988 DPN movement even though students locked the EMG, blocking Provost Catherine Ingold
from entering. The MPD officers were very friendly towards the protesters. They rejoiced learning ASL at the 8th Street gate. Beautiful in 1988. Ugly in 2006. (See Gannon’s book with photos, “The Week the World Hears Gallaudet University.”
Whether Fernandes understands the concept of anarchy or not, she has falsely accused protesters of being anarchists and terrorists, it goes to show that she has become so increasingly paranoid. Does it mean that she will have Big Brothers (DPS officers) surround
the Gallaudet community day in and day out when she is inaugurated as president on the 1st of January?
We, friends, parents, faculty, staff, alumni, would experience the hostile environment. FSSA has had it from Fernandes’s management by intimidation for 12 years.
Can we end the hostile environment?
Yes!
Instead of withdrawing from, fleeing, or deserting Gallaudet, it is our duty to protect Gallaudet by telling the BoT to call for Fernandes’s resignation. http://www.GuFssa.com
provides the instructions as to how to send a letter to the Bot as follows:
Yours in Unity for Gallaudet,
Jean
Send a Letter to the Board of Trustees!
Please let the Gallaudet University Board of Trustees know your deep wish that they end the crisis at Gallaudet University.
Please send a letter via email to Board Liaison Patti Kunkle at patricia.kunkle@gallaudet.edu and to Brenda Jo Brueggemann,
Acting Chair of the BoT, at brueggemann.1@osu.edu.
Please send your letter today!
Please send a copy to FSSA at supportusgally@gmail.com.
We will make sure all Board Members receive these letters.
You may compose your own letter or use the following form letter:
October 27, 2006
Dear Board of Trustees Members:
It should be clear to you by now that Gallaudet University is in crisis and fighting for its life. It should also be clear to you that Dr. Jane Fernandes is unable to build bridges and bring us to resolution.
I am a (student, staff member, faculty member, alumnus, family member, friend of Gallaudet). I support the demands of the Faculty Student Staff and Alumni Coalition (FSSA) that Jane K. Fernandes resign or be removed from office and the search process be reopened, and that there be no reprisals for protestors.
Yours for a united Gallaudet,
Your name
Jean Boutcher
GALLYNET-L@gallynet.org
reprinted with permission by the listserv. moderator
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Sad News Check at http://news.gallaudet.edu/?id=9629
American Council of Trustees and Alumni urged the trustees to stand firmly behind their selection of Jane K. Fernandes as the next president. We need attack ACTA BY CALL Anne D. Neal, 202-467-6787 Tell her the truth!
Drew, are they the ones who give the final answers?
I don’t think so… so that still gives us hope that BoT will realize for the best interest of Gallaudet for Jane to resign.
I mean, who are they going to listen to – ACTA or thousands of letters from all over the world?
They have cleverly buried this seed so deep! It is going take all of us to get her out. I will be making a phone call!
Hostility from her? Tell me, what the environment was like at the Red Room in the Upper Cafeteria when Jane presented to students? What the environment was like when she presented to the campus community? Why were students so incredibly hostile and venomous when she hadn’t even been selected? Why the environment was so different for Steve Weiner and Ron Stern? Just how would Ron Stern and Steve Weiner had felt had they presented under the same conditions as Jane?
And about her not hanging out with students at Tent City etc- does it made sense to do that when she already had death threats, her house being stalked, her car being photographed, videotaped, and banged on when she drove onto campus? Was there even any remotest chance she would have been treated civily and with even a fraction of respect we would accord our fellow human beings? I think folks are being unreasonable and suggesting she go out there and be this warm friendly open person everybody wants when WE are doing our best to only get the worst out of her so we can post on blogs as further evidence that she is unworthy.
Anon, I personally have received many death threats as well as physical threats, including some directed at the protesters. I couldn’t believe the extent of cruelty by Pro Fernandes fans. It left me very stunned. The comments from the pro unity for gallaudet are pretty tame compared to the vile ones by pro fernandes fans. It is due to the constant bashing without a break and threats by fernandes supporters the reason why I had to go to moderation.
Many students are very frustrated because for years up to this day, Fernandes has refused to offer constructive dialogues. She listens, but continues on her way, like the coxswain of the rowing crew. If you don’t do it her way, out you go. This is dictatorship, not a democratic leader.
Her keeping her distance and not being available to discuss the issues actually made things much worse. Had she made herself available a long time ago, this protest wouldn’t have occurred.