From James Fernandes

Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 12:38:39 -0500
From: James Fernandes
Subject: Gallaudet’s Loss
To: Jim Verizon Fernandes

Dear All,

Sincere and deep thanks from all our family for the diverse ways you 
have expressed your love, support and shared greiving for the loss we
and Gallaudet have experienced.  Many–particularly those at
Gallaudet–are not on this group email  list, so please forward our
thanks and my verizon email address to others you know who have fought
the good fight.  (I will set up a verizon email account for Jane soon,
but she should remain emailable at jane.fernandes@gallaudet.edu for the
rest of this year.)

One card Jane got today from four lovely people said this: “‘There is no
pillow so soft as a clear conscience.’  You are a model of decency,
integrity, and forward thinking.”  She is indeed sleeping well.  One
blessing for all the mammals in our household is to have her back with
us.  The stress of the past months and weeks has been replaced with
grief for what Gallaudet and Jane have lost.  But Jane is just too great
a person in so many ways not to have in her future another, perhaps even
better, way of serving the cause of inclusive and effective education.

Not too long ago very dear friends of ours gave Jane a small medallion
of Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc in French, and I think Jeanne can be
translated as Jane too) that she’s been wearing around her neck.  So it
was no small coincidence to see on the news triumphant detesters burning
JK’s effigy on a stake.   The fears, fury and hatred that drive a mob to
turn on a heroic leader are clearly still with us so many centuries
after Jeanne d’Arc was toppled from her horse and put to death after a
sham of a trial.

Many of you have already seen today’s Washington Post lead editorial,
but for those of you who haven’t I’ll paste it below.  Once again, the
Post’s editorial board gets it right.

Aloha,
Jim
—————————–

Gallaudet’s Loss
The ouster of the university’s incoming president defeats her vision of
a more diverse institution.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006; A20 (Lead Editorial)

THE BOARD OF trustees at <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
“urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Gallaudet University
certainly showed who was in charge when it voted to terminate Jane K.
Fernandes’s contract as president. Sadly, it wasn’t the members of the
board, who are supposed to serve the interests of the university. Nor,
for that matter, were reason or right in evidence Sunday as the trustees
ousted a woman they had recently judged to be the best person to lead
the renowned school for the deaf. Instead, what triumphed was
lawlessness and the principle that a university president should be
chosen on the basis of popularity.

If this were just the story of another university administration
crumbling under pressure, it might be of interest to the larger public
only to the extent that Congress is Gallaudet’s chief funder. But more
was at stake: Alternative visions of Gallaudet were at war during the
past months. Ms. Fernandes promoted a school that would welcome all
sorts of deaf and hard-of-hearing people; that would accommodate itself
to improving technologies, which in coming years will allow more and
more deaf people to function in the hearing world; and that would
emphasize tolerance of diversity. The protesters were promoting a
university that celebrates what they call Deaf (with a capital D)
culture, prescribes American Sign Language as the only acceptable medium
of communication and relates with suspicion to deaf people who choose to
function in the hearing world. To the extent the latter vision won out,
it does not bode well for Gallaudet’s future.

When students launched their protest against president-designate
Fernandes in the spring, many of them stated the objection that she was
“not deaf enough.” Though deaf, she grew up speaking and lip-reading;
she did not learn sign language until she was a young adult. That
protest theme didn’t play well beyond Gallaudet, and it was dropped from
public discourse; students and faculty soon were reacting angrily if it
was ascribed to them. But the protest movement never came up with a
convincing alternative explanation for their anti-Fernandes passion. All
that was left was a series of relatively petty complaints about her
executive style as provost.

In a way it’s too bad that the underlying debate couldn’t have been
played out more openly. The protesters’ fealty to and pride in their
language and culture are admirable and understandable. Not very long
ago, deaf people were often regarded as substandard and were treated
accordingly. Amazingly, Gallaudet’s current president, I. King Jordan,
is the school’s first deaf leader, and it took a round of protests to
persuade the board to name him in 1988. That technology and genetic
science might provide more alternatives to deafness just as deaf pride
has achieved a breakthrough is an understandable source of anxiety.

Neither nostalgia nor pride, however, are sufficient bases for
educational policy. We have no doubt that Ms. Fernandes, a tough and
qualified educator, will find other ways to contribute; her behavior
throughout this painful time was exemplary. More consequential to the
university is how long it takes for her inclusive and progressive vision
to be accepted.

C 2006 The Washington Post Company
GALLYNET-L@gallynet.org

Reprinted with permission by the listserv moderator

email contact: mishkazena@aol.com