Fight Against Not Deaf Enough
Last night I was asked to update the factual sheet to fight against this ever constant and misleading “Not Deaf Enough”. Feel free to use this factual sheet to educate the media and the public. I was also asked to recruit volunteers who can help educate the media. Anyone who wants to join, please contact me at mishkazena@aol.com. Eventually the world will hear the full truth.
Here is the factual sheet. I’ve deleted some since I felt they were no longer relevant. I’ve added my post as a former oral person participating in the protest. Any feedback how to improve the sheet would be deeply appreciated. Thanks. elizabeth
____________________________________________________________________________
MYTHS:
Culture and deaf identity issues are red herrings to distract the media and the public away from the real issues.
-Gallaudet always had students with diverse communication modes from the first year of its establishment. As always, many oral students are enrolled and accepted as a part of Gallaudet Community. Many wear hearing aids, some are hard of hearing, many from mainstreamed programs, some wearing cochlear implants. From one post of a protester with an oral background with many responses from fellow protesters sharing the same oral backgrounds: (http://mishkazena.wordpress.com/2006/10/28/mishkazena-an-ex-oralist/
____________________________________________________________________________
REAL ISSUES:
A flawed presidential candidate search and ineffectual leadership of Dr Fernandes the last eleven years.
-88% of faculty members, Clerc Center, Student Congress, Student Body Government, Graduate Student Association, Gallaudet Alumni Association, National Association of the Deaf and parents and relatives of the students calling for resignation of Dr Fernandes.
-Three no-confidence votes given to Fernandes as provost the last six years by the faculty senate.
-Provost given to Fernandes without the shared governance of Faculty Senate, in violation of the national universities procedures
-Tenure of Fernandes illegally granted without the permission of the faculty senate.
-Letter from Clerc Center explaining the damages Fernandes have created during her years as Vice President prior to her appointment as a Provost. http://news.gufssa.com/category/fssa/staff/clerc-center/
-Poor reviews of the academic programs by Dept of Education the last five years, accumulating with a failing grade last year. PART: (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/summary.10003306.2005.html )
-Controversial policy restricting the students’ expressions last June http://www.xanga.com/MishkaZena/527466427/controversy-over-gallaudets-new-policy.html
-Over many years, Fernandes didn’t have constructive dialogues with the faculty, staff, and students and to this day, she still refuses to have any effective dialogue.
-Fernandes claims of being only one to lead the university is false. Many very qualified people are available to lead the university
-Public relations department issuing erroneous statements to the media: DPS brutality did happen. Students did get injured. Protesters didn’t close MSSD and Kendall School. -
-the protesters were terrorists and anarchists. On the contrary, this is a peaceful and civil protest carried not just by the students, but also the faculty, staff, alumni, and families. ____________________________________________________________________________
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Well said and i surely hope McConnell reads this, he seems to be the only one feeding this frenzy of an idea!
Jane Kelleher Fernandes said to the media in May 2006 that “not Deaf enough” was the reason for the Gallaudet protest. My question is: Can Fernandes point her finger at a person who said “not Deaf enough”. Actually, no one had
said that. It was she herself who said that. There is a wonderful Greek saying: “Ipse dixit” (translation: “You said it yourself.”). Jean Boutcher
That a president-designate of a university used a term,
anarchy, to describe the protest of students was sorely embarrassing! The term that she employed shows that she had no concept of what anarchy means. Again, the same president-designate’s using another term, “terrorist,” to describe protesters is further embarrassing! Jean Boutcher
It appears that several oralist or mainstreamed students in the 80’s are still affected deeply by the “rejection” and “oppression” of Deaf Gallaudet students of those days. Reality is – There are, if not small, groups of students harrassing those who have CI, Not fluent in ASL, are oral, or mainstreamed. It is time, after two protests, for all students to ensure that other students respect all who enroll at Gallaudet. I find it very interesting that those who harrass these students do not harrass other HOH or mainstreamed children of DEAF parents. Why? because their parents are DEAF. IF their parents were hearing, they would have endured the same harrassment. There is a great number of these former students that are upset with Bots decision because of the experiences they have endured at Gallaudet. They followed the limited media resources and were not aware of the blogs, until I brought it to their attention.
We as a deaf community need to educate all students and see that these types of activities are not tolerated. I am a HOH/mainstreamed former student who uses telephone fluently and because my parents and siblings are DEAF (culturally Deaf with a big D)…no one dared to harrass me. But I’ve seen and heard of it happening time and time again. This is one area where this cycle has to END.
reality, interesting because I was enrolled at gally in mid 70’s then again in mid 80’s for second degree. I didn’t experience the systematic rejections, neither did my oral friends, though there were some students with attitudes. We all had hearing parents. I wonder why these oral/mainstreamed students you knew had different experiences. There were many cliches at gally back then and probably still nowadays.
When I taught in 90’s the majority of the students, approximately 75 or 80% were mainstreamed. That was a big difference from 80’s and even more from 70’s.
I totally agree with you that students must respect each other, regardless of their communicaiton backgrounds
Jean, I couldn’t understand why Fernandes as a presidential appointment thought she could get away slandering the protesters (not just the students, but also the majority of Gallaudet community and alumni) using these negative terms. It backfired completely on her.
Yes, it appears the first official remark about ‘Not Deaf Enough’ to the reporters was made by Fernandes.
“Not Deaf Enough” was never an ARGUMENT, only a TALKING POINT.
Fernandes could have defended her resume, her record at Gallaudet and didn’t. Instead, she chose to attack her opponents. Bringing up a complicated issue that Hearies couldn’t possibly understand, so that Hearies could rally for her and MOCK the Gallaudet and general Deaf community.
She, supposedly had a “New vision for Gallaudet,” but she never shared that with the Gallaudet community, never presented it so it could be debated, only flaunted it as yet another reason why she and ONLY SHE could be possibly capable of leading Gallaudet.
Instead of representing the Deaf Community to the general world, she, over and over, chose to MISREPRESENT the Gallaudet community, and in turn, the Deaf Community, to the public, to OVERRULE the Gallaudet Community.
And THAT, more than anyting else, is what the Gallaudet Community rejected. “Only I can rule Gallaudet” was a fundemental rejection that the Gallaudet community be able to rule Gallaudet. That its voice must be rejected for the good of the school.
>> a complicated issue that Hearies couldn’t possibly understand
Rather offended here…. And though I’ve seen the attitude a lot, it doesn’t much help to change the situation everyone’s decrying.
But, “Protesters didn’t close MSSD and Kendall School” — I somehow missed the newsflash on this one. Someone care to explain/point me in the right direction?
The protesters were going to let the MSSD and KDES people through the gates. But the university administrators decided to close KDES and MSSD and blamed the students for that.
Ela, many hearing people don’t understand the compication of different deaf groups, so “Not Deaf Enough” caught their attention promptly. Ken is correct. Fernandes did extensive damage to Gallaudet University with these misrepresenations when it was her job to represent the truth.