Gallaudet Trustees Split on Fernandes
Ex-Provost Seeks To Retain Support In Face of Protest

By Susan Kinzie
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 19, 2006

Gallaudet University trustees have split in their support for incoming president Jane K. Fernandes, a shift from their united front endorsing her as the best person to lead the school for the deaf.

Last night, Fernandes said some members of the board of trustees have asked her to resign amid growing pressure from a coalition of students, faculty, alumni and staff who oppose her.

Of the 20 trustees, three of whom are members of Congress, perhaps as many as seven do not support Fernandes becoming president, according to three sources close to the board who spoke on condition of anonymity because board consultations are private. Fernandes, who had been provost, is to take office in January.

Fernandes said she has begun contacting trustees individually to shore up, and gauge, support.

"I honestly don't see how this is going to be resolved," she said last night. "I don't see a clear way for this to be resolved. I'm going to go home and think hard about that, talk with my husband and family. Almost any option I think of is not wholly a good one.

" . . . I'm not really thinking of resigning, no. But I'm trying to think of how . . . to work from now until January to be in a position to be where I can be effective."

Some trustees have called for an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis that has gripped the school in Northeast Washington, and some have threatened to resign.

Critics give varied reasons for opposing Fernandes, including long-simmering frustrations with the board's presidential search. To some, she is viewed as the wrong leader for Gallaudet, the academic and cultural heart of the world's deaf community, in part because she was born deaf but did not learn sign language until she was an adult.

In a frank e-mail to trustees, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post yesterday by someone other than Fernandes, the president-designate explained why she is determined to stay. She asked trustees not to resign or call for her to step aside.

"What we are dealing with on campus is anarchy and terrorism," she wrote.

If she were asked to leave or be fired, the e-mail also said, "the University and in particular the Board of Trustees will undergo intense scrutiny from Congress. I venture to guess Congress will ask why you did not perform your fiduciary duties to the University. And you will have to explain."

The majority of the private university's funding comes from the federal government.

Escalating protests on campus have essentially paralyzed the school in the middle of the fall semester and riveted attention in the deaf community nationally.

Last week, students shut down the school by blocking all entrances for three days, a standoff that ended with the arrest of more than 130 protesters. Earlier this week, faculty members voted resoundingly for Fernandes to resign or be removed. They expressed an overwhelming loss of confidence in the board and, by a much smaller margin, conveyed a loss of confidence in outgoing president I. King Jordan.

Jordan, a strong Fernandes supporter, became a hero for the deaf 18 years ago when student protests brought him into office.

In public, the trustees have strongly backed their choice of Fernandes, whose appointment in May set off the protests that heated up again earlier this month. Fernandes is to take office when Jordan steps down.

"I believe that Dr. Fernandes needs to be given a chance," board Chairman Brenda Jo Brueggemann said yesterday. "She was appointed to a position, and she was not even given a chance. She was our most qualified candidate for this position."

No board meeting had been scheduled as of yesterday afternoon, Brueggemann said. "As I keep repeating, the board's role is oversight, and not to run the daily business of the campus. That's what we appoint the president to do."

Yesterday, Fernandes was trying to contact individual trustees by e-mail, pager and videophone, and meeting them in person if possible, to save her promotion. Meanwhile, sources said, her opponents have lined up a candidate they say they hope will take her place.

Fernandes's e-mail to trustees was prompted in part by word that some board members might resign, she said. "It's important for the board to stay together. . . . We need all of them together now more than ever."

The three members of Congress on the board have a full vote: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) and Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey (D-Calif.). McCain has not spoken publicly on the issue. In a statement, Woolsey did not take a position on Fernandes, saying only that she hopes for a quick end to the turmoil. LaHood did not return calls.

Protesters say they plan to march to Capitol Hill this week, just as students did nearly two decades ago with "Deaf President Now" demonstrations that swept Jordan into office.

Opposition to Fernandes had been building for a long time. Early in her 11-year career at Gallaudet, she angered teachers in one program by eliminating tenure. When Jordan named her provost without a full search six years ago, faculty passed a resolution condemning it. This year, as the search for Jordan's successor unfolded, black students in particular questioned the selection process in part because a strong African American candidate did not make it to the final round.

Fernandes promotes inclusiveness and is working on a diversity initiative, but her critics point out that there are few black or Hispanic professors or administrators at Gallaudet.

Some critics have said that her actions since May have widened the divide at the school. For example, when Fernandes defined the controversy as a question of whether she was "deaf enough," the protesters -- who insisted that was not the reason for their opposition -- compared it to playing "the race card."

Technology, such as cochlear implants, has made it increasingly easy for deaf students to communicate with hearing people, rather than immersing themselves in the deaf community.

Fernandes has said that she has deep respect for sign language and wants to preserve it but that the school's future depends on welcoming students with all types of deafness and means of communicating.