Trustees Weighing Moves, Sources Say
By Susan Kinzie
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 20, 2006
Jane K. Fernandes said yesterday that she is determined to be the next president of Gallaudet University, even as some board members continued to urge her to resign and more alumni arrived to join protests at the school for the deaf.
The Board of Trustees has split, with one group backing Fernandes, a slightly larger faction believing she must step down rather than take office in January, and several undecided or whose position is unknown. Sources close to the board, who asked not to be named because its discussions are private, said members were trying to decide their next move, with some pushing for a meeting this week and others determined to stand by the original decision to pick Fernandes.
Board Chairman Brenda Jo Brueggemann said again yesterday that Fernandes, who had been provost at the university in Northeast Washington, was the most qualified candidate and that she deserves a chance to prove herself.
Protests began in the spring when Fernandes was named incoming president and broke out again this month after students returned to campus. Students pitched tents, took over a building and then shut down the campus for three days, a standoff that ended when more than 130 protesters were arrested last week.
A coalition of students, faculty and staff members and alumni has opposed the choice, saying Fernandes is not a strong leader for a school that is a cultural center for the deaf community. Many are angry because the board and administration seemed to ignore their concerns, which included Fernandes's appointment as provost without a full search, worries about her management skills, and a presidential selection process that seemed too short and biased toward her.
Fernandes said she believes she has become a lightning rod as deaf culture changes. As increasing numbers of children get cochlear implants, learn to speak rather than sign, and go to mainstream schools, she said, Gallaudet must adapt to the evolution in the deaf community.
Some see those changes as a kind of "genocide," she said yesterday, with the potential to lose the close-knit core of deaf people whose culture is tied to American Sign Language.
She went home Wednesday night for the first time in 10 days, she said. "That's partly why I have this resolve," she said. "I talked to my parents, husband, family, and they are outraged at what's been done to me, and they will not let me take that."
Meanwhile, sources described a board with a sense of urgency but without a clear path. Some trustees have threatened to resign, and some have been trying to arrange a time to meet with a quorum of members, perhaps in the coming days.
In an e-mail sent to trustees this week and shared with The Washington Post by someone other than Fernandes, she urged the board to stand strong. "If you are looking to me for a comment on the faculty vote, I believe it is long past the time for the Board to make it clear that the Board, not the faculty, runs the university," she wrote. "The Board needs to make it clear to the faculty, students, staff and alumni that they don't run the University, the Board does. I am truly at a loss for why this has not been made clear before."
On Monday, faculty members voted overwhelmingly that Fernandes should resign or be removed. They signaled a loss of confidence in the board and in longtime president I. King Jordan. Faculty leaders, the alumni association and the National Association of the Deaf have asked the trustees to come to campus to resolve the crisis.
The trustees face a tough decision on whether to come to campus to resolve the crisis, as many protesters have demanded, said Sheldon Steinbach, a lawyer whose expertise is in higher education. "It's very hard to have an orderly dialogue with a mob," he said.
Ray Cotton, a lawyer who specializes in presidential contracts, said that under normal circumstances, the board shouldn't be diving into the daily affairs at the school. "But this is a crisis, a legitimate crisis," he said. "I realize they're volunteers, but there is a set of responsibilities that comes with being a trustee. You can't walk away from that."
Trustee Frank Wu wrote in an e-mail that he could not talk about board decisions but added, "Part of the issue here is that many people have developed expectations about the role of a university governing board and of individual Trustees that isn't appropriate for any school. . . . It is difficult to explain to the public, especially the protesters, that the Board of Trustees owes its fiduciary duties to the university itself, not to the various different parts of a diverse deaf world."
Some students say the administration allows discrimination against deaf people, such as having security officers who are unable to sign well enough to make themselves understood in emergencies. Zibby Bayarsky of Riverside, Calif., whose son is a Gallaudet senior, said some of his professors can't sign well enough to lead a coherent class discussion.
Fernandes has said she is devising a plan that, if approved by the board, will create minimum American Sign Language competency levels for faculty members. ASL and visual learning will always be essential at Gallaudet, she said.
The conflict is complicated by all the interconnections in the deaf community. Some of those who are opposed to Fernandes were candidates or have business or family ties to other candidates.
Yesterday, protesters went to Capitol Hill to lobby for support. Alumni kept arriving even though the administration postponed homecoming this weekend.
A group of students and faculty and staff members announced yesterday that it had collected 300 signatures on a petition calling for a return to education at Gallaudet. One student, David King, said one of his professors had missed seven consecutive class sessions.
Fernandes said yesterday, "I would really like to see this come to an end, for the good of Gallaudet. I'd do anything to make that happen."
Staff writer Daniel de Vise contributed to this report.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.