Gallaudet Regroups

Biology professor Adebowale Ogunjirin talks to one of his students. The college has instituted a new curriculum and worked to raise academic and admissions standards. (Ricky Carioti - The Washington Post)
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Accreditors said the school was out of compliance on eight of the 14 standards and asked it to overhaul enrollment, academic standards, campus culture and other areas by this November.

If the school lost its accreditation, it would effectively lose its credibility and have to fight harder to recruit students, who have more options than in the past.

"Twenty-five years ago, if you were deaf and smart, you went to Gallaudet," Wu said. But cochlear implants that help children hear and a disabilities law that requires all schools to accommodate deaf students enable youths to go wherever they want.

Gallaudet has added recruitment tactics and an emphasis on tracking and helping students as they adjust to college so they stay in school.

School officials and more than 100 faculty members worked through last summer on, among other things, a new curriculum for the freshman class designed to move students more quickly into specialized courses for their majors. That didn't go through without criticism. Some professors complained that the changes were railroaded over the summer and that students aren't getting enough traditional instruction in basics such as writing essays. One longtime faculty member, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she said dissent on campus is discouraged, said it felt like a truck hurtling toward a brick wall without brakes: There hadn't been enough time to redesign courses, let alone the entire curriculum .

The school raised admissions standards and worked to increase academic rigor, but not without losing students. It had 281 new undergraduates in 2006 and 226 last fall. Between semesters this school year, it lost a quarter of the entering class. Some professors blamed the new curriculum for the decrease. Davila said he thinks the delay in reaccreditation and the time on probation lost Gallaudet about 300 students. The decrease in students is a significant problem for a school whose enrollment has been shrinking for years.

The university created an office for institutional research. The new system for evaluating student learning is so effective that one member of the commission, Jonathan C. Gibralter, president of Frostburg State University, said it could be a model for other schools.

Gallaudet has a new mission, including the creation of a bilingual environment in which the school hopes to help everyone become fluent in English and American Sign Language and students with all types of deafness and ways of communicating are welcome, Davila said.

The commission made the "very strong observation -- condemnation is too strong a word -- but strong observation that there was a lack of climate of respect for the diversity of people and opinions on this campus and that is why we had the protest," Davila said. The school is working with consultants and taking other action to change that.

Faculty and students told accreditors that they have a greater voice on campus now but that there are tensions. Some professors said there is too much emphasis on sign language.

Commission officials said the campus climate remains a concern and will be the biggest challenge.

"Now the challenge is: Now that the crisis is over, what are we going to do now?" Wu said. "What is this university going to look like over the next generation?"