Gallaudet Protest Continues (Day 6)

[struggle4progress]

Written By Phyllis Armstrong
9NEWS NOW
Created:10/10/2006 7:08:12 PM

The takeover of an academic building at Gallaudet University is about to enter its sixth day.

Students say they are waiting for the administration to respond to a list of almost two dozen demands ...

Topping the student list of demands is an call for incoming President Jane Fernandez to step down. But there is deep-seated discontent on the Northeast campus.

Many other demands are fueling the trouble, everything from asking university to do a better job dealing with racism, to the lack faculty diversity to a belief that American sign language should be the university's official form of communication.

http://wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=52689

[area51]

1. Gallaudet Protest Continues

Thanks; I hadn't heard anything about it.

[AnneD]

3. BWHAHAHAHAHAHA

:rofl:

On a serious note, I had some cousins that went to Gallaudet. They are a pretty radical group, but they always have some good arguments.

[JoFerret]

2. Lots of important issues

and the outgoing president is in agreement that they need attention.

Good to see that the concept of student protest is not an oxymoron.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. updates -- Examiner, NBC4, Washington Times

http://www.examiner.com/a-337382~Students_blockade_campus_as_protests_escalate.html

Oct 11, 2006 9:00 AM (4 hrs ago)
Current rank: # 84 of 3,844 articles

WASHINGTON - Student protesters at
Gallaudet University blocked entrances to the
gated campus early Wednesday, escalating
their protests against a president-elect they
say lacks the skills needed to lead the school.

"Our leadership is flawed," said Jesse Thomas,
a junior, who has been involved in protests
since then-Provost Jane K. Fernandes was
appointed in the spring by the school's board
of trustees.

Students and some faculty feel their input was
not considered in the selection process, which
resulted in a choice they believe was not the
best to lead the nation's only liberal arts
university for people who are deaf and hearing
impaired. Some also felt the field of candidates
was not ethnically diverse.

Fernandes has said some people do not
consider her "deaf enough" to be president.
She was born deaf but grew up speaking and
did not learn American Sign Language until
she was 23.



http://www.nbc4.com/news/10015573/detail.html

WASHINGTON -- Gallaudet University campus police worked to restore order after student
protesters barricaded themselves inside one of the main classroom buildings Friday, calling for a
review of the university's presidential selection process.

A statement released by the school in northeast Washington said the students illegally occupied
the Hall Memorial Building and refused to leave.

"She apparently isn't an effective leader. Students aren't accepting her. Faculty has voted twice a
vote of no confidence against them. I don't know how anyone can lead if nobody is supporting
that person," signed Andy Land, the school's Alumni Association president.


http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20061011-123856-2324r.htm

By Lubna Takruri
ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 11, 2006


12:41 p.m.

Students began intensifying their protests Thursday by taking over Gallaudet's main classroom
building.
Since then, hundreds of students have camped out inside and around Hall Memorial Building,
forcing school officials to move and cancel classes.
The school has about 1,800 undergraduate and graduate students.
Beginning at 4 a.m. today, the protesters blocked six entrances to the sprawling campus in
Northeast, sitting on the paved roads inside the school's gates.
Though students have been allowed to come and go, faculty and staff attempting to walk or
drive into the campus have not been allowed to enter.
The school has its own security force, and Metropolitan Police officers at the scene said that
they had not been asked to intervene.
Mrs. Fernandes is scheduled to replace outgoing President I. King Jordan in January.
Despite opposition to her appointment from some students and faculty, Mr. Jordan and the
trustees reaffirmed their support for the appointment Friday.

[happydreams]

5. Oughta sight man!

:bounce:

[LiberalFighter]

6. I was going to make comments somewhat detrimental to the protesters...

but I wanted to make sure about the facts and found this.

The Gallaudet Protest Continues (Whole story needs to be read)

Those protesting the recent selection of Jane K. Fernandes to be the next president of Gallaudet University say that current Gallaudet University President I. King Jordan exerted undue influence in maneuvering behind the scenes to have Fernandes selected by Gallaudet's Board of Trustees, possibly in an effort to cover up a long-term pattern of mismanagement of the university's finances. (See the archived press release on the gallyprotest.org Web site relating to Bernard Holt's allegations.)

Protesters point out that relevant facts about Jane Fernandes's background were either not taken into consideration by the hiring committee of Gallaudet's Board of Trustees, or ignored by the committee, including:

1) Fernandes's acceptance of tenure as a professor at Gallaudet without having submitted herself to a normal tenure review process and a vote of her peers (as verified by the Gallaudet Faculty Senate in their recent no-confidence vote in Fernandes),

2) Fernandes's acceptance of her autocratic installation as the Provost of Gallaudet University by President I. King Jordan, who simply appointed her to the position without submitting her candidacy to a normal hiring process (as acknowledged by Jordan in his speech at the National Press Club on May 9, 2006.)