there are limits to "power to the people"

[acroyear]

Gallaudet's Loss - washingtonpost.com (editorial):

THE BOARD OF trustees at Gallaudet University certainly showed who was in charge when it voted to terminate Jane K. Fernandes's contract as president. Sadly, it wasn't the members of the board, who are supposed to serve the interests of the university. Nor, for that matter, were reason or right in evidence Sunday as the trustees ousted a woman they had recently judged to be the best person to lead the renowned school for the deaf. Instead, what triumphed was lawlessness and the principle that a university president should be chosen on the basis of popularity.

Comments

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

I also have absolutely no respect nor tolerance for those claiming that in the "negotiations", no student involved in the protest should be punished.

i'm sorry, but Emmerson and Thurough spent their time in jail for a reason, even after they'd achieved some of what they protested for. You accept the rules of society or you don't, and all they showed was a completely contempt for society.

so i hold them in contempt and will continue to do so.

for as long as i feel like holding onto a feeling at all...personally i'll stop giving a shit pretty soon 'cause they're not worth my time or attention anymore.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

I have to disagree with you here.

Deaf culture is a world apart from hearing culture. Galludet is a haven for deaf students to fully explore what it means to be deaf without the limits placed on deaf people by hearing society. Having a university president that isn't fluent in the language spoken by the majority of the students strikes many of the students as being wrong.

The students and alumni see Galludet as needing to set an example to the rest of the world. The students want to see someone who is more like them than the hearing world to be in charge to both show the world what deaf people are capable of and have something to which they can aspire.

By waiting until she was in her 20s to learn ASL and not becoming fluent in the language, Dr. Fernades seems to many, myself included, to not fully identify herself with deaf culture, which is what this argument is all about.

From what you said earlier, you seem to feel that it is better for Galludet to have a university president that can work well with the hearing world. Galludet is about educating the deaf and hard of hearing and is a center of deaf culture. Is it wrong for the students to demand that the President of their university speak their common language?

I'm a bit shocked at your contempt for deaf culture. Mainstream society has marginalized them by making only gruding accomodations to their issues. They have realized that they can do well enough without us and so have opted to have little to do with their oppressors.

You should take a gander at the related articles about Galludet over at Wikipedia, to know that there is a history of the students successfully protesting the choices of presidents. The students want a president that represents deaf culture, not one that they see as kowtowing to hearing culture.

Deaf students have, in the past, recieved protection from retaliation. The current batch are only asking for the same.

If I were deaf, I would do anything in my power to avoid having to come into contact with "the authorities" of any kind. The DC jail system is a hellish place for hearing people. Do you really think there are enough people, skilled in the use of sign language to be able to accomodate paddy wagons full of deaf protestors?

Think about how horrid it would be to be in jail and deaf. Would you know what the guard was saying to you? How many accomodations would be made in the jail for your situation? Emmerson and Thoreau were hearing and were able to do as their jailers asked. Deaf people don't really have that option and jail guards aren't known for their compassion or people skills.

Their tactics may not be what you approve but why should they be? Galludet is a private school, with a highly unique student body and I think the president should better reflect that student body. Galludet has a responsibility to their students to show them what is achievable.

The tactics have worked and I hope the next president is one that the faculty and students can support.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

Galludet is still federally chartered and continues to receive grants from the federal government. though not beholden to a particular government the way

as for "it would suck to be deaf and in jail" i say "tough shit". you break the law of the society you live in, you accept the consequences of your actions. if they got "exceptions" before, i would stand against those exceptions as well.

it's one thing to voluntarilly give preferential treatment; it's another thing entirely to demand it.

Rosa Parks wasn't demanding preferential treatment, merely equal treatment.

These protesters are acting like they are and were above the law, and when ANYBODY acts like that (including this president and administration), then the law is meaningless.

if they merely requested consideration for their intentions in sentencing (resulting in probations and fines and deferred sentences based on good behaviour), FINE, that's how the law can work to protect your rights from cruel and unusual punishment.

but they didn't.

they demanded full immunity for its own sake and it is NOT the policy of this society to give in to such demands.

"If I were deaf, I would do anything in my power to avoid having to come into contact with "the authorities" of any kind."

fine. you would therefore not be involved in the protests or at least the illegal actions they did such as blocking the streets, blocking the driveways, blocking access to classrooms and administration buildings, forcing other students to miss their classes (that amounts to theft), and giving the school a hugely bad reputation (also amounts to theft under current legal terms).

but they were, and they should face the consequences for those actions.

this is the LAW we are talking about, not some beneficial King who can dismiss the law at will merely because he felt like it.

all things are equal, or else nothing is.

The role of the President of a university is not to "represent the student body". that is the CORE misunderstanding that has damaged that school for almost its entire history. The President spends FAR more time (99% of their time) dealing with the outside world in contract negotiations, bids for grants, negotiating other forms of private funding, discussing issues with local governments, and more. They are instantly at a DISADVANTAGE if they can not "speak the lingo" of the contactors and government representatives they deal with.

This "speak the lingo" of the "deaf culture" is bullshit. Seriously, I see it as utter bullshit. Ferndandez knows ASL, and the fact that she learned it in her 20s instead of her entire life CHANGES NOTHING

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

Deaf people are in a weird place when it comes to their difficulty hearing. People who hear consider them disabled but they don't have any of the outward signs of disability that a blind person does (dark glasses, cane, seeing-eye dog), or those with issues like Downs Syndrome, or those with mobility issues than use various canes, walkers, wheel chairs, and crutches. They look just like everybody else and are often mistaken for hearing people until it's too late.

I'm really appalled at your "tough shit" attitude that a deaf person should be subjected to the same treatment in the jail system. It is a system set up for hearing individuals and those who can't hear are at a distinct disadvantage with horrifying results.

Deaf people are intellectually as capable as hearing people but because they communicate differently they are regularly thought to be mentally deficient. I suggest that you look into the types of descrimination that deaf people have to deal with regularly.

The particularly egregious example I'm aware of (that I heard in grad school in my class on how to make libraries accessable for those with disabilities which included a visit to Galludet's campus) had a deaf person almost killed in an emergency room because the doctor was going to give her a med she was deathly allergic to. To keep her from "flapping about" they had restrained her hands. Luckily, another nurse nearby (not one of hers) understood some ASL and was able to avert tragedy. This is not the sole example of things like this.

When you have to put up with the rest of society treating you as if you are stupid, or careless, or troublemakers, just because you don't hear what someone is saying, you would tend to turn your back on that majority culture.

You my think that "deaf culture" is "bullshit" but I assure you, there are those take it seriously. They feel as though hearing culture has excluded them, so they avoid hearing culture as much as possible and I don't blame them.

It seems as though you are most angry at the fact that they are asking for "special treatment" by not being punished for their protesting. Deaf people are at a big enough disadvantage in a hearing culture that I'm willing to cut them slack for exercising their First Amendment right.

They disagreed with a choice. They made their opinions known. They persuaded others to their cause. There are precedents for their actions both at Galludet and in history at large. So it was a minority. Those who make the most ruckus tend to get the most attention. If the majority liked the choice for president why didn't they protest on her behalf as vociferously?

Deaf people are at a serious disadvantage when it comes to getting by in the hearing world. Presidents at other, hearing universities interact with others and whatnot, but the students at Galludet see it as more. They want someone of their culture in that position, someone who isn't trying to "pass".

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

breaking the law is not "exercising a first amendment right" unless the law itself violates that constitutional right.

no law violated by these people did so. the courts have continually upheld laws requiring permits.

if they want to assert that they were just "exercising their first amendment rights" THEN GET ARRESTED, SERVE THE TIME, AND FILE THE APPEAL ON THE BASIS OF THE RIGHT THAT THE LAW WAS EITHER WRONG OR APPLIED INCORRECTLY - deal within the system, not above it.

PERIOD.

If one minority group feels they can just discard the system, then the law and society might as well not exist.

this is not an episode of "I have immunity" survivor, this is LIFE under a constitutional republic.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

ok, let me put it this way.

The great protests and civil disobedience of the past were all in an effort to undo the morally wrong actions.

These protests were done not do undo a moral wrong, but to implant their view of a supposed moral superiority.

Again, I have no respect for that attitude. Nor should anybody be expected to.

The protesters were the unjust, not the ones being protested against nor the innocent people caught up in it all. They demanded not fairness nor equality but superiority, they asserted their own control over a system as a mob.

"The tactics have worked" in the French revolution as well, and they got something FAR worse than an arrogant queen and pig-headed king for their troubles.

[rsteachout.livejournal.com]

Having a university president that isn't fluent in the language spoken by the majority of the students strikes many of the students as being wrong.

Except she is fluent in ASL. She has spoken it for 27 years.

Their objection is that she didn't learn it as her main language, instead relying on reading lips and learning to speak until she was 23. They also did not like that Fernandez advocated increasing the diversity of students at the school to include others with varying levels of hearing loss and deafness, and to include teaching other methods and available technological use to deal with deafness in a hearing world. She felt this was a prudent policy change needed to help increase enrollment and funding for the university. The protesters, however, believe Galludet should continue to emphasize ASL in all courses and training to the exclusion of other methods.

[rsteachout.livejournal.com]

I don't believe the students should be punished for their protests. However, I do think they should be suspended for closing down the school. They basically denied the students who didn't want to protest and wanted to attend classes the right to receive the education and attend the classes for which they had paid. They stole the non-protesting students education.

Their right to protest ends where the non-protesting students rights to attend classes begins.

This is no different than most of the states' laws regarding strikes and picketing which permit peaceful protests and picketing as long as it does not block access to businesses and services.

Protest, sure -- all you want. No penalty. Do it in a way that interferes with others rights -- big time penalty.