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]

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