Content area
Full Text
Reflections
The protest of 2006 at Gallaudet University began in May, was suspended during the summer, and resumed in October. This emotionally charged series of events is probably impossible to analyze or explain objectively, and in this account I do not attempt to do so. Instead, I offer some personal observations about what happened and why.
At the beginning of the fall semester of 2005, Gallaudet's president, I. King Jordan, announced that he would be retiring at the end of 2006. 1 A few weeks after Jordan informed the campus community of his intentions, the board of trustees announced that it would be forming a search committee to lead the effort to find a new president for Gallaudet. There were to be four faculty representatives on this seventeen-member committee, and several of my colleagues urged me to become a part of the group. After mulling over the matter for a few days, I decided that, if selected, I would serve. Litde did I realize what was in store for me - or for the university, for that matter.
Since quite a few other people on the faculty were also interested in serving, the faculty committee responsible for elections set up a special election in October so that eight faculty members could be recommended to the board for service on the conrmittee. The faculty did not directly elect the faculty representatives; rather, eight names were submitted to the board, and the board, seeking diversity on the search committee, selected four of them. As it happened, my name was included among those that the faculty officers sent to the board.
At the time, I was pretty sure I would not be chosen. As a white person, a male, and a nonnative user of American Sign Language (ASL), I thought the board would probably pick others for the committee. I did not think the fact that I had a cochlear implant would work in my favor, either. However, for whatever reason, the board selected me as one of the four faculty representatives, and I was excited about becoming involved in what would almost certainly be my last experience on a search committee at Gallaudet. I had served on several such committees previously, including two searches for deans, and...