Open Letter by Jena Floyd

October 26, 2006

Dear Board of Trustees Members:

Given the blighting of crisis at Gallaudet, it should be clear to you that Dr. Jane Kelleher Fernandes is incapable of leading Gallaudet University and bringing all walks of life together as a community; as a whole at Gallaudet -- locally, nationally and globally.

I am at no loss of words in knowing that you have received hundreds and hundreds (possibly thousands if so) of open letters dictating the resignation of a Dr. Jane Kelleher Fernandes, the very same person that caused continuous escalation of division and anger in our community. Yet to emphasize more, the very same person you have selected as Gallaudet University's 9th President.

This unprecedented move we, as the FSSA Coalition and Deaf community members at large, make ensures that you make the right decision; the very decision that would forever change the social and educational climate at Gallaudet. The move we make ensure that students, faculty, alumni, and staff at Gallaudet receive equal treatment as provided by leadership of great quality and authenticity. You could say we're pushing our expectation bar to a higher level in defining Gallaudet. Our move is not of terrorism. This is not anarchy. This is simply our wish to better Gallaudet as an educational institution -- culturally and scholarly.

Now as a recipient of a Bachelors in English and a Masters in Mental Health Counseling, both from Gallaudet, I am very much in trepidation in calling Gallaudet a place of safe learning and social environment. Given the 25+ days of ongoing crisis and fully overt yet peaceful remonstration done by faculty, students, staff, and alumni, this led me to experience hesitance, even fear, if our Deaf children, supposedly today, ask me whether Gallaudet is the place to be when they grow up if Dr. Jane Kelleher Fernandes or even a recognized leader with qualities and characteristics akin to Dr. Fernandes continue to run as its 9th President.

I left Gallaudet with a good feeling knowing I received the best training as a mental health therapist of the deaf. To this day, I'm working as a mental health therapist in Seattle. I cannot be anything more proud that I came from Gallaudet. It eases me knowing I'm making a difference in the lives of Deaf people here. Gallaudet gave me what I needed to flourish in the real world and this is what I do. There are countless opportunities in the mental health field I could do to ensure Deaf people receive better mental health treatment in today's audistic, yet slowing receptive of anything deaf, society. Now with all the oppression behooving people at Gallaudet to reflect what's right, this has saddened me deeply especially with the long-sought notion that Gallaudet is or has been (or was in this case if Dr. Fernandes continue to hold its reins) the mecca and possibly a utopian civilization of the Deaf.

As a Deaf mental health professional, I chime in about Alternatives Solutions Center's open letter to you. They consider "oppression as an enemy of mental health." Oppression should not be something the Gallaudet community experience as a whole, even so. I believe we're fighting for a safe-zone environment at Gallaudet where everyone wouldn't experience oppression -- period.

Now with the spinning drama that's going on at Gallaudet, I hope you make the right decision in removing Dr. Jane Kelleher Fernandes. With that done, we could move on and make Gallaudet a better place for deaf people of various backgrounds and experiences. With that said, we're already on a path to enlightenment of Deafhood – despite the chaos we're enduring as a Deaf community. Without Dr. Jane Kelleher Fernandes as Gallaudet's President, we'll hold Deafhood in high regard once Gallaudet is in the right hands; particularly the hands of a leader who will inspire us to be ourselves regardless our hearing and cultural (applying multiculturalism) status.

I come to a conclusion that resignation of Gallaudet's President Designate Dr. Jane Kelleher Fernandes is the best option if you want Gallaudet to heal its wounds and prosper as the world's premier university of Deaf people for years, decades, even centuries to come.

Best for Gallaudet, Jenifer Floyd, '02 & G '05