Gallaudet President Should Change Education

Printed in the Olathe News in May 12, 2007.


Gallaudet President Should Change Education
By Leonard Hall

Gallaudet University, a liberal arts university for deaf and hard of hearing students in Washington D.C., officially installed interim President Dr. Robert Davila as its Ninth President in its nearly 145 years history.

The installation of Davila as President in the open ceremony last week was calm in contrast to the students’ siege of Gallaudet campus, hunger strikes, massive arrests, and national media attention several months ago.

Last year appointment of the previous Gallaudet Provost Jane Fernandes as the university president caused a major rebellion among the students and deaf community across the country. The Gallaudet Board of Trustees withdrew the appointment of Fernandes and appointed Davila as interim President.

The students protest raised a major issue that drew attention of the deaf community, federal agencies, U.S. Congress, and the accreditation agency called Middle States Commission on Higher Education – persistently fewer than 50% of undergraduates graduated.

Davila is a 74-year old veteran in higher deaf education. When the commission announced that Gallaudet did not comply with a number of standards to maintain its accreditation in higher education, its accreditation was at risk.

Davila needs to step outside of the higher education traditional method of teaching and looks for radical ways to improve.

For example, Gallaudet should provide for a 17-week semester instead of the traditional 15-week semester. For the average 3-hour college course, add one hour per week for an overall review of the week courses to ensure that the students understand the lessons taught during the week.

Gallaudet and NTID also should offer courses and requirements for standardized state tests to obtain the necessary certificate or license to work in certain fields. The burden now falls upon the graduates to study for, take, and pass the tests in order to obtain the necessary certificates and licenses.

Some graduates fail to do so.

The list goes on, but Davila needs to make radical changes in education to ensure that more students graduate and obtain the certificate and license needed for successful employment.

(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column for the deaf community and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)