Controversy at Gallaudet University

This article is about a protest that has been going on at Gallaudet University, a college in Washington D.C. that is primarily for the deaf community. The article focuses on how the board at the school decided to abandon their choice of Dr. Jane Fernandes as the institution's new president. She would be the first new president in 18 years.

This article interested me because the protest is very close to the people's heart that are deaf. According to the article, the president wanted to focus more on language intense classes, and less on ASL (American Sign Language) The school is mainly for people who are deaf, and the culture and the community of the school is centered around being deaf.

They mentioned things that are threatening the deaf culture, like cochlear implants. To me, cochlear implants are stripping the deaf culture of its dignity. It is similar to the "English Only" campaign that is claiming people from other countries shouldn't speak or advocate their native language in America. The president wasn't considered culturally "deaf enough" and it caused a major stir at Gallaudet University.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/education/30gallaudet.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=us