JF: It’s a reflection of a tension that exists between deaf culture and the deaf community, what their expectations are as to how the culture within the community works, and a tension between running a university as an educational institution and running it as a business. I have received criticism for past decisions that I made, but that is really extremely hard, because in terms of running the university as a business, as a place of employment, it has to follow certain regulations.
DI: You’ve talked about issues at HBCUs, but the parallel that comes to mind is more that of a tribal college, because it’s a cultural issue that you’re dealing with here, not race. You can envision in 50 years, if everybody who’s born deaf gets an implant, sign language could fade away. Does that sound like a valid consideration, and do you see that kind of parallel?
JF: I believe you’re on the right track there. There is a beloved treasuring of American Sign Language in the deaf community, and I am 100 percent committed to the centrality of ASL and deaf culture here at Gallaudet. Gallaudet was founded in 1864 on the idea that deaf people need to use visual language and have visual communication in order to learn. So that founding principle was and is and always will be ingrained here. We will always be a signing community. However, we need to expand the core to be inclusive of all types of deaf people.
--Patricia Valdata
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