My Choice is Davila. Why?
 Gallaudet is in such an incredible mess. I pick Davila because not only does he have extensive administrative experience in university settings, but also because he is an outsider. We desperately need an outsider who does not have a vested interest in covering up the mess and promoting the institutional flaws.
We haven’t had a president who wasn’t an insider for 23 years. We had Dr. Lee, a vice president of the Business Dept who was recruited to assume the presidency after the previous president, Dr. Lloyd, was fired. After five years, he left to take a job offered by the chairperson of the Board of Trustees. Zinser was appointed, then graciously resigned. Jordan took over for eighteen years, but he was also an administrator.
We need someone who has not been indoctrinated by the old system. Gallaudet’s accreditation status is in serious jeopardy, as I reported earlier today, so we need someone to jumpstart the academic programs.
What are your thoughts?
elizabeth
Final Three Candidates AnnouncedThe Interim President Selection Advisory Committee forwarded its reportcontaining recommendations of three finalist for the interim president position to the Board of Trustees for their consideration. The Board will meet this weekend, December 9-10, to make a final decision.
The three final candidates are:
- Robert Davila
- William Marshall
- Stephen Weiner
http://pr.gallaudet.edu/presidentialsearch/?ID=9913
email contact: mishkazena@aol.com
 Gallaudet is in such an incredible mess. I pick Davila because not only does he have extensive administrative experience in university settings, but also because he is an outsider. We desperately need an outsider who does not have a vested interest in covering up the mess and promoting the institutional flaws.
We haven’t had a president who wasn’t an insider for 23 years. We had Dr. Lee, a vice president of the Business Dept who was recruited to assume the presidency after the previous president, Dr. Lloyd, was fired. After five years, he left to take a job offered by the chairperson of the Board of Trustees. Zinser was appointed, then graciously resigned. Jordan took over for eighteen years, but he was also an administrator.
We need someone who has not been indoctrinated by the old system. Gallaudet’s accreditation status is in serious jeopardy, as I reported earlier today, so we need someone to jumpstart the academic programs.
What are your thoughts?
elizabeth
| Final Three Candidates AnnouncedThe Interim President Selection Advisory Committee forwarded its reportcontaining recommendations of three finalist for the interim president position to the Board of Trustees for their consideration. The Board will meet this weekend, December 9-10, to make a final decision.
The three final candidates are:
|
http://pr.gallaudet.edu/presidentialsearch/?ID=9913
email contact: mishkazena@aol.com
December 6th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
I agree completely with you that sometimes, it is absolutely necessary to bring in an outsider. But, I wonder if Dr. Davila’s status as an outsider will work against him. Will the mentality of Gallaudet University be receptive to his ideas and leadership style? Are two years too short for him to make any substantial improvements? Perhaps, I should learn not to be a Jeremiah.
Joseph Pietro Riolo
josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com
Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Dr. Davila graduated from Gallaudet and held administrative positions at the University until his appointment as Headmaster (superintendent) of NYSD (Fanwood). He’s hardly an outsider, but he does bring experience from NYSD, the Federal Government (as Ass’t Secy of OSERS) and NTID/RIT.
Just wanted to bring that up in case others were thinking the same, “Is Dr. Davila really an outsider or not?”
December 6th, 2006 at 7:08 pm
I was thinking the same thing, too, but out of three candidates who has been outside the most? Davila had considerable experience both in the federal government and NTID is a pretty progressive institute so he may have picked significant leadership skills since he left Gally.
Also, Davila has no connection to the university so he has nothing to lose after the completion of interim presidency term. The other two candidates will still work at Gallaudet afterwards. hmmm?
December 6th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
On the interesting note, Dr. Davila was chosen by the elder George Bush as the ass’t secretary of Dept of Ed.
Hard to believe he was not even the top three last Spring.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
Furthermore, Dr. Davila has not been at Gallaudet as an employee for quite awhile so he is not part of the current culture of corruption and intimidation. That’s a real advantage over the other two candidates. I hold Dr. Davila in high regard in many ways and I think he would be an excellent candidate. My only real concern is that he is known for not valuing ASL or not making it a priority. I’m wondering how that would impact the audism mandates and other deaf-related issues.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
Davila is an old fart with conservative ideas which I don’t think will be good for Gallaudet. He was hired by CSD to built Human Service Programs into an elite level but he did nothing and was transfered to several other positions before he decided to end his tenure there for good. Several CSD ex-employees told me that he became senile and didn’t perform his job well. I do applaud for his finest effort over his years but it’s time for a young blood with progressive ideas to clean up Gallaudet mess and built into a better University for the future
December 6th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
Dr. Davlia is a very experienced higher education leader. Dr. Davila should be considered to be the interim president..why? because come to think of it..we need a leader who is able to address and convince the Congress to stablize financial support.
He has tremendous history of network, support and experience working with politicans. This is the most priority that needs attention right now since the hold for the financial future may be shaky.
Of course ASL is also a priority but isn’t that more of a provost’s job? The provost focuses and works closely with the faculty.
Since Dr. Davila grew up in a multi-language environment, I am sure he respects ASL like any other languages. He should be able to back up the provost’s plans such as giving ASL more value on campus.
As for young blood, let’s save it for the permanent president. As deep as Gallaudet is facing this mess, we need an experienced person to clean this up first.
December 6th, 2006 at 10:06 pm
Davila is not acceptable and would be a huge mistake. No one at Gallaudet knows who he is and he will be beaten up badly because he doesn’t know what the issues are. Tell Davila to stay retired. He will ruin his legacy just like Irving King did.
December 6th, 2006 at 11:24 pm
Why would someone be resistant to work with an outsider?
One problem with the insider: will the insider be willing to buckle the system and revamp it to show more shared governance? It seems Gallaudet is too set in its ways and resistant to changes.
Not that I have anything against Weiner nor Marshall. I remember Weiner as a nice guy and I don’t know Marshall.
December 6th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
I guess that IPSAC didn’t do a good job recruiting for a good interim president. I think IPSAC has too many heads with too many different expectations of how they should be selecting the interim President. So they probably went for big names that they could recognized and overlook the big picture of what the interim President should do that is not afraid to make changes by cleaning up Gallaudet.
Davila is over 70 years old and I don’t know how much of his intellegent mind is still functioning. We need an outsider so need to find someone else who will step up the plate since insiders may not have the expertise to understand how other Universities have done their best to run their organization more effectively.
Corporations especially NFL like to go for young blood managers or coaches since they are full of energy and willing to make changes to make the best for their organization.
Is the interim President’s role to make changes for best interest of Gallaudet or just run the University as what is is now until someone permanent comes in?
I don’t know about Weiner or Marshall so our hands is with the BOT and hope they are smart enough to pick someone right for GU’s sake.
December 7th, 2006 at 2:26 am
I am sorry to say but people need to realize that a letter of intent can be lied.
I had seen what Davila did to Deaf students at Fanwood. He almost destroyed Fanwood. He left Fanwood a huge mess. Seven lawsuits at fanwood! The current Headmaster at Fanwood had to sold the half land to save school because of Davila and PEDRO. Davila told the board to hire the new headmaster which was PEDRO and PEDRO left a huuuuuge mess that almost cause the Fanwood shut down but thank God the New Headmaster Tiffany save this school but lost the half land. Davila hired most of unqualified teachers like MSD and now they are tenure and not able to rid of them. Many people at CSD were not too happy with DAVILA. He is all talk but no action. Please Wake up and ask people who had firsthand experience with Davila. Don’t be a sucker!
December 7th, 2006 at 9:13 am
Someone who prefers to stay anonymous sent me this.
This shows Dr. Marshall’s speech during Gallaudet Commencement several years ago.
http://blip.tv/file/112017
December 7th, 2006 at 9:34 am
MZ, I’m curious what you think now about Davila, based on information from people’s experiences with him?
Not only here, but also on Ridor’s site?
As of now, I’d pick Weiner.
Of course, there will be more information surfacing…
December 7th, 2006 at 11:43 am
Iam, these comments do concern me. We all know from our experiences with Fernandes that credentials on paper don’t always reflect the actual job performance.
So I hope BoT will be checking out references and asking other people about these three finalists. For sure, it is a tough task. I hope they will pick the most qualified candidate, whoever that person is.
December 7th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
[...] Here are some links that you can find out who: Ridor: Davila, Marshall, & Weiner MishkaZena: My Choice is Davila. Why? Bibliomarket: My Thoughts on Davila, Marshall, and Weiner [...]
December 7th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
I’ve asked elsewhere and I’ll ask again here: Anybody have an opinion, or better yet, knowledge of why the Search Committee picked only 3 out of 13?
December 7th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
No idea, DT. Perhaps it is the standard procedure. It was the same with the PSC, too
December 8th, 2006 at 4:16 am
[...] I’m in the rearguard here, but better late than never, I suppose. By now, the majority of you know that the Interim President Selection Advisory Committee (IPSAC), headed by Dr. Jane Dillehay, submitted its recommendations to the Board, and the BoT has announced the three finalists for the (most likely thankless!) job of Interim President at Gallaudet University. As most of you know, they are Dr. Robert Davila (Letter of Intent, CV); Dr. William Marshall (Letter of Intent, CV); and Dr. Steve Weiner (Letter of Intent, CV). Since the initial announcement, quite a few deaf bloggers have commented on these three men. BiblioMarket comments briefly, and announces his support for Davila;Â Bionic Ear also made a short statement, but is rather noncommittal. Elizabeth over at Mishka Zena also likes Davila, while Carl Schroeder at Kalakau’s Corner limits his commentary to a criticism of Dr. Marshall’s ASL skills. Finally, Ridor over at RidorLIVE, who always has something to say, initially came out as against Davila, but has subsequently admitted he’d be okay with either Davila or Weiner. [...]