Jordan and Audism
It is painfully obvious that Jordan is an audist who is prejudiced against deaf of deaf people or what he calls  ’absolutists’. Even his actions reflected his bias. According to people who analyzed the design of the incoming SLCC, the majority of this campus building is reserved for the ‘medical aspects’ of deafness, i.e. speech and audiology and a very small portion for studies of ASL and Deaf Culture. This imbalance is also reflected in the portions of the fundings for these two programs. It is very ironic, because Gallaudet is viewed as the mecca of Deaf Culture, attracting both deaf and hearing scholars.
Jordan’s recent accusations on absolutists for their role in the protest are misplaced. As you all know, both deaf people with a wide range of different communication backgrounds and hearing people participated in the protest. Despite his claims, the protest centered on social justice and ineffective leadership. He shows his prejudice against the deaf of deaf people in his op-ed letter. With his statements, his actions continue to be divisive.
A president of the Gallaudet University must treat all groups of deaf people equally.
Davila shows every indication that he embraces the diversity of deaf people. Let’s forget Jordan who is out of the picture and work with Davila on moving forward and healing.
 More on SLCC: http://slcc.gallaudet.edu/people
email contact: mishkazena@aol.com
It is painfully obvious that Jordan is an audist who is prejudiced against deaf of deaf people or what he calls  ’absolutists’. Even his actions reflected his bias. According to people who analyzed the design of the incoming SLCC, the majority of this campus building is reserved for the ‘medical aspects’ of deafness, i.e. speech and audiology and a very small portion for studies of ASL and Deaf Culture. This imbalance is also reflected in the portions of the fundings for these two programs. It is very ironic, because Gallaudet is viewed as the mecca of Deaf Culture, attracting both deaf and hearing scholars.
Jordan’s recent accusations on absolutists for their role in the protest are misplaced. As you all know, both deaf people with a wide range of different communication backgrounds and hearing people participated in the protest. Despite his claims, the protest centered on social justice and ineffective leadership. He shows his prejudice against the deaf of deaf people in his op-ed letter. With his statements, his actions continue to be divisive.
A president of the Gallaudet University must treat all groups of deaf people equally.
Davila shows every indication that he embraces the diversity of deaf people. Let’s forget Jordan who is out of the picture and work with Davila on moving forward and healing.
 More on SLCC: http://slcc.gallaudet.edu/people
email contact: mishkazena@aol.com
January 23rd, 2007 at 8:45 am
ikj is a hypocrite champ! He is a pure absolutist for not recognizing the ASL. Teacher’s sign skills are much worse than before 1990′s. Even few teachers don’t know the signs at all, if I am correct. That is not really an inclusive university.
I am sure Dr. Davila will announce the goals and intitatives for Gallaudet’s new future, so the clean up era will begin.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:02 am
I know…it’s SO imbalance at Gallaudet.
Isn’t it odd that the majority of us were raised believing ASL was NOT GOOD, yet the teachers/audiologists were never yelled at for putting down that language and the deaf culture.
The so-called absolutists wanted BALANCE (correct me if I’m wrong) with everyone of diverse backgrounds.
It makes sense to me that a teacher should be signing in ASL and if a student wants access to speech, then get an interpreter to voice the signing teacher.
Similar to other Universities and colleges where we want to access voicing teachers by ASL interpreters?
It’s just way off balance and we’re being looked down very badly – shifting the attention on JKF’s “not deaf enough”.
She tells people she supported ASL and Deaf Culture and that she felt whole when she learned sign language. Good for her, many people felt the same way when they entered Gallaudet and learned sign language.
However, I fail to understand how she could NOT have improved serious issues on campus that were repeatedly ignored by students that relied on ASL as a communication method. She did not attempt to improve in that area, did she? Nor has IKJ. DSP is one example. It was clearly not one of the priorities during her 11 years on campus.
There are so many issues that hearing people are being bounced from wall to wall, very easily distracted from other serious issues such as IKJ’s reported $4 million dollars missing, and how in the world he did not see the mess coming when the PART came out in his 19 years of presidency.
I have faith in Dr. Davila’s mission goal of getting everyone involved, from all walks of life and get things worked out for Gallaudet’s best interest and its stakeholders.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:29 am
All:
I have been very ill for some time now-so I have not been as public as I once was. As for the IKJ article-my only question is: What took him (IKJ) so long? Tyrants only care about themselves. I expected this type of ill-bad mouthing from him – and I expect more will come in the future. The lies and misinformation that he spreaded during the protests will only continue.
We need to expect that- and be prepared.
Someone(s) like the GFSSA should be in the position to respond ASAP every time the nutty former president opens his poisonous mouth.
Raphael J.St. Johns, MS, C-87,G-00
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:31 am
Good to see you, RJSJ – hope you feel better!
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:17 am
Iammine, the BoT is a big part of the responsibity for the 19 years mess on the campus. Wonder if the BoT has reviewed ikj’s annual job performance???
Checked at dictionary.com the what the word “emeritus” really means:
–adjective 1. retired or honorably discharged from active professional duty, but retaining the title of one’s office or position: dean emeritus of the graduate school; editor in chief emeritus.
–noun 2. an emeritus professor, minister, etc.
ikj should formally be called a president troll. He was dishonorably discharged from the office. We can live with the ikj troll who continue making a harrassment on the Gallaudet community.
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:23 am
IKJ clearly had massive control over the BoT these years and BoT was clearly blind to what was really going on the campus with serious issues.
Also, I was thinking how in the world things got “worse” in 2000-2005 where he received an F, and getting away with it – and manage to blame it on the protesters!
This the same man who prided in bringing from “$5 million to more than $175 million, and every year we had a balanced budget…”
What does this mean by his statements and the PART report, as well as the frightening MSA report.
How often does Gallaudet receive MSA? The last one I’m aware of is 1988.
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:39 am
About SLLC building and “disproportional” budget is a long story. On surface it looks bad but when planning started several years ago, pointing finger actually goes to both sides.
The bottom line..when there is an offer for fund, programs need to come up with amount they need and then write grants to match the amount to get both money. What happened is that ASL and Deaf Studies asked for what they think they need and did not write a grant. My one argument to support the ASL and Deaf studies is, how a good chance will they get a lot of $$ compared to Audiology program? I would say this is where disproportion remains no matter if we try to act.
Only one concern I have about SLLC is the way how the building is designed with floorplan already set up for many years ahead. Details can be found at Gallaudet web site if anyone here can help me find them. (I just had a baby)..
One exciting news here, Gallaudet University won 3.5 million $ award from National Science Foundation to go toward researches in visual learning, assessment, and language.
Anne Marie
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:07 pm
rjstj, good to see you again. I’m sorry you have been very ill and hope you will feel better soon!
Anne Marie, what you said makes a lot of sense. However, I feel Gallaudet should have done more to help the ASL and Deaf Studies command more money, as Gallaudet is viewed as the ambassador of the deaf community worldwide. Won’t that be logical? When one stops to think about this, the imbalance itself makes a strong and contradictory statement to the signing portion of the deaf community, doesn’t it? Good to hear about the NSF grant as that will help reduce the imbalance!
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Yes, it’s AWESOME about the NSF grant! Thanks for the news, Anne Marie!
I’m curious – how does that work, visual learning, assessment, and language?
Are all those three parts used to research ASL?
What does it do exactly, if anyone know?
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:57 pm
The student gets AD automatically if he did not pass the courses. How come ikj failed the PART report for last 6 years and still left the office honorably?? Oh man…it is a time for the MSA to get a close look at the BoT why the board let ikj screw up the academic programs for many years.
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:59 pm
All:
many thanks for your well-wishes. Please -call me by my frist name-Raphael-not Rjstj..ok? Even though we don’t know each other- I feel that we have formed a small bond because of the Protest-so please call me by my frist name.
And while I am at it-when I was a undergrad student at Gallaudet, I remember a wonderful program called “EPOC-Experinmental Programs Off Campus”.
It really helped me with my resume, and I found alot of wonderful internships and Co-Op jobs thru EPOC.
When I approached King Jordan about EPOC, he said that it was disbanded because of budget considerations.
I know that the Career Center is a joke now- becuase last year I went there almost at every opportunity I had.
It’s nothing like EPOC.
When I told His Highness (last year)that the students are suffering becuase of the closing of EPOC-he looked at me with a stern face-as if he was going to say “how dare you question my judgement?”. But because I am donor to Gallaudet (i.e. having established a Memorial Scholorship in my mom’s name and another one after I die), he simply said “thank you for your opinion”. He then walked away-leaving my wife and I to consider-what really happened there? I suppose in retrospect, we almost come to physical blows. But I was only waiting for his response-he, on the other hand, apparently, felt threaten. I was not going to throw the first punch- but I was going to defend myself.
Now- His Highness has said that, lo and behold, Gallaudet has 175 milions dollars!!!! And still no EPOC!!!!!!!
What a fraud he is.
Raphael J. St. Johns, C-87, G-00
January 23rd, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Greg, what doe AD mean?
I know, I’m amazed that IKJ had not been investigated at all for his financial handlings and assessing what caused the academic failures during his presidency with JKF on his side.
Kind of like no one continuing to talk about how come the Bin Laden family was flown out of the country before they started detaining everyone of different cultures after 9/11. Even to this day, no one talks about why the government did that. Hmm.
Raphael – ok, I’ll call you.
You can call me Iam, or Mel. *gasps* Yes…you may call me Mel!
I’m sorry to hear of the misfortunate with IKJ – sigh. That’s one sign he refused to acknowledge the problems that needed to be fixed in order to improve the quality of the education and job searching. *shakes head*
Anne Marie – I meant to congratulate you on the new baby!
January 23rd, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Ann Marie,
AD = Academic Discharge. I think.
January 23rd, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Sorry, IamMine! I mean to you, not another person
January 23rd, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Thanks for the information, Greg!
You know, Dr. Davila said his plan was to meet and say we’re working on getting things on track at Gallaudet, to restore confidence in the Congress – and Jordan had to write this op-ed where *gasps* the Congress normally read?!!
Argh.
January 23rd, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Actually, AD means Academic Dismissal.
January 23rd, 2007 at 2:06 pm
I am still feeling down with his writing to a hearing newspapers…telling the hearing world how absolutists we are. How many congress people read that article?? how many potential donors read that… how many future Gally students read that… how about relatives and friends… how about people who know nothing about deaf people… jordan has the nerve to send the letter to WASHINGTON POST instead of deaf newspapers or blogs… is he digging his own grave? wish his wife has read it before he sent out… his wife would have stopped him… as for now, it seems no one is able to stop him. BOT members, isn’t it right time for you to ask jordan to stop the behaviors? your job, Board members. Tom and Ken… can you send jordan an open letter and ask him to stop spreading the negative about deaf people, including you… you both are deaf. Brenda, where are you? can you stop him? Davila??? not me… i have no respect for him anymore… Jordan acts lower than cock roaches…. I am still upset with the letter.
January 23rd, 2007 at 2:50 pm
I’m with Albert W here, MZ… I made a lot of comments there, but felt I had to stop because I made too many…
You should see the newest comments there – sigh.
Saying ASL is NO GOOD!! That 90 percent of ASL users can’t read English!!
And that they look down on those who don’t want to learn ASL.
Saying deaf children were robbed of higher education with the termination of JKF!!!
Dear god… help… me….
Somebody got to keep correcting them with FACTS.
I’m done, I’m tired, I got too many things to do – I keep going back and forth here.
I’m amazed at how many comments I made here today alone and still managed to do 3 loads of laundry, gave my daughter a bath, cleaned kitchen and tutoring a student!!
Still working on a project due tomorrow…
I am done here for today, though.
January 24th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Thanks for alerting me. I’ve gone to the comment section of Washington Post and left quite few posts there.
January 24th, 2007 at 8:14 am
I see you there – good job, you were very clear and right on the nose.
I’m also impressed with your thick skin, setting aside your emotions and see the whole picture with only facts.
Excellent.
January 24th, 2007 at 10:53 am
I wanted to leave my responses on the Post page also…but after i saw what my responses were, I decided that I am very emotional about this, and I did not want to print something that might reflect bad on us.
I thank you, elizabeth, for responding the way you did.
Raphael.
January 24th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Also:
I remember King Jordan saying to me and my wife something along the lines that when he leaves in January, he will be taking a a one year leave of sabbatical(spell?)-then he will return in one year to teach in the Psychology Dept. at Gallaudet.
Is there any way we can confrim this?
I do’nt see how he will be a welcome person on campus now, after that letter to the Post.
Raphael.
January 24th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Raphael, that is a true rumor about ikj’s return to his old job after one year of sabbatical leave. He will find his PNG letter at his home after return home from his Italy vacation.
January 24th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Greg:
Forgive my forgetfullness- what does PNG stands for?
Raphael.
January 24th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Raphael,
PNG stands for Persona Non Grata, in other word for kicking the person off the campus for trouble. IKJ failed to PNG about 138 arrested students last Fall
Hopefully, he will not return to the campus for good.
January 24th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
thank you, Raphael – I have been a coward to even ask what PNG stood for!
I even googled PNG and I still was stratching my head…
” Short for Portable Network Graphics, and pronounced ping, a new bit-mapped graphics format similar to GIF. In fact, PNG was approved as a standard by the World Wide Web consortium to replace GIF because GIF uses a patented data compression algorithm called LZW. In contrast, PNG is completely patent- and license-free. The most recent versions of Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer now support PNG.”
Umm…ahem, well, uh…*swallows air*
January 24th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
The specific definition for PNG is:
persona non grata status is defined as prohibition from entering the campus premises and attending Gallaudet University sponsored events on and off campus for any reason