Shake ups at Gallaudet
Major shake-ups have been occuring at Gallaudet. This is to be expected with the new administration, especially after MSA blasted Gallaudet for its academic deficiencies and lack of shared governance. So Davila, along with Weiner and others, have been assigned the task of cleaning up the mess and restructure Gallaudet to bring it back in compliance with the MSA requirements. We’ve witnessed the reassignments of its former presidential assistants Fred Weiner and Lindsay Dunn.
Karen Kimmel, the Dean of College of Liberal Arts, Sciences and Technologies, was reportedly given her “walking papers” yesterday. Zoltan, the former mathematic professor, and other faculty members accused her of babying down education and alleged that she gave at least five students passing grades overriding their professors who failed them. These allegations were covered by Washington Post  A Conflict on Integrity Surfaces – washingtonpost.com. I don’t think she will be missed by many people.
Debbie DeStenfano, the executive director of the Office of Enrollment Services, had apparently informed her department last week that she was asked to leave. The Financial Aid Office, Registrar, Admissions, and Outreach Programs (which encompasses the Academic Bowl) and Publications are under her directorship. She is also responsible for student recruitment, admission and retention. This office was heavily criticized for lowering its academic requirements, probably at the direction of Fernandes. DeStenfano is well liked on campus.
John VanCleve, the executive director of Informative Technology Services had tendered his resignment and will be leaving next month. He was accused for signing the persona non grata of several protesters without any due process.
There may be more changes ahead. The rumors are flying wildly. Hints of changes may include the closure of a department and possible BoT departures.
Off topic: For homeowners, be sure to check your outsdoor light fixtures regularly to ensure that no bird nest are nesting comfortably on the top of the light bulbs, hidden by the metal cover of the fixture. A Deaf homeowner found out the hard way when the bird nest got ignited, resulting in a fire. Fortunately the damage was minimal as it was caught in time.
email contact: mishkazena@aol.com
Major shake-ups have been occuring at Gallaudet. This is to be expected with the new administration, especially after MSA blasted Gallaudet for its academic deficiencies and lack of shared governance. So Davila, along with Weiner and others, have been assigned the task of cleaning up the mess and restructure Gallaudet to bring it back in compliance with the MSA requirements. We’ve witnessed the reassignments of its former presidential assistants Fred Weiner and Lindsay Dunn.
Karen Kimmel, the Dean of College of Liberal Arts, Sciences and Technologies, was reportedly given her “walking papers” yesterday. Zoltan, the former mathematic professor, and other faculty members accused her of babying down education and alleged that she gave at least five students passing grades overriding their professors who failed them. These allegations were covered by Washington Post  A Conflict on Integrity Surfaces – washingtonpost.com. I don’t think she will be missed by many people.
Debbie DeStenfano, the executive director of the Office of Enrollment Services, had apparently informed her department last week that she was asked to leave. The Financial Aid Office, Registrar, Admissions, and Outreach Programs (which encompasses the Academic Bowl) and Publications are under her directorship. She is also responsible for student recruitment, admission and retention. This office was heavily criticized for lowering its academic requirements, probably at the direction of Fernandes. DeStenfano is well liked on campus.
John VanCleve, the executive director of Informative Technology Services had tendered his resignment and will be leaving next month. He was accused for signing the persona non grata of several protesters without any due process.
There may be more changes ahead. The rumors are flying wildly. Hints of changes may include the closure of a department and possible BoT departures.
Off topic: For homeowners, be sure to check your outsdoor light fixtures regularly to ensure that no bird nest are nesting comfortably on the top of the light bulbs, hidden by the metal cover of the fixture. A Deaf homeowner found out the hard way when the bird nest got ignited, resulting in a fire. Fortunately the damage was minimal as it was caught in time.
email contact: mishkazena@aol.com
May 24th, 2007 at 7:09 am
Slightly off topic: Are the two Weiners related?
May 24th, 2007 at 7:27 am
Dr. Kimmel resigned as dean. She was not given “her walking papers”.
May 24th, 2007 at 7:29 am
Yes- they are brothers, Steve the older.
May 24th, 2007 at 7:29 am
A deaf Pundit –
Yes they are. He has a brother whose name is Fred Weiner. Steve and Fred Weiner came from the bunch of deaf relatives and family. They are very good people and role model for the deaf community. I know them very well.
Misha –
I wonder how did the reporters Wash. Post find out all the information on these three lost-their-jobs people? I have no idea how the reporters worked to obtain the information?
White Ghost
May 24th, 2007 at 7:30 am
Dr. Kimmel was given the choice. Either resigned or be let go.
May 24th, 2007 at 7:34 am
As for Kimmel, if she resigned her position as Dean, does that mean she’s still a professor at Gallaudet?
May 24th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Also-FYI- according to Ridor, Paul Kelly is leaving soon.
May 24th, 2007 at 7:59 am
Bill Moses has to go. He is one of the worms in the can.
And Peggy Reichard, too. She can’t do fluent or read ASL! She recently turned a full professor. At first, the votes for her higher position of a professorship by the three other professors in the same dept were: one favor and two against. Peggy run to see Karen Kimmel. Karen summoned and threatened those two professors to change the votes or lose their jobs.
Many has taken her class for snap course. Babying the students around the campus or things like that have harmed the Gally’s reputation.
Close your eyes and imagine how those students made it in such small enrollemnt like 300 heads filled with the learnings during the 1950′s, passing thru all 4 or 5 years requirment of hard courses to graduate with the stern professors. One of them who made it was Dr. Robert Davila.
May 24th, 2007 at 8:03 am
Paul Kelly is not leaving at all-
John Van Cleve was not asked to leave. He decided on his own.
Dr. Kimmel was not asked to leave–she decided on her own.
May 24th, 2007 at 9:04 am
No- Paul Kelly is leaving- Fred Weiner is being trained to take over his job.
kimmel was asked to leave.
We’ll see who is correct in a few weeks.
May 24th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Shake, rattle, and roll. All those hearsay is making me dizzy.
May 24th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Why should we listen to a handful activists-chasing acolytes and mud diggers hungry for publicity? I dont see any other motive than just to pull a few crabs back into the bucket.
May 24th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Can you confirm Paul Kelly will be gone?
He is the one who order Mt. Bison fiasco and smiling while watching bulldozer destroy protester’s tents.
He must be gone!
May 24th, 2007 at 11:53 am
to Richard Rolm:
I am not one who “handful activists-chasing acolytes and mud diggers hungry for publicity?”
I really have it on good authority that Fred Weiner is being trained to take over Paul Kelly job. Like I said- let’s wait a few weeks-then you’ll see if it is true or not.
May 24th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
I submitted my comment in response to your blogpost a minute ago. However, your Word Press sent me a message, “Error.” What gives?
Merci bcp.
Jean Boutcher
May 24th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Regardless of how people are leaving/staying, the “big picture” is that things are changing, big time.
Does it really matter if people are asked to leave or resign under their own power? Either they stay or go, that’s all we should worry about.
Now, getting off the soapbox for a moment, what is being done about all these Deaf students in K-12? People for years have said that Gallaudet was the problem that the education was not good enough but everyone fails to mention that the problems started in k-12 education first. Gallaudet was expected to fix all these problems in a 4-5 year span, which is unrealistic. Most of the students who “shouldn’t” be admitted to Gallaudet/NTID would have a hard enough time in local community colleges too, so the problem is in k-12 education whether that is mainstream or state schools for the Deaf.
Why does Gallaudet have 1 dean for both Liberal arts and science/technology? Was it 2 separate positions and Kimmel got dean for both of them?
May 24th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
It is good to ask those people leaving since they were not supposed to lower admission requirements and also were not supposed to give them passing grades instead of failing grades if the students do not deserve the passing grades. Now, how about one third of existing students who can not read and can not write? Let them go unless they restore the college preparatory dept. that would have been very helpful to students to pick up everything they need before entering the freshman class!!!!
May 24th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
One amusing correction: Resignation, not resignment.
r-
May 24th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Don’t forget BOT..Tom needs to go!!!!!!!!!!
May 25th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
White Ghost, some people were talking to Susan Kinzie of Washington Post.
I never said that John Van Cleve was asked to resigned. I just stated that he tendered his resignation.
R, thanks. I wrote this at five am, while getting ready to go on the road for two days. Not the best time to write an article. Resignation, not resignment! lol
May 26th, 2007 at 10:48 am
LOL, MZ. Considering the last segment, you must have slipped a Freudian slip! Resignment is a splendid combination — resigning from his
“regime”. I cannot resist it.
May 27th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
According Ridorlive’s website, Carl Pramuk is gone. I haven’t received any confirmation of him getting the pink slip.
Can you straighten out the story?
June 5th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Interesting twist. Kimmel had filed a lawsuit against Gallaudet University a month ago.
KIMMEL v. GALLAUDET UNIVERSITY http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-dcdce/case_no-1:2007cv00797/case_id-125382/