Announcement about I. King Jordan of Gallaudet
I. King Jordan retired from Gallaudet last December. After stepping down as its president in Dec of 2006, he took a break for one year before he resumed teaching at Gallaudet.
How many people noticed this tidbit about his retirement?
Jordan is the only known university president who began his presidential career as a result of a massive protest, one heard all over the world, and whose term ended with another protest that was again heard all over the world. At the beginning, he was revered. At the end of his presidential term, he was vilified by the majority for his perceived role in the selection of JKF as his successor and leaving the university accreditation in tatters due to poor academic rigors. To this day, the wounds from the last protest haven’t been completely healed.
A search for a new president will be resumed sometimes this year.
I. King Jordan retired from Gallaudet last December. After stepping down as its president in Dec of 2006, he took a break for one year before he resumed teaching at Gallaudet.
How many people noticed this tidbit about his retirement?
Jordan is the only known university president who began his presidential career as a result of a massive protest, one heard all over the world, and whose term ended with another protest that was again heard all over the world. At the beginning, he was revered. At the end of his presidential term, he was vilified by the majority for his perceived role in the selection of JKF as his successor and leaving the university accreditation in tatters due to poor academic rigors. To this day, the wounds from the last protest haven’t been completely healed.
A search for a new president will be resumed sometimes this year.
February 24th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Does this mean I.King Jordan is an evil man and did no good from day one? He was chosen by whom as thought to be qualified as Gallaudet’s First Deaf President?
It nauseates me for some reason that no one was able to rectify mistakes made during his term, to have let it go for so long. Then it was a blessing in disguise for it to happen as to have Dr. Robert Davila take over.
It is still sad to see I.King Jordan go down in history as once nice man gone wrong.
February 24th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I wouldn’t call Jordan evil.
Yes, Jordan did many good things for Gallaudet. First of all, he was, without any question, a good professor. He rode on the victorious waves of DPN and brought millions of dollars for Gallaudet. He raised positive awareness about Deaf people and created that famous slogan ‘Deaf people can do anything but hear’. His immeasurably valuable contributions cannot be dismissed fairly
His failure to discipline DPS workers for their roles in Dupree’s death was troubling. He made some poor decisions. One was to allow English Dept to fire four teachers, three of them Deaf, for using ASL in their classrooms. A major mistake was his decision to admit academically unprepared students to boost up the enrollment figures, which eventually hurt Gallaudet’s accreditation status. His handling of the protesters not only reflected him in a poor light, but also demolished his legacy among some people in the Deaf Community.
I would say overall, he started as a great president, then as the years progressed, he turned out to be a human with strengths and weaknesses. Yes, he helped Gallaudet in many ways. Yet some people felt he almost destroyed Gallaudet at the end.
February 24th, 2009 at 11:23 am
I think history will even out the scoreboard and ultimately Jordan will rank favorably along with past presidents of the university.
I knew one of the longer standing past presidents and he was both a good president in terms of expanding and reaching out to more students; and a miserable one in terms of his old-fashioned, paternal attitude toward deaf people. This became further entrenched in the Gallaudet tradition despite his efforts to modernize it.
In comparison, Jordan did better overall. There were things he should have done and did not, should have not done, but did. Those are now projects for the next president to implement. Let’s make it known what we expect of him when he comes. And wish Jordan a happy retirement as we look forward to the next phase of Gallaudet.
February 24th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
My thinking is similar to Dianrez’s thinking.
I have seen some teachers who are GREAT at teaching but LOUSY at administration. Administration is a tough place to be, I believe…
My father was GREAT at stocks, selling, etc., but LOUSY at administration, so he quickly demoted himself to production where he happily spent the last years of working before retiring.
February 24th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I don’t think Jordan was evil. He made some mistakes, and that’s normal. He’s a human being after all.
I think with time, we’ll gain a clearer perspective on what Jordan’s legacy truly was.
February 24th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Despite on the Protest, I mostly think that Jordan went through the conflict of interest the life after he terminated his Presidency. I don’t really think he was evil overall.
I honestly don’t know. I don’t think he will provide his personal level into the Gallaudet community.
February 25th, 2009 at 3:26 am
It is about damn time to know that Retirement in December for I. King Jordan from the head of Gallaudet Dept. of Psychology!!!!! He’s surely wasted of time by not improving Deaf schools around here in America.. He was NOT born deaf and do NOT have a Deaf child of his own. He just wanna get some many public attention as he was a FIRST Deaf Prez of Gallaudet to cover up his own stoopid mistakes. Thanks for your update report on your blog.
February 25th, 2009 at 10:57 am
I. King Jorden’s legacy IS an unusual one!! yes,..his presidency at Gally started as the result of a worldwide protest for what he was..”a deaf president”…and ended with a protest that seemed to basically over what he WASN’T…”a Deaf president!” S’funny what one little cultural divider–a captol “D”..can mean!!
My husband is recovering qite nicely from his stroke. Docs have told me that he is recovering his speech quite nicely and all!!
(Snort!!)
If they had been watching his left hand they would have seen that he has never “shut down” or “shut up!!”
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE A GOOD FINGERSPELLER!!
……Stanelle
February 26th, 2009 at 3:39 am
I wonder about the ethical and moral implications of Jordan receiving over one million dollars per year in salary for past two years when he has not done all that much except teach a course. Is it a course in scuba diving? Hmmm . . . rigorous!!
Doesn’t that put Jordan in the same company as Wall Street CEOs and bank presidents who earned exorbitant salaries while their firms went up in flames? Obama plans to stop that kind of excessive pay. In fact, Jordan earned more than the president of the USA!
Shouldn’t there be an outcry from deaf students over the money paid to Jordan for the past two years (estimated to be at least 2 million dollars)? These are federal tax dollars at work and federal tax dollars will continue to support his high-priced government retirement.
T.G.