Gallaudet University
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Gallaudet University is a federally chartered, private[link] university located in Washington, D.C. It was the first school for the advanced education of the deaf and hard-of-hearing, and is still the world's only university in which all programs and services are specifically designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students. The university was named after Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a notable figure in the advancement of deaf education.
It was established in Washington, DC by philanthropist Amos Kendall as the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb on February 16, 1857. An Act of Congress changed the institution's charter, enabling it to issue college degrees in 1864. This act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln. Since then, the sitting President of the United States serves as the patron of the University. The campus was designed by noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed Central Park and the U.S. Capitol grounds.
Students at Gallaudet University are required to have abilities in both American Sign Language and English.
Controversy
Student strikes at Gallaudet University starting March 6, 1988 revolutionized the perception and education of Deaf culture. Deaf students were outraged at the selection of another hearing president, Elisabeth Zinser, after a long line of university presidents who were hearing. Calling it patronizing, marginalizing, and inappropriate for such an essential part of the Deaf community, they demanded a Deaf president for the university. After a week of activism the president-elect resigned and was replaced by a deaf president, I. King Jordan. These strikes became known as a movement called Deaf President Now (DPN).Gallaudet University is currently the center of the movement against audism, the patronization or oppression of people based on their hearing ability.
Dr. Jordan announced his retirement in September, 2005. On May 1, 2006, Dr. Jane Fernandes, the current provost, was announced as the new president. This was met with protests from the student body, who believed the Presidential Search Committee had not listened to input from students and the faculty, and also protesting the lack of diversity among the finalists selected for the presidency. Students blocked entrances to the Gallaudet campus. The faculty gave a vote of no confidence for Dr. Fernandes on May 8. On May 9 Celia Baldwin, interim head of the board of trustees, resigned after allegedly receiving "numerous aggressive threats." Students protested until the end of the semester, some two weeks later.
The protesters maintained that they would continue their efforts in the fall. As of June 2006, leaders of the protest movement remained active in considering strategy and planning future events, and they are continuing the protest on the Internet, as an educational free-speech movement.
Federal Involvement
While the university and the Department of Education assert that Gallaudet is a "federally chartered, private, non-profit educational institution," the federal government does play various roles within the institutionU.S. General Accounting Office for the Committee on Government Operations, [Profiles of Existing Government Corporations--A Study], December 1988, p. 125-130.:
- Congress incorporated the Columbia institution in 1857, significantly amended its charter in 1954 and authorizing permanent congressional appropriations. In 1986, Congress passed the Education of the Deaf Act and amended it in 1992. These Congressional acts are part of "the supreme law of Gallaudet University."[link]
- Three members of Congress are appointed to the university's Board of Trustees as "Public Members."[link]
- Gallaudet must provide annual reports to the Secretary of Education.[link]
- "Gallaudet receives the bulk of its income in the form of an annual appropriation from Congress, and the Department of Education oversees the University's appropriation for the Federal government."[link]
Athletics
Gallaudet athletes and teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) in the disciplines of baseball, basketball, cross country running, football, indoor track, outdoor track, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, volleyball, and wrestling.The football huddle originated at Gallaudet when the team noticed that their opponents were trying to read their signs in order to guess their plays.
Research
The Gallaudet Research Institute (GRI) conducts deafness-related research concerning the demographic and academic characteristics of deaf and hard of hearing populations, primarily to provide information needed by educators in the field.References
See also
External links
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