Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.metro From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: FINDING 'A BETTER SELF-IMAGE' AMONG GALLAUDET STUDENTS Date: Wed, 28 Oct 92 15:01:10 EST Message-ID: \SE B;METROPOLITAN;LIFE;DEAF CULTURE DIVIDED BY LANGUAGE \SS (WS) \HD FINDING 'A BETTER SELF-IMAGE' AMONG GALLAUDET STUDENTS \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS Stop and ask Gallaudet University students about career goals today and they'll talk about becoming doctors, lawyers, park rangers, accountants. You name it. Four years ago, "they would say things like 'I want to help the deaf.' They really weren't good at defining it," says Gallaudet President I. King Jordan. "Deaf people have a better self-image," he explains, "a better self concept, more positive goals and aspirations" since a 1988 protest that catapulted the nation's only university for the deaf to national prominence. "Empowerment is a word I use often," says Mr. Jordan. "There has been and continues to be a sense of empowerment." Mr. Jordan has taken advantage of this newfound pride to implement such changes as decentralizing management and requiring all employees to be skilled in sign language. Previous presidents used a top-down management style and required only the teaching faculty to use sign language. Gallaudet has more than 2,200 students attending its two campuses. Almost all of the students are deaf; about one-third of the 400 faculty members are deaf. Mr. Jordan became the university's first deaf president on March 13, 1988, after students, joined by faculty, staff and alumni, shut down the school for five days to protest a decision by the Board of Trustees to hire as president a hearing woman who did not know sign language. Within a week, Elisabeth Ann Zinser resigned from the 138-year-old school, which was chartered as a college by President Lincoln in 1864 and as a university by Congress in 1986. Stephan J. Hardy, 34, the student body president who plans to attend law school, has hanging on his office wall a framed article and a colorful poster of the "Deaf President Now" protest. "Gallaudet gave us the opportunity to reach. All that started because of this," Mr. Hardy says, pointing to the poster. Mr. Jordan, who lost his hearing in a 1965 motorcycle accident and is himself a graduate of Gallaudet, says the protest turned into a revolution that brought about "significant changes in the deaf community and how deaf people feel about themselves, how hearing people feel about deaf people." About 15 percent of Gallaudet students major in economics, business and marketing; most of the rest major in social services and education, says Steve Weiner, director of the Career Information Center. Mr. Weiner recalls that when he got his job three years ago, about 25 employers would visit the school to recruit students. Two years ago, about 50 employers came. "Last year, I'm glad to say we had 100 employers," Mr. Weiner says excitedly through an interpreter. "We've doubled every year. I think this year the number will remain fairly constant because of the economy." Now, Mr. Weiner says his office is trying to be more selective, looking for better quality jobs and higher salaries for the graduates. The university, which receives 75 percent of its $95 million annual budget from Congress, is named for Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who started the nation's first school for deaf people in Hartford, Conn. Since becoming president, Mr. Jordan has appointed the school's first deaf provost. He also is trying to decentralize management, even down to changing signature requirements for the many forms. The Board of Trustees recently approved a policy requiring all employees to use sign language. Newly hired workers - from secretaries and counselors to food service members and janitors - must spend the first three weeks in intensive sign instruction. Also new to campus is a student advisory board. "I joke with other presidents about before the revolution, how it was easier" dealing with the students, Mr. Jordan says. "If I have to choose, though. I'd take the empowerment. It's delightful to see the students take on causes and be really strong about them." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM