From: information <info@gallyfssa.org>
To: info@gallyfssa.org
Subject: Alumni values
Date: Sat, 6 May 2006 12:02:10 -0400

Greetings all,
Interesting things have been going on here at Gallaudet, our home.
Here are pictures and testimonies straight from the horse’s mouth -
www.xanga.com/elisa_abenchuchan - this has been certified by numerous
alumni on how accurate it paints a picture of our “Unity for
Gallaudet” protest, so we decided this would be the best source for
pictures and information- keep on checking it often!

The FSSA is currently focusing on strategic tactics - for we have to.
The administration has been using several means, including the media, to
depict us as unruly students who are just seeking for a reason to make
history or as people who look at Dr. Jane Fernandes as someone who
didn’t say hi to us, as a person who’s “not deaf enough”. This
was the initial outburst by students, true, because they reacted with
emotion, out of anger.  They couldn’t identify the qualities that are
now so clear in the first deaf female president just then.

Now after community dialogue and through FSSA representatives
self-analyzing, we know it is her inability to lead the university. The
ability to lead the university as it deserves to be led- not as a
standard university that focuses on recruiting students and maintaining
standards of academics, but as the true Mecca of the Deaf and hard of
hearing community.

Throughout our protest, MANY people have given support to us, including
people that are standing by us EVEN though their alma mater is not
Gallaudet and they are not linked to the university itself in any way,
yet they are cheering us on and wanting the same type of President we
want. How many universities can say that? Not even the Ivy League group,
which from my knowledge is the only bunched group of universities with
similar aspects and values. RIT/NTID and CSUN students are joining us.
High school students are joining us. This should send a BIG sign to the
Board of Trustees, which still remains firm about its decision and
adamantly says that they looked at who was best qualified to be the
“ CEO” of an university. The problem is that we don’t need just a
CEO, we need a leader who knows what we want, knows where we are coming
from. Not someone who has been on the SAME campus and gone to our rally
the past 5 days and yet doesn’t know our demands (despite a letter
being given to her personally). Not someone who is trying to do simple
things that she could have done the past 6 years, talk with students of
all kinds- this will not work because not only her personal interaction
skills must change, but also her perception of things. We, the alumni
know this, and have the inert feeling that she HAS to go. Nothing else
can be acceptable. Now we need to make ALL students aware of this. So to
conclude- we’re asking you two things: Come here, and make sure
Gallaudet can go back to its glory days, where the majority of students
felt it WAS their University, not the administration’s.

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/05/05/mowl This is the
standpoint we all can relate to- let’s make it understood that it also
needs to be everyone at Gallaudet’s standpoint and put personal
agendas aside.

The FSSA has just released its central talkpoints which outlines
basically why we are protesting. The document is attached to this email.
Please feel free to spread the word about them, for they reflect what we
are standing for and will not back down from. If have not received the
document, it will be on www.xanga.com/elizabeth_abenchuchan . Again,
please feel free to forward this email for we still do not have access
to the Office of Alumni Relations’ email list, due it being under
Gallaudet University administration’s website.

Be in touch with more updates, and alumni currently on campus, we need
your pager addresses- for we have several responsibilities we want to
assign you to- for you can make a difference and you already are with
your presence on campus!! Rally is at 4 p.m. and we have a very
important agenda to share!

Thank you again!!!
Tawny Holmes, ‘04
Matthew Lockhart, ‘94