Buck Naked Bison - No Skinny Dipping Allowed

Buck Naked Bison is becoming the new deaf alternative electronic newsletter format by founders Brendan Stern and run by Jane Jonas. But Stern and Jonas are no longer at the helm and the torch was recently passed to Ben Moore and Tim Woodford. The original BNB (not to be confused with Gallaudet University’s newspaper Buff and Blue’s acronym BNB) struggled with the costs of paper and print when it came to distributing their newsletter in a paper format. It wasn’t long until they decided to go “electronic” using the internet as their medium. Buck Naked Bison’s aim is to expose controversial perspectives (supposedly so) while using, uh, colorful graphics. Some of the graphics may be deemed as “offensive” to some (probably I. King Jordan is currently offended at the moment) with one picture of a naked man sitting on a port-a-potty while the private area is covered with a newspaper as if he’s reading it while the face of President I. King Jordan is superimposed over the original photo. Funny? You be the judge. Some say that President I. King Jordan of Gallaudet University is Buck Naked Bison’s “mascot”. Is this a love-hate thing going on here with Jordan or what? Regardless, this seems to be their “de rigueur” format. If this is any indication of free literacy license to do what they want then expect Buck Naked Bison eNewsletter to expand. Let’s see whether if they can buck the trend of the past or not.

In the past, Gallaudet University students were given the artistic literary license (although not entirely *THAT* free to do what they wanted) to communicate and express their thoughts and feelings. But time and time again through their newsletters they failed to maintain the much needed circulation and enthusiasm to keep their newsletters afloat. Why? Such defunct literary contents as Mental Floss (headed and founded by Kevin McLeod who now blogs), Manus (Latin for “hand”), and Gallaudetian newsletters flopped with so much as a whimper, nobody really heard it (pun intended). When the Deaf-run Mental Floss newsletter failed (or abandoned) the name was taken up (stolen?) elsewhere on the internet and in print with a successful result. Go figure.

What caused the continued demise of these newsletters falling like dominos one after another? Could it be that the majority of deaf and hard of hearing students at Gallaudet University and their loyal alumni simply do not have the English capacity to comprehend finely written articles filled with wits, tongue-in-cheek comments, satire, and seemingly “complex” words that you could swear those articles were written by hearing people and not by deaf, Deaf and hard of hearing students?

But even with these fine examples of literary composures and free thinking thoughts could the majority of deaf student see such newsletters as “boring” pieces of work? It’s no surprise that Galluadet Research Institute made a point that 17 and 18 year old deaf and hard of hearing students’ (while in school) English literacy skill level corresponds at the 4th grade equivalent in one well known survey. Could it be that the low circulation count and lack of enthusiasm were entirely attributed to an English problem within the Deaf community as not being “Deaf-friendly” enough?? Who knows? And even with the recent blogsite called “gBlog” set up by Gallaudet University this year has only two bloggers to begin with. One being an English major and the other a Biology major. Gallaudet University seems to be excited about this new medium for students and staff to do their own blogging:

*Introducing... "gBLOG - How we see it..."
*The Office of Enrollment Services has launched an online journal (blog) site where current students write about their lives, classes, friends, hopes, dreams, frustrations, successes, and everything else. *You can also find the site by clicking on a link from the Undergraduate Admissions website.
*OES plans to add additional bloggers in the future -- maybe even recruiting our very own faculty and staff!
*This is all part of the recruitment efforts to make direct connections with prospective students and to let them meet "faces" at Gallaudet before actually applying or visiting the campus.

Recruitment efforts? A plan? Will we ever see examples of poor deaf writings in gBlog with a face posted alongside as a source of inspiration for potential Gallaudet University students seeking to apply at the school? Not likely since people who are not confident with their English reading and writing skills tend to be quite uncomfortable in exposing their English weaknesses in a public arena. But you could almost imagine the parents’ horror upon seeing written examples in gBlog of typical Gallaudet University students if this were the case. They wouldn’t even let their deaf sons or daughters attend. Will Gallaudet University make sure that this won’t happen? Can you say "dictatorial"?

If gBlog comes to a point where there are more faculty and staff doing the blogging than students, then certainly Gallaudet University will be in bigger trouble with their pet project. Not only that, Gallaudet University will have to compete with other deaf bloggers found in Blogger.com and Livejournal.com blogging sites as well as other deaf eNewsletters invoking the name "Gallaudet." But I’ll admit, the number of deaf bloggers ought to grow by the leaps and bound covering both written and (future) video blogging incorporating sign language reaching internationally rather than it being a national phenomenom.

Only time will tell whether the latest and newest avant-guard Buck Naked Bison eNewsletter with their writers’ articulate wits will survive this round of electronic and paper flops from the halls of Gallaudet University’s rows uneventful and long forgotten newsletters and magazines . To insure their survival, they even have a blogsite of their own . The more the merrier. Repeat the name often, it’ll get recognized. The Buck Naked Bison eNewsletter survived narrowly this time in their open letter to the readers in the December 2004, Volume 3, Issue #1 newsletter:

Readers,
Huh? We're alive again?

Brendan Stern, the founder of Buck Naked Bison, has passed the torch to us. It's going to be a formidable task improving on what he has done.

We plan to take full advantage of the fact we're online by becoming more multimedia and adding some exciting features (eventually). We'll continue to showcase the most riveting and funniest rhetoric in Kendall Green, as well as substantial, thought-provoking articles.

Ah, enough hype. Without further ado...

Ben Moore
Tim Woodford


Let’s hope for an eNewsletter publication that will question authority (deaf, Deaf and hearing) equally and without relegating themselves into partisan hacking spitballs. But also let us note that Gallaudet University is grounded with mostly Liberals a la the Berkley type . Of course, students, faculty and staff are known to lean politically (I’d say with near horizontal effect) with Deaf culture (or extremism in some cases if you wish) and Liberalism. You may want to note the string of Liberal commencement speakers who attended Gallaudet University’s past graduations, which seems to confirm that liberalism besets the campus of Gallaudet University. The campus is becoming a Liberal (Deaf) hotbed. All the while located in a city called Washington D.C. where 90% of the voters in D.C. voted for John Kerry. Heavily influenced I’d say. Maybe even brainwashed?

All I can say is good luck to the staff of Buck Naked Bison eNewsletter on their website and let’s see how many rocks they will turn over leaving no stones unturned while bucking the trend. It’s about time, too.