Open vs Closed Societies

President Hurwitz made it clear on the danger of practicing exclusion in his his February 19, 2013 State of the University address "Open the Gates Wide: Diversity and Inclusion at Gallaudet" speech.

Hurwitz warned against the destruction that exclusion can bring. "The wider the gates of acceptance open, the more room there is for all. Sadly, the community that excludes shrinks and dies," he said. He encouraged members of the audience to expand their circle of friends and colleagues to include those whose background is different from their own, and to embrace them "in the common cause of advancing our community and humanity."

It's the same warning that Deafhood? No Thanks Facebook group have told people for years, even before when the group became established, that it's better to accept people for who they are rather than to exclude them just because they do not pass your ideological purity test or don't believe in open thought or diversity. 

Symbolically, in American Sign Language, the sign for diversity is to reach out, while the sign for inclusion is to draw in. "All of us at Gallaudet ... must reach out and must draw in," he said. As members of a university community-traditionally a haven for open thought and respect for differing opinions-people who live, study, and work at Gallaudet don't need to be convinced of the benefits of diversity and inclusion, said Hurwitz. However, he acknowledged unresolved conflicts between groups on campus.

Those "unresolved conflicts" would be the whole McCaskill/Gallaudet/Hurwtiz/Bienvenu snafu and the seemingly racist hate letter aimed at McCaskill by a "former friendly colleague" at Gallaudet University.

Will Gallaudet University ever become a recognized university known for its inclusion, diversity, and open thought? An institution with the goal of being diverse in its language and communication approaches without resorting to gutter politics and political correctness? Only time will tell.

Threat to close down Gallaudet University over McCaskill/Gally mess?

Well, that didn't take long. Now there are calls on contacting Congressional members to begin a serious investigation into this mess.

Hurwitz released his own statement acknowledging an apparent continued confusion about why someone in McCaskill’s position would sign a petition to put something up for voter consideration.  He also doubled down on his “prudent” decision to suspend McCaskill.

Hurwitz even said he thought the crisis would help the Gallaudet community “emerge stronger because of this situation.”  Stronger, as in making political intolerance an unmistakable and unshakable value on the campus?

In 2011, Gallaudet University received the overwhelming bulk of its revenue — over $124 million, or almost 75 percent — from government grants.  The President of the United States signs the diplomas of its graduates — a very unique perk compared to peer schools.  But officials also must report annually to the Secretary of Education.

If Angela McCaskill is not reinstated, there are at least two branches of the federal government that need to begin some serious investigations into this threat to democracy.  The school’s existence is reliant on the money that comes from American taxpayers, and the spigot ought to be shut off until it can be confirmed that the school is no longer openly hostile to the democratic process in favor of extremist demands about diversity.

Remember what I said just recently yesterday regarding financial concerns over this mess of a sinkhole looking to get bigger? And this could turn out to be bigger than DPN1 and DPN2 if things do not get a hold of quickly. Gallaudet University has now the national spotlight. What moves will be made now? 

Pres. Hurwitz backpedals furiously....

I think this is somewhat to be expected. President Hurwitz of Gallaudet University is now backpedaling about the whole Angela McCaskill dust up when he put her on administrative leave raising eyebrows and getting national attention because of it.

Earlier Tuesday, Gallaudet University President Alan Hurwitz sent a message to the campus community, to "indicate forcefully" that the school would like to work with McCaskill to enable her to return from administrative leave and continue as chief diversity officer.

He wrote, "While I expect that a resolution of this matter can be reached... this will require that she and the university community work together to respond to the concerns that have been raised."

During a press conference Tuesday, McCaskill described the university as one of intolerance that manages by intimidation and bullying among faculty staff and students. She asked to be reinstated.

At her afternoon press conference, McCaskill said the anonymous faculty members who reported her petition signature to President Hurwitz were M.J. Bienvenu and Kendra Smith.

In response, the two faculty members said in a statement, “At this time, we would prefer this matter be a discussion between the University and Dr. Angela McCaskill.”

Gordon says Hurwitz’s statement today is a 180 degree turn from last week.

“We certainly want to give him a chance and explore his sincerity in the statement that he made to the public. But at the same time we are cautious about his intentions because he had a chance to do this some time ago,” Gordon said.

M.J. Bienvenu and Kendra Smith try hard to stay out of this mess. Sorry, but they are part of the whole problem here that caused the escalation and created the growing sinkhole that threatens to engulf Gallaudet University. It's totally disingenuous to say that the discussion ought to be be held between McCaskill and the University. Well, that "University" also includes the faculty members who were the ones who precipitated the whole thing and caused this whole affair to denigrate into a national attention.

From what it's worth based on President Hurwitz's words, "indicate forcefully," this is looking more likely by the minute that Gallaudet University will end up working with McCaskill and see that she returns after her administrative leave to continue as chief diversity officer. This won't happen unless McCaskill is compensated well for damages to her reputation and character before she thinks about returning to Gallaudet University as CDO. The favor is obviously in McCaskill's court. President Hurwitz knows this. So does Gallaudet University. But I think the damage is too far gone to continue on campus and she may end up suing or that Gallaudet University agrees behind closed doors on  offering her a hefty compensation package instead.

Agree with us.....or else mentality.

Such an atmosphere seems to pervade at Gallaudet University and elsewhere amongst some bloggers and vloggers. Case in point, a "Deafhood? No Thanks" Facebook group which is open to the public was formed on May 18, 2010. It's a safe-haven for those who favor open society approaches such as equality for all deaf people regardless of their backgrounds, communication methods and technology options. All without the need to adhere to any singular mindset thinking the solution is a one-size fits all. That Facebook group is an exercise on the free expression rather than to adhere to a political correctness mindset that pervades in certain groups in the culturally deaf community. And because many of us favor the approach on allowing the free exchange of important information and ideas regarding communication choices, educational choices, technological choices and parental rights for them to make informed decisions we have learned that it's better than forcing parents with limited choices. A limited choice foisted upon people with an an attitude of, for example, "your-children-belong-to-us-and-not-to-you-so-you-better-do-as-we-say." That has the "agree with us or else" mentality mindset. And if you don't agree then the name callings come raining down.  Something that the public will continue to witness time and time again. Something that Dr. Ron Stearn has warned about on focusing too much on being a closed group. Diversity is key. Respect is key.

The AB2072 issue is a good example of the "agree with us or else" mentality whenever bloggers presented their own alternative opinions about the subject not popular to some people.  Those who vehemently disagreed would actually contact a blogger's employer or make the threat of contacting their employers which is very much in line with the "agree with us or else" approach mentality. Candy, a well known culturally deaf blogger, experienced exactly that first hand for simply disagreeing or for having alternative opinions not popular with certain factions in the culturally deaf community. And because of that known culturally deaf people contacted her employer hoping to get her into trouble and perhaps fired.

Another notable culturally deaf blogger (name withheld) experienced first hand the bullying approach "agree with us or else" mentality with threats to contact the blogger's employer to make known the blogger's online activities. That was enough to make a trip to the emergency room for a mental breakdown.

The "agree with us or else" mentality is sometimes manifested in various ways like wishing the death of a toddler baby boy just because they do not like the boy's deaf father or use some other fantasy excuse as justification for making those wishes. Or you have bloggers who blog in such a way to encourage readers to do their dirty work, whether intentionally or not, to out people who blog anonymously by encouraging them to dig for more information. Why?

Despite that you can have anonymous commenters or bloggers who can still make great and credible arguments without the need to go to the extreme for those who disagree. Who says anonymous people have to identify themselves whenever they make cogent arguments? It's just simply better to agree to disagree rather than to make online threats veiled or otherwise to out people and such.

All this brings me to this new drama unfolding and how it's becoming a McCaskill vs Gallaudet University vs Bienvenu vs McCaskill. A sinkhole that guarantees to get bigger if things do not resolve quickly. All it took was one selfish act in the effort to publicly "expose" McCaskill which quickly escalated into its own growing sinkhole at this moment. It would have been better to confer privately behind closed doors to understand what the issues are in a show of respect and decorum. Instead people succumbed to this "agree with us or else" mentality which was presented to president Hurwitz of Gallaudet University. He became an unwitting pawn in this whole scheme to get Dr. Angela McCaskill fired purely out of selfishness.  This is the kind of sinkhole that could put Gallaudet University in danger of being swallowed financially with potentially more lawsuits from more than one person and even Congress may look into it. All this has the making of a public relation nightmare at the national level for Gallaudet University.  A level that could easily clip all other dramas to date including DPN1 and DPN2 protests with the Dr. J.K. Fernandes in 2006 brouhaha should this new drama spiral out of control.  This isn't about "social justice" but purely a witch hunt gone awry. This is also about "deafhoodism" exposed in its rawest form with the mentality of agree with us...or else in order to to get people to "fit in"  rather than accept diversity for what it is.

But we say, no thanks. We'd rather agree to disagree.

We can do better as a community of fellows with many commonalities and shared experiences, and not about political correctness. We see people as equals whether hearing, hard of hearing, or deaf. Whether they know sign language or not. Whether they prefer to speak or not. It doesn't matter. What matters is the respect for our fellow human beings. What happened that day wasn't about respect but pure selfishness.

UPDATE: Check out the latest interview with McCaskill. 

Dr. McCaskill speaks....names her accusers.

An important lesson that it's better to resolve these things behind doors with a better understanding on what has happened rather than to make assumptions.  Here is a signed video of Dr. McCaskill making her stand against witch hunts. It was Dr. McCaskill who exhibited professionalism, and not those who allowed people to make brash, wild charges in a witch hunt quest that really does not go anywhere nor does anybody any good. Three people made that mistake and it wasn't Dr. McCaskill.

And so the process begins, maybe, on getting Dr. McCaskill to be reinstated back to her CDO position but with a caveat from her attorney:

The president of Gallaudet University said Tuesday that the chief diversity officer who was put on administrative leave after signing an anti-gay marriage petition is welcome to eventually return to her position.

But an attorney representing Angela McCaskill said that would likely only happen if the university compensates McCaskill for the emotional distress she endured, along with the damage to her reputation. There are also calls for university trustees to examine the situation.

“I am dismayed that Gallaudet University is still a university of intolerance, a university that manages by intimidation, a university that allows bullying among faculty, staff and students,” McCaskill said at a press conference in Annapolis on Tuesday afternoon, with the assistance of an interpreter.

A bullying atmosphere at Gallaudet University using fear and intimidation with the "agree with us or else" mentality. Why would Gallaudet University want to live under that reputation when teachers have to live in fear from reprisal.?  Eventually McCaskill will get re-instated but at a cost to the university that no amount that can repair her ruined reputation. 

ICED....over.

As many may not realize that I'm happy with what ICED had to say because they made an important step about the acceptance and respect on language and communication. It didn't call for any kind of restriction and that's good. Very good. Even President Hurwitz was keen on this announcement that he shared the key thing that everybody should agree to. Pres. Hurtwitz re-iterated the key point on what ICED issued a global call to "accept and respect all languages and all forms of communication" in the education of deaf and hard of hearing people.

There were no restrictions or specificity against the use of cued speech, oral-auditory, SEE, PSE, AVT, note takers, CART, captioning, texting, voice to text, use of hearing aids and cochlear implants to help communicate and listen, and so on. Nor did it specify or condemn for using one form of communication method over another. Or whether two or more communication methods can be used or that a single preferred communication can be used.

ICED made sure that the message is to accept and respect all forms of communication be loud and clear. Nothing was said about which ones MUST be used but rather they all MUST be accepted and respected. No specific favoritism from this announcement. All forms of communication need to be accepted and respected.

Very nice.

I can live with that one.

Check out this poll about the $1 million dollars donation to Starkey Hearing Foundation on whether people approve or not the donation for free hearing aids to deserving kids from around the world, I'm sure Marlee Matlin approves.

Hmmm?