Despite two weeks of upheaval over its new president and a White House report that found its academic standards were subpar, Gallaudet University’s federal funding probably will not suffer, a congressional aide said.
Gallaudet, the world’s only liberal arts college for the deaf, depends on the government for more than two-thirdsof its annual budget.
But the House Appropriations Committee won’t consider its budget for at least a month, committee spokesman John Scofield said. And the protests have not been on the committee’s radar screen, he said.
That is some rare good news for Gallaudet officials, who have been besieged by protesters over the selection of Provost Jane K. Fernandes as the next president of the historic university.
“This is really not helping the university at all,” Gallaudet spokeswoman Mercy Coogan said. “We’ll have to do some image repair.”
Several prominent donors have already told the university they’re anxious about the continuing demonstrations, Coogan said.
Critics say Fernandes’ appointment was rigged and that she is too abrasive to hold such a pivotal position in the deaf world.
Fernandes says her detractors don’t like her because she didn’t learn sign language until she was 23 and therefore isn’t “deaf enough.”
Last year, the White House Office of Management and Budget rated Gallaudet “ineffective” at handling its federal funds.
Critics have seized on the report as further evidence against Fernandes. She has been provost since 2000.
Scofield said the White House report doesn’t count for much on the Appropriations Committee.
The ratings “tend to be arbitrary and they tend to affect congressmen’s priorities,” he said.
“We look at the score, sure,” he said. “But it’s not decisive.”
After Gallaudet held its graduation Friday, the board of trustees issued a statement announcing that Fernandes was stepping down as provost to focus on the transition to her presidency. It also asked “all sides” to “work together” to resolve the dispute.
Gallaudet University
» About 1,900 students enrolled in the fall of 2005.
» Itstotal revenues and support for fiscal 2004 were more than $140 million.
» Gallaudet’s endowment is nearly $147 million.
