Many of us are like you; we were raised in mainstream schools and had a surfeit of oral education. We were smart enough to succeed in spite of the limitations of these methods, acquired a command of English equal to or superior to that of our hearing peers, and quite a lot of us went on to hearing universities at some point in our education, even to the Ph.D. level. Like you, we discovered sign language and deaf culture late. We are in addition to the many different varieties of deaf people and their friends who oppose you… Why do most of us oppose your appointment? Indeed, why did 4,000 people in Washington, 82 percent of the faculty, over 7,000 deaf community signers of a petition, and 63 communities of alumni setting up tent cities all over the world oppose you? We all have our reasons, and most of them have to do with your qualities. Not qualifications, qualities. You see, you have hurt, alienated and offended people in a great many different ways. Only now, with the pressure of the protest, are some of these being brought to light. Most people that you have hurt are reluctant to come forward, the few that did are brave souls indeed. More are like crime victims; they do not want to complain and would rather put the unhappy experience behind them for good. They do not want to get into a confrontation or be forced to defend their feelings, and they know instinctively that you WILL put them on the defensive. A leader is sensitive to one’s constituents and becomes their collective voice. A leader is honest and convincing because one is recognizably honest. You do not convince people of your veracity and your interview in the Washington Post yesterday is a case in point. Your half-truths, twisted facts, and gross inaccuracies are glaring to the majority of the college community. It has been an unwanted lesson in politics; how to spin things so adroitly that it always comes out smelling like roses to the general public. But, to put it bluntly, the general public is not whom you need to back you. It is the constituents, the stakeholders, the entire Gallaudet community from the Board of Trustees all the way down to the least-paid staff member and student worker. They are the people who you want to carry out your programs, have them believe in your goals, and who make you look good. When you say that the Board of Trustees “must” support you or cause a massive upset of the status quo on campus, you mean that you are afraid the student-terrorists will take over the campus and forever control it in a precedent-setting state of anarchy. This argument is so obviously specious it should be held up as a model of absurdity. Students come to learn, to form networks, to gain skills that will make them successful in adulthood, and to carry away great memories. They are not interested in taking control of a campus. Professors come to teach, to research, and to develop scholarly ideas, and similarly they are not interested in the administrative or politics of running an institution. Staffers come to earn a living and to feel accomplished in their work. Likewise, they do not want the responsibility on their shoulders. These people want a supportive administration that will create an open, honest, and safe environment for them to learn and work in. A community that is well- supported and well-led with their input will accomplish great things because they believe in the Gallaudet mission. A fearful, silenced and demoralized community will not. Jane Kelleher Fernandes, take the honorable, farsighted way, and resign. Only then can you go back and do greater things, as a resource for the very ideas that you hoped to carry out, laying a better foundation for future use. Or, like Dr. Zinser, you could go on to wider horizons and establish pioneer programs elsewhere. Sincerely, DPG | 
