BiblioMarket

From Lindsay Dunn [Special Assistant to President I.K. Jordan]
on gallynet: Nov 17

Dr. Szekely;

I happen to be the advisor to the Latino Student Union and the International Student Club. Prior to that I was also advisor to BDSU and ISC. Thuan Nguyen is advisor to the Asian Pacific Association and along with Dr. Laurene Sims, is co advisor to the Black Deaf Student Union.

I believe you are way off base here and your accusations against students you taught are surprising given your eminent status as a university professor. Of course it is understandable given your sentiments so I will not belabor the obvious.

This group has nothing to do with the Coalition of Concerned Students who also had different reasons for their positions but collectively resented the disruption to their education. This coalition Dr. Szekely, represented the sentiments of a large section of our student population as well as faculty and staff and had nothing to do with the issues students of color are concerned about. I think you got it all mixed up here unfortunately.

You may perhaps wish to learn more about this community of color before you liberally label them. Each of these organizations has members who:

1. Supported the protest but NOT the disruption to their education

2. Supported the protest but NOT attacks on JK

3. Supported the protest AND were actively involved.

4. Did not support the protest at all.

These students are from student organizations that are registered with Campus Activities so please do not assume they are illegitimate, pro status quo, arrogant demagogues, inciting division, segregationists and the other verbally abusive insults you directed at them.  Frankly, it is shocking a person of your admirable status would lash out at group of young students of color in such a manner without at least being educated on the facts.

Please do not make blanket assumptions about a very diverse community of people of color both native born and immigrants. One thing that the majority believed was that the process could not possibly have been fair for reasons that have already been presented but which I may need to repeat. A more highly qualified African American candidate was excluded from among the finalists for one who did not possess a doctorate. At least these students who formed this coalition made it clear they will not hold any of the 3 candidates accountable and would place accountability squarely on the shoulders of the Board of Trustees. Do you fault them for suggesting the resignations of the previous Board when:

1. SIX members of this Board of Trustees (of course there were FOUR faculty also) could have agreed to a final three that did not include Dr. Glenn Anderson or Dr. Roslyn Rosen and instead include a candidate whom most of us knew could not possibly have been selected anyway? Simply because he did not possess a terminal degree and NOT because he was not a fine candidate? These students did not go out to analyze Mr. Stern’s private life or anything like that to discredit him. Did they? They simply recognized something was simply NOT right despite what everybody else was telling them. They suggested the process be reopened BEFORE the selection of the finalist. Imagine how much trouble it would have saved everybody if the Board had concurred.

2. This same Board of Trustees repeatedly made public statements of support for their decision despite what was going on around them. They said it was unanimous. Now we are finding out there was a split. So who lied? If they lied, is that acceptable? What do you think?

3. Now this Board finally made a decision it should have made a lot earlier and only because of the pressure from the protest. Does that make any of them a hero? If we want only some of them to resign and make heroes of the others, I personally find that unacceptable. This same Board of Trustees did not grant the no reprisal demand either and FSSA continues to be engaged in deliberations to resolve this problem. What does that say about it?

The students of colors request makes sense to me. This Board of Trustees is operating at the beck and call of students and the FSSA. They cannot and dare not make any decision that is not acceptable to these constituencies and we all know it. Neither can this administration until the Board of Trustees somehow recovers and gets back its credibility and authority and is able to give the administration some authority to make decisions.

“But CoSC is too much compromised by its compromised leadership.
As a clear sign of extremist radicalism, they demanded the resignation
of ALL Board members.”

Wow! how ironic isn’t it? “compromised by its leadership”? As a clear sign of extremist radicalism? Isnt that what we deaf folks are being accused of for demanding Dr. Jane Fernandes’s resignation? Tsk! Tsk! Is the FSSA’s leadership compromised for demanding JK’s head? Is the NAD’s leadership compromised for joining in this call for her head? No? But these students are compromised and called extremists for seeking the resignation of a Board of Trustees who are the root cause of this crises? You are indeed confusing me here.

“This was a grave error, a continuation of Fernandes’ tactics of intimidation and blackmailing toward the Board.”

Is your hatred for Dr. Fernandes so deep you cannot see anything without imagining her involvement in everything? Just because this group refused to join the “stone throwers” now makes them radical extremists? Blackmailing a Board of Trustees? So are you suggesting that students of color NOT have a stake at the table? Or are you suggesting that the sole authority on matters related to students of color are the sole domain of the FSSA and everything else is extremist, divisive, segregationist? arrogant demagoguery? intimidating and blackmailing?

Many of these students you are attacking were involved with FSSA and slept in Tent City too. You see, reopening the process was always their objective after all. Your comments on this site have demonstrated that your objectives were always very different from theirs. Does it make them extremists for not conforming to the wise professors position? I believe you will agree that cannot be the case. Of course I could be wrong.

Lindsay [Dunn]