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Gallaudet interim chief calm amid stormBy Kathi Wolfe On December 10th, Robert R. Davila was appointed interim president of Gallaudet University, the country’s premier institution for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. Davila, an educator and former U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary who is deaf, took office January 2nd following his appointment by the Washington, D.C., university’s board of trustees.
His term will last from 18 months to two years. Davila’s presidency begins as Gallaudet struggles to heal from a period of protests and grapples with academic problems such as low graduation rates.
Fernandes succeeded I. King Jordan, who stepped down as Gallaudet’s president in 2005. Jordan, currently Gallaudet’s president emeritus, was the first deaf president of the university. He took office in 1988 after students protested when the university appointed a person who could hear (non-deaf) as president. The “Deaf President Now” movement galvanized not only deaf people throughout the nation but those with other disabilities. Many disability rights advocates believe the DPN protest to be one of the factors that led to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Working with the Gallaudet community to heal from the tumult of the protest is a challenge for Davila, who graduated from Gallaudet in 1953. But it isn’t the only institutional problem facing Davila, who came out of retirement to assume leadership of the university. Last February, the federal Office of Management and Budget evaluated Gallaudet and gave it a rating of “ineffective,” citing concerns over its low graduation rate (below 50 percent) and insufficient oversight by the U.S. Department of Education. This year, the OMB reassessed Gallaudet and upgraded its rating to “adequate.” “Gallaudet failed to meet its goals or show adequate progress in key areas, including the number of students who stay in school, graduate, and either pursue graduate degrees or find jobs after graduation,” the OMB wrote in its most recent evaluation of Gallaudet. The school was rated “adequate” because the report contains a plan for increased monitoring by the U.S. Department of Education. (The university receives more than $100 million, about two-thirds of its funding, from the federal government.) In a message to the Gallaudet community, Davila said, “This is good news, but we accept criticism of our programs that continue to be valid.” In November, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the group that accredits colleges and universities, assessed Gallaudet. MSCHE decided to delay its decision on Gallaudet’s reaccreditation. Gallaudet retains its accreditation while this assessment is being conducted. The commission said it was concerned about “the effectiveness of (Gallaudet’s) shared governance including presidential search process.” The group also cited concern over whether the university provides “nurturance of a climate that fosters respect among students, faculty, staff and administration for a range of backgrounds, ideas and perspectives.” In January, commission representatives met with Davila, the board of trustees and other members of the Gallaudet community to address these issues. This month, Gallaudet will report to the commission on how it is addressing the areas of concern. “They (MSCHE) were impressed that the entire board of trustees was on hand to meet with them,” Davila said in his weekly Vlog (video message to the Gallaudet community). “They admitted to admiring the university in many ways, but in the spirit of ‘tough love’ felt they had to tell it to us like it is.” Davila was born in San Diego to parents who emigrated from Mexico to work the fields and orchards of Southern California. Davila became deaf after a bout with spinal meningitis when he was 8. Determined to give her son an education, his mother sent Davila to the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley, where he graduated with honors. He later graduated from Gallaudet and earned a master’s degree in education from Hunter College in New York and a Ph.D. in education from Syracuse University. Davila has taught at the elementary, high school and college levels, including nine years as a professor in Gallaudet’s department of education. He supervised elementary schools for deaf students in New York and Washington, D.C., before becoming president of Gallaudet University’s former Pre-College Programs (now called the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center). Davila also served as CEO of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology and Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services at the U.S. Department of Education. Davila and his wife Donna have two grown sons, Brian and Brent. Associated Press reports contributed to this article. Kathi Wolfe is a writer and poet in Northern Virginia. Kathi Wolfe is a writer and poet in Northern Virginia |
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Davila, 74, succeeds Jane K. Fernandes, the
university’s former provost, who was named president last May and had been
scheduled to take office at the beginning of the year. Fernandes’
appointment set off months of protest in the Gallaudet community. Students,
faculty and alumni charged that Fernandes lacked commitment to American Sign
Language and Deaf culture and that the search process leading to her selection
wasn’t diverse enough. The protesters alleged that racism and audism
(discrimination against those who can’t hear) existed at Gallaudet. In
October, after the campus was shut down for several days, more than 130
protesters were arrested. The board of trustees terminated Fernandes’
appointment in late October.