I banged up my thumb while playing basketball yesterday. It was months since I last played and within the first minute, the ball ricocheted sharply off the rim and jammed my right thumb. The thumb's all swollen now. With it disabled, I have a hard time doing simple things like buttoning up my jeans. Levi 501s have buttons instead of zippers. I wore one yesterday but not today. Normally I'd squeeze the shampoo bottle with my right hand and lather up with my left. Today, I had to reverse things because my righty can't squeeze. Running through my hair felt alien, as if I had never done it before. My hands have separate memories.

The latest letter from the Board of Trustees sounds nice. They seem to want to change things that caused this whole mess in the first place. They seem willing to twist Fernandes's arm to stop her from being so her. Funny, if it wasn't for the things she told the media, I might've been inclined to forget about protesting. What she had to say recently is just laughable:

"Hearing aids are better than ever. Implants are better than ever," Fernandes said. "Progress in genetics is leading to the idea that you could choose not to have a deaf child. All that puts huge pressures on these deaf students." (Washington Post)

“Medicine has made huge strides with cochlear implants — electronic devices that can help provide a sense of sound to those with serious hearing problems. When a majority of deaf students at Gallaudet make use of this new technology, some students and faculty may worry about what may become of deaf culture and sign language.

“They may be afraid of changes that are coming,” Fernandes says. “And I really need to reach out to people and express that I am more than willing to work with them.” (ABC News)

She's still parroting the same things over and over, even after we corrected her millions of times. There's no way in the hell I'd recognize her as a president now. She's clearly hopeless.

Many students are talking about taking LOAs to pressure Fernie into resigning. A few days ago I almost started an online petition in which current students would sign to state that if a deadline passed and JK was still the next president, they'd drop all of their classes for this fall. FSSA said to hold it until they discuss it on Monday (they have weekly meetings). 

If we go ahead with this threat and she doesn't back down, actually following through is easier said than done. I'll be the editor in chief for Tower Clock—it'll be a great experience to run an official organization, being able to hire my own employees, etc. Then I'll graduate. To give it all up because that IKJ lapdog wouldn't get lost? Almost everyone'd give up something as well if they eschew school this fall. Is it worth it? But if at least 500 students do go along, I'll do it.

Even psycholinguistics can be funny and adorable. Especially the part how children acquire language. An excerpt from the textbook:

Another example of an idiomorph is reported by Reich (1986), who told of a child who referred to ice cream as ABCDE. Although his parents were initially puzzled, they eventually figured it out. They tended to spell out certain words that they did not want the child to know, so they might ask each other, "Would you like some I-C-E C-R-E-A-M?" The child could not spell it, so he simply used the only letters he knew!

But my favorite example comes from Hakuta (1986), who reported that a child said, "Whew!" as a way of saying hello to guests who came to the house. It turns out that the mother often greeted the child in the morning in this way, along the lines of, "Whew! You must have some load in your pants!"

Will pitch a tent @ you know where this evening...

I'm actually like most of you, following the protest mainly through blogs and the media. I've been to Tent City only twice. I have my reasons. For one, I'm sick. :) I just took meds and should be heading over there this afternoon.

Cyberbanging: these days even gangs have their own websites.

I admit I was the one who held up the "she doesn't say hi" placard.

Just kidding.

The Washington Post reporter, Susan Kinzie, covering the protest finally sat down with students for a decent talk. Look out for incoming investigations on the IKJ administration, that's all I can say.

SBG OFFICIAL STATEMENT

We want our next Gallaudet President to be a leader who will transcend the pathological approach to deaf education and embrace bi-lingualism; reject insular, vertical leadership styles for deaf-centric, horizontal leadership models. We want a president who can address critical issues at Gallaudet, from low academic expectations to poor community morale, in which Jane Fernandes during her 6-year tenure as Provost has demonstrated an inability to make significant progress. She has created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation among the faculty and never followed through with her promised implementation of the Audism Mandates, failing to recognize deaf and hard-of-hearing students' communication rights.

The Board of Trustees has revealed itself to be oblivious to the real Spirit of Gallaudet by making their choice contrary to the Gallaudet community's wants and needs. Faculty, staff, students, and alumni were constantly promised by the Presidential Search Committee that their views would be heavily weighed by feedback forms, polls, and open forums with the candidates.

And yet, when in an official GSA poll, 65.9% of graduate students found Fernandes to be unacceptable; when in an official SBG poll, 81% of undergraduate students found Fernandes to be unacceptable; and when in an official faculty poll, 63% of the faculty body found Fernandes to be unacceptable, and after we all submitted countless feedback forms in favor of the other two candidates, and especially in opposition to Jane Fernandes, the Board of Trustees STILL chose her.

And hence we have two demands:

1. Jane Fernandes resign as President and the search process be re-opened.

2. No reprisals for students, staff, faculty, and alumni.

For the best accounts of today I've seen so far:

Ridor

Elisa

deafprofessional.net (although the statement that RC started it all is inaccurate—I was at the overflow room with hundreds of people, and the second JK was announced as the next president, 75% of us got up and walked out in disgust. It was a spontaneous response. We saw RC only when 2 cops were accosting him in the lobby. He's certainly to be commended for doing the right thing since people at the auditorium seemed unsure how to express their disapproval.)