Despite all the pain that this protest has caused the deaf community, there is a possible silver lining. (It was indeed painful. It actually drove a wedge between me and some longtime acquaintances who said they supported Fernandes). Before the protest, one of the complaints was that Gallaudet's enrollment was declining. Now, because of the protest, Gallaudet's name recognition has gone WAY UP due to all the media coverage. Both hearing and deaf people who were not aware of Gallaudet's existence, certainly are aware now.
This presents Gallaudet with an opportunity to increase its enrollment. I remember reading that when the DPN happened in '88, Gallaudet had a surge in applications afterwards. The same thing could happen again.
As for the BOT requirement that the protestors do community service in exchange for no PNG, that's a good, if not great, deal! Community service is a normal graduation requirement in many high schools and colleges. There are opportunities for community service in the deaf community. For example, in the DC area, there is the organization Deaf-Reach.
Monday, October 30, 2006
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1 comments:
Don't forget Annapolis Living Independence(Deaf program), Family Support Foundation(Deaf program), Community Support Services for Deaf, too many to list, and all within 30 minutes of Gallaudet. I'm sure it'd be good for the students to be role models for deaf consumers at those agencies, "wow, if they can do it, so can I!" You know?
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