I am not Deaf so you must excuse my ignorance. I understand the relavance and importance of having a Deaf president vs. a deaf president at Gallaudet. I do not believe that it is about how much the person does or does not hear. It is not about growing up oral vs. manual communication. I also do not believe that it is about having a Deaf family or graduating from Gallaudet. Please correct me if I am wrong here...It is about understanding Deaf culture, valuing ASL, and respecting Deaf individuals rights. I think all the other factors that I mentioned can be positive or negitive for the background of the future president...but what is most important is effectivly managing the school AND promoting the culture! Please tell me if anyone can disagree with me. If this many people feel negitivly about Fernandez then she is not respectful to the culture and should not be president!!!!

It is very interesting to note that 81% of students, and 53% of faculty rated candidate Ron Stern "acceptable." This is a candidate who DID NOT have any higher education experience, and DID NOT have a doctoral degree. What does this say about student/faculty opinion of who is acceptable or not? Let me say it again: A MAJORITY felt that candidate to be an "acceptable" person for president. But of course, he is Deaf Enough, so that makes up for those glaring deficiencies?