Jane Kelleher Fernandes (born August 21, 1956 in Worcester, Massachusetts) is a deaf educator and is the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina Asheville as of July 1, 2008. Dr. Fernandes was the former President Designate of Gallaudet University. On 29 October 2006, the board of trustees of Gallaudet University voted to terminate the appointment of Fernandes, who had been the subject of protests.[1]
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Fernandes was raised in Worcester and is the daughter of Richard Paul and Mary Kathleen (Cosgrove) Kelleher. Her family chose to raise her in an oral education program, meaning her education focused on teaching her to speak. Her parents were also Deaf and raised orally. When Fernandes grew older she made the decision to learn American Sign Language (ASL) and develop her involvement with the deaf community.
Fernandes attended Trinity College, earning a B.A. degree in French and comparative literature, and the University of Iowa, where she earned her M.A. and Ph. D., both in comparative literature.
After graduating from Iowa, she worked for Northeastern University before coming to Gallaudet as chair of Sign Communication. Her next move was to Hawaii where she established an Interpreter Training Program and served for five years as the director of the Hawaii Center for the Deaf and the Blind. In 1995 she returned to Gallaudet to become the vice president for the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center. In 2000, she was named provost of the University by President I. King Jordan, who appointed her without consulting the faculty, a move which Jordan called "a terrible mistake".[2] [3]
Fernandes in her application wrote:
| “ | Gallaudet’s mission holds both personal and professional meaning for me. I am a white deaf woman, the daughter of a deaf mother and a hearing father, with both deaf and hearing brothers, all of whom are white people. The generations of white deaf and hearing people in my family have never signed; they have always been oral people. Having grown up deaf, I came to learn Sign Language relatively late, at the age of 23, while I was a graduate student at the University of Iowa. From that time on, I have embraced signing and visual communication as the keystone of deaf education and now the uniting feature of Gallaudet’s diverse, deaf community. While we respect a variety of communication modes and languages among deaf people, we must also unite in affirming visucentric public discourse. | ” |
Immediately after the announcement of the appointment of Dr. Jane Fernandes, scores of students protested against her appointment. According to The Washington Post, "Students objected to the appointment of Jane Fernandes, who is deaf and is currently the university's provost, because she did not grow up using American Sign Language. Some students also criticized Fernandes for not having warm relations with students."[5] Opponents of Fernandes claim that the Washington Post article (and, in general, much of the media coverage), were unable to figure out the real reasons for their opposition, although a frequently published reason was that she was "not deaf enough." This reason for opposition is debunked by most observers today, due to the excessive public relations campaign around a "sound bite" that sought to define the opposition incorrectly. [6] Fernandes also attracted opposition due to a perception that she was insufficiently committed to addressing the problem of audism (discrimination against or persecution of anyone based on hearing status). Allegations of racism in appointing Fernandes, who is white, were also raised. Notably, organizations of students of color had protested the failure to choose as finalist the long-time Board of Trustee Chairman Glenn Anderson, a black Deaf man. The student paper took polls a few days before the selection. Of those faculty members who responded, 36% gave Fernandes an "acceptable" rating, compared to 53% and 64% for the two other finalists.[7][8]
The protesters pointed to her past managerial actions that they felt were questionable and did not reflect qualities of a solid leader. In November 2006, shortly after the protests, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education declared the university's accreditation in jeopardy. Fernandes's opponents pointed out that her selection was supported - and may have been outright encouraged - by Dr. I. King Jordan, and that to have allowed Fernandes to become president would have meant a continuation of leadership by an ineffective administration.[9]
On October 13, 2006, dubbed "Black Friday" by the campus community, Jordan ordered mass arrests which detained up to 134 students protesting Fernandes' selection. This set off even a larger protest which had 1,000 alumni, faculty, students and staff members the following day.
On October 29, 2006, the Board of Trustees of Gallaudet University rescinded her contract to be the ninth President of Gallaudet and terminated her in her position as President-designate.
Fernandes is married to James John Fernandes and has two children, Sean William and Erin Frances.