Post-10/13 Protests & Arrests

On Friday night, I came home after celebrating a friend's 40th birthday to the news that the arrests had started on campus. Waking up on saturday to the news that 135 students had been arrested was quite sobering.

Dave Evans over at Sandman's Sandbox has put up two excellent posts analyzing what's happened the past few days in the larger framework of the entire FSSA movement (here and here)

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I accept the following as true:
1) President Jordan and Dr. Fernandes have the responsibility to keep the campus open at all times

2) Jordan/Fernandes are ultimately responsible for ordering the arrests that took place on 10/13/06

3) In order for the campus to heal and move on, Dr. Fernandes must resign in order to preserve the BOT's credibility as a governance organization

4) The BOT, in turn, must re-evaluate the University's role as a educational institution and as a cultural institution

5) Finally, Dr. Jordan must understand that his legacy has taken some serious hits. To see Merv Garretson questioning the presidential search process is a kick in the head. To see Father Tom Coughlin leaving the typical Roman Catholic priest's rectitude at the door in his recent open letter should convince him how profoundly this has impacted Deaf people.

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But I want to address a point many people are missing. People are condemning IKJ/JKF for ordering the arrests of the protesters. However, I see things slightly differently. Yes, see #2 above and then see #1 above.

It seems to me he has no choice in the matter. Gallaudet is, above all, an educational institution. More to the point, Gallaudet is an educational institution that accepts both tuition and federal funds to ensure students are taught.

By shutting the campus down, the protesters were essentially begging to be arrested. Many blogs reported that protesters even encouraged the cops to arrest them.

So why are so many people so outraged today? The FSSA got what they wanted, which was to try and force the administration's hand. The administration, while taking a minor PR hit, can easily go back to its supporters and the media and say "we did what we had to do in order to reopen the campus."

It seems the ante has been upped but the game is still the same. The Administration continues to win the larger PR war while the FSSA gets more stakeholders (Fac/Staff/Students/Alum) fired up.

I refer back to my earlier post where I shared my concerns about the repercussions long after Tent City is gone and (hopefully) some new president takes over. Unfortunately, this trend of the two kids (the administration and the FSSA) pissing in each other's cheerios is likely to continue long after the immediate demands are met or ignored.