Washington - About two weeks after she arrived on the campus of Gallaudet University last January, Roberta Cordano learned how the place works: The blizzard knew as “Snowzilla” hit, knocking out power to much of the campus.
Cordano, the school’s incoming president, invited 13 families to stay in her on-campus house overnight, where the next morning they produced a huge communal meal. When students realised that a school-issued emergency message didn’t include an American Sign Language (ASL) version, they produced one themselves, complete with captions.
“They really set the gold standard for establishing bilingual communication,” Cordano said. “There is no other place that I have experienced that would just delve into something, take care of things, figure it out.”
On Friday, Cordano’s appointment becomes official as Gallaudet, the world's only liberal arts university for deaf and hard of hearing students, inaugurates her as its first deaf female president.
The move follows decades of political upheaval at the school, where over the past 30 years students have fought to give deaf educators and students more control.
Established during the Lincoln administration in 1864, Gallaudet didn’t get its first deaf president until the Reagan administration, 124 years later, in 1988 - and only after raucous protests closed down the campus. The “Deaf President Now” protests, stretching over eight days, forced Gallaudet's board to name its first deaf president, I. King Jordan, who served for 18 years.
In 2006, more protests erupted after the board named Provost Jane Fernandes to replace Jordan. As in 1988, students blocked the main gates of the campus, and “Deaf President Now” morphed into “Better President Now.” Though all three finalists in 2006 were deaf, students feared that Fernandes might not be their strongest advocate. Some wanted a candidate who had grown up deaf and relied solely on ASL - Fernandes had learned to sign when she was young and could communicate well by speaking or by signing, The Washington Post reported at the time.
The board eventually named Robert Davila to replace Jordan.
The power struggles are actually the natural result of the linguistic issues the deaf community has experienced for more than a century, Cordano said.
“It took 100 years here in the (United) States until American Sign Language was recognised as a language, just like English, having its own grammatical structure, its own rules, all the linguistic markers you would find in any other language,” she said. “What’s fascinating is that it took 100 years for us to change the perspective from, ‘Oh, it’s just a bunch of gestures,’ to actually seeing it’s a legitimate language.”
From there, she said, it was a short step to political activism and a push for self-determination. Understanding the deaf culture, she said, made outsiders realise that deaf people have something worth protecting: “If you have a language, then surely there must be a culture - there must be literature. And of course, we realised the deaf community has culture and literature and storytelling. And from there that’s been followed by the civil rights movement.”
Cordano, 52, an attorney, has worked in healthcare, government and education, mostly in Minnesota. She’s a founding member of Metro Deaf School, a pre-K through eighth-grade charter school for deaf and hard of hearing children in St. Paul, Minn., and a founding board member of Minnesota North Star Academy, a charter high school for deaf and hard of hearing students.
She comes to Gallaudet at a time when enrollment is up and understanding of deaf culture has never been greater. But she notes that the school, and deaf education in general, are still something of an anomaly. The World Federation of the Deaf estimates only about 20% of the world’s 70 million deaf people have access to education, and that only 1% to 2% get an education in sign language.
“The question is not necessarily, ‘Is there a need for us?’ The question, rather, is: ‘Why aren’t there more Gallaudets all over the world?’”
Cordano’s appointment also comes as brain science uncovers surprising findings of how we process language. She noted that over the past decade, scientists have discovered that the area of the brain that acquires and processes aural, or spoken, language is the same one that develops when students learn sign language, which of course is visual.
“That area of the brain is just looking for patterns of language, no matter how it comes into the brain, through the eyes or through the ears,” she said. The findings, she said, show that “the brain doesn’t discriminate against language - people do.”
The school is also pushing the boundaries of research, both on language and technology; she noted research on Maki, a robot that can socially interact with infants.
Cordano said she’s also excited by research showing that babies who grow up learning more than one language enjoy a host of advantages - better eye tracking and the ability to learn abstract concepts, for instance - that aren’t related to language. “The bilingual brain develops in order to develop a bilingual child,” she said. “It’s not just about two languages. It’s also developing the brain’s capacity to thrive, to thrive beyond language.”
Asked what the significance of a deaf female president is in 2016, she suggested that the labels aren’t as important as the push to include students in the process of picking leadership. If Gallaudet’s administration learned anything from the protests of 1988 and 2006, she said, it’s that “process is important.”
“Each time since, the board and the community have done a much better job of understanding: ‘What is the call for leadership?’ and ‘What is the need for that leadership?’”
As Washington, D.C., changes and grows, Gallaudet finds that its historic campus, just east of the city’s trendy NoMa neighbourhood, may soon be fashionable. It borders Union Market, one of those hopelessly hip eateries around which the creative class hovers. The school is also engaged in a long-term redevelopment project of the nearby Sixth Street corridor. Many of Union Market’s eateries already employ Gallaudet students.
“You cannot go into Union Market without a keen awareness that you are part of a signing community,” Cordano said.
She welcomes the new neighbours. Actually, she sees no reason why the neighbourhood couldn’t someday become a kind of ASL tourist destination, listed in guidebooks.
“It’s part of the neighbourhood,” she said. “It’s part of the fabric of the community. And we pride ourselves, and always have, in understanding what it means to be a citizen in this community.”
Cordano, the school’s incoming president, invited 13 families to stay in her on-campus house overnight, where the next morning they produced a huge communal meal. When students realised that a school-issued emergency message didn’t include an American Sign Language (ASL) version, they produced one themselves, complete with captions.
“They really set the gold standard for establishing bilingual communication,” Cordano said. “There is no other place that I have experienced that would just delve into something, take care of things, figure it out.”
On Friday, Cordano’s appointment becomes official as Gallaudet, the world's only liberal arts university for deaf and hard of hearing students, inaugurates her as its first deaf female president.
The move follows decades of political upheaval at the school, where over the past 30 years students have fought to give deaf educators and students more control.
Established during the Lincoln administration in 1864, Gallaudet didn’t get its first deaf president until the Reagan administration, 124 years later, in 1988 - and only after raucous protests closed down the campus. The “Deaf President Now” protests, stretching over eight days, forced Gallaudet's board to name its first deaf president, I. King Jordan, who served for 18 years.
In 2006, more protests erupted after the board named Provost Jane Fernandes to replace Jordan. As in 1988, students blocked the main gates of the campus, and “Deaf President Now” morphed into “Better President Now.” Though all three finalists in 2006 were deaf, students feared that Fernandes might not be their strongest advocate. Some wanted a candidate who had grown up deaf and relied solely on ASL - Fernandes had learned to sign when she was young and could communicate well by speaking or by signing, The Washington Post reported at the time.
The board eventually named Robert Davila to replace Jordan.
The power struggles are actually the natural result of the linguistic issues the deaf community has experienced for more than a century, Cordano said.
“It took 100 years here in the (United) States until American Sign Language was recognised as a language, just like English, having its own grammatical structure, its own rules, all the linguistic markers you would find in any other language,” she said. “What’s fascinating is that it took 100 years for us to change the perspective from, ‘Oh, it’s just a bunch of gestures,’ to actually seeing it’s a legitimate language.”
From there, she said, it was a short step to political activism and a push for self-determination. Understanding the deaf culture, she said, made outsiders realise that deaf people have something worth protecting: “If you have a language, then surely there must be a culture - there must be literature. And of course, we realised the deaf community has culture and literature and storytelling. And from there that’s been followed by the civil rights movement.”
Cordano, 52, an attorney, has worked in healthcare, government and education, mostly in Minnesota. She’s a founding member of Metro Deaf School, a pre-K through eighth-grade charter school for deaf and hard of hearing children in St. Paul, Minn., and a founding board member of Minnesota North Star Academy, a charter high school for deaf and hard of hearing students.
She comes to Gallaudet at a time when enrollment is up and understanding of deaf culture has never been greater. But she notes that the school, and deaf education in general, are still something of an anomaly. The World Federation of the Deaf estimates only about 20% of the world’s 70 million deaf people have access to education, and that only 1% to 2% get an education in sign language.
“The question is not necessarily, ‘Is there a need for us?’ The question, rather, is: ‘Why aren’t there more Gallaudets all over the world?’”
Cordano’s appointment also comes as brain science uncovers surprising findings of how we process language. She noted that over the past decade, scientists have discovered that the area of the brain that acquires and processes aural, or spoken, language is the same one that develops when students learn sign language, which of course is visual.
“That area of the brain is just looking for patterns of language, no matter how it comes into the brain, through the eyes or through the ears,” she said. The findings, she said, show that “the brain doesn’t discriminate against language - people do.”
The school is also pushing the boundaries of research, both on language and technology; she noted research on Maki, a robot that can socially interact with infants.
Cordano said she’s also excited by research showing that babies who grow up learning more than one language enjoy a host of advantages - better eye tracking and the ability to learn abstract concepts, for instance - that aren’t related to language. “The bilingual brain develops in order to develop a bilingual child,” she said. “It’s not just about two languages. It’s also developing the brain’s capacity to thrive, to thrive beyond language.”
Asked what the significance of a deaf female president is in 2016, she suggested that the labels aren’t as important as the push to include students in the process of picking leadership. If Gallaudet’s administration learned anything from the protests of 1988 and 2006, she said, it’s that “process is important.”
“Each time since, the board and the community have done a much better job of understanding: ‘What is the call for leadership?’ and ‘What is the need for that leadership?’”
As Washington, D.C., changes and grows, Gallaudet finds that its historic campus, just east of the city’s trendy NoMa neighbourhood, may soon be fashionable. It borders Union Market, one of those hopelessly hip eateries around which the creative class hovers. The school is also engaged in a long-term redevelopment project of the nearby Sixth Street corridor. Many of Union Market’s eateries already employ Gallaudet students.
“You cannot go into Union Market without a keen awareness that you are part of a signing community,” Cordano said.
She welcomes the new neighbours. Actually, she sees no reason why the neighbourhood couldn’t someday become a kind of ASL tourist destination, listed in guidebooks.
“It’s part of the neighbourhood,” she said. “It’s part of the fabric of the community. And we pride ourselves, and always have, in understanding what it means to be a citizen in this community.”