Jane K. Fernandes

From Staff Reports

An educator who was at the heart of a controversy over her appointment to lead a university for deaf students has been tapped to be the next provost of UNC Asheville.

Chancellor Anne Ponder announced last Friday that she intends to make a formal recommendation to name Jane K. Fernandes the universityís new provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the UNCA Board of Trustees meeting on Dec. 15.

ìJane Fernandes is an exceptionally talented and experienced individual whose achievements and expertise ideally suit our Universityís goals and mission,î Ponder said in a written statement.

Fernandes was the focus of a national controversy in May 2006 after she was appointed president of Gallaudet University, the nationís leading liberal arts university for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

Her appointment triggered months of protests by students who felt that she was not an appropriate choice for the position.

Some students at GU objected to the process by which she was chosen, saying the university did not take their wishes into consideration. After the schoolís newspaper published the results of a poll showing very little support among students and faculty for Fernandesí appointment, many students were surprised that she was appointed.

In response, hundreds of GU students began demonstrating, blocking entrances to the university and even erecting a ìtent cityî on the campus, effectively shutting down the school for several days in October, when classes resumed after the summer break.

The faculty at GU also voted ìa lack of confidenceî in Fernandes. At the end of that month, school officials revoked their offer.
Fernandes said that the issues surrounding her appointment to the presidency at GU had to do with cultural clashes within the deaf community.

Though she was born deaf, Fernandes learned to read lips early in her life and did not learn American Sign Language until she was in graduate school at the age of 23.

Some analysts say the issue over Fernandesí appointment at GU belies a larger issue. For many in the deaf community, her relatively late adaptation of ASL was seen as an impediment to her ability to govern a deaf school.

To some, the language is considered a central part of deaf identity. As improvements to medical technologies have alowed more deaf people to communicate in other ways, many deaf people fear that ASL ó and hence deaf culture ó is under threat.

Fernandesí appointment as UNCA provost follows an eight-month national search, led by a 14-member search committee made up of UNCA faculty, staff, students and administrators. There were more than 160 applicants for the position, four of whom visited the campus in November.

If approved by the Board of Trustees, Fernandes will be responsible for:
ï Oversight of: the universityís 31 natural sciences, social sicences, fine arts and humanities and interdisciplinary programs.
ï Developing curriculum.
ï Faculty selection, evaluation, tenure and salary.
ï Securing research funding.
ï Overseeing student academic opportunities in service learning, undergraduate research, study abroad programs, the teaching fellos program and the honors program.
ï Admissions, financial aid and student retention.