A unique business triangle in DC

Branches of two giant corporations and a local restaurant are all cleverly designed to serve the large, local deaf community. Read more in The Hill here.

Racism allegations at Gallaudet

Claudia Gordon

Claudia Gordon, the first deaf Black female attorney in the US says she felt like a token while a member of Gallaudet University’s Board of Trustees. She resigned from that positions in May and tells the Washington Post:

I felt like my identity was welcome but my knowledge and input were not. The university leadership continually skirted around undertaking the uncomfortable conversations, as well as bold and decisive actions necessary to dismantle the pervasive structural and systemic racism that is so deeply entrenched in this 156-year-old institution.

The disability rights advocate says “she endured microaggression, and watched other Black officials denied promotions and pushed out of leadership positions.“ The school recently suspended a fraternity when photos came to light of members wearing items that looked like KKK robes. The Post also spoke with another board member who resigned, James F.X. Payne, about patterns of discrimination at the university. Read the full story here.

The Making of ‘Deaf U'” panel

Gallaudet University organized a panel to talk about “The Making of ‘Deaf U'” on Tuesday. Watch it below and read more about the video gathering from Variety here.

Nyle DiMarco: how working on Deaf U made him reflect on his own college experience

Nyle DiMarco from his Instagram

Nyle DiMarco spoke with Entertainment Weekly about how he enjoyed his time at Gallaudet University. His new Netflix series Deaf U follows the lives of recent Gally students, which put him in a nestaglic mood. He said his time at Gallaudet helped him appreciate the diversity within the Deaf community:

There are people like me who'd be labeled as part of the elites because I come from a deaf family, I grew up in the deaf community, and I went to deaf schools. There was a time when I arrived at Gallaudet not considering other students coming in without the same background. So maybe my behavior could've been perceived as harmful by them. It's really a conversation about learning our own positioning within our community and learning how we're leveraging our positioning to support the entirety of the community and back one another as a whole.

DiMarco also reveals how he got into trouble at the school. Read the entire ET interview here.

Here's Where the Cast of Deaf U Is Now

If you have watched Deaf U and are wondering what has become of the cast since the taping of the eight episodes, O, The Oprah Magazine, has the answers here. The Netflix show debuted today and is set at Gallaudet University.

“Deaf U” is available

The Netflix series “Deaf U” is now available for viewing. The reality show follows several Gallaudet University students, all of whom are deaf or hard of hearing. Each of the eight episodes are about 20 minutes long. Actor, model and deaf-rights activity Nyle DiMarco is executive-producer. The Guardian spoke with him about the show here. Here is a Netlflix video where students talk about sign names--including President Trump’s sign name.

Meet the Cast of Deaf U

Cosmo is providing the Instagrams for the Cast of Netflix’s New Show ‘Deaf U’. The show debuts a week from today (Friday, Oct 7). The reality series follows a group of deaf students who attend Gallaudet University. Take a look here.

View this post on Instagram

A little advice, always add spice 💕

A post shared by tessa lewis (@tessazabrina) on Sep 14, 2020 at 9:04am PDT

20 years ago today: Murder at Gallaudet

It was on this day (Sept 27)  in 2000 that Joseph Mesa, Jr. beat Eric Plunkett to death in his Gallaudet dorm room. The killing put the school in a state of panic, with some students withdrawing from the school rather than living in a situation where they knew a murderer was living among them. The terror came to an end in February of the next year when Mesa turned himself into police-but not before he killed again. Mesa stabbed Benjamin Varner in his Gallaudet dorm room more than a dozen times. In July of 2002, the 22-year-old from Guam pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, telling jurors he saw hands wearing black gloves that told him in sign language to kill. Jurors convicted Mesa on all counts and a Washington, DC judge sentenced him to six life terms without the possibility of parole. Mesa began serving time at the United States Penitentiary in Atwater, California near San Francisco, a high-security facility.

Deaf U Trailer

Back in July we told you abot a new Netflix documentary called Deaf U that debuts on Oct. 9. Netflix has just released a new trailer for the show.

Deaf U on Netflix

Deaf U will debut on Netflix three weeks from today (Oct. 9). It is part of a series called 7 Incredible Real Stories The docuseries follows Gallaudet students through their daily life. Here is the trailer:

Network to Promote Deaf-Led Sign Language Research

Gallaudet University is looking for ways to promote Deaf-led research and innovation in sign language technology. The school is launching a professional network to support this type of research. The network is called CREST, which stands for Cultivating Research and Equity in Sign-related Technology. The National Science Foundation is providing funding and founded by Melissa Malzkuhn, who started Gallaudet's Motion Light Lab, and Lorna Quandt, the lab's science director. Quandt said in a press release:

There is new research coming out every day in this field. Now, with CREST, we have the opportunity to bring together top researchers and resources from across the world, not only to accelerate cutting-edge technologies for the broader deaf community but most importantly to ensure they are developed authentically from the start with deaf input and representation.

Read more about it here.

A drama based on DPN!

A drama is planned based on the book

Deaf President Now! The 1988 Revolution at Gallaudet University. The book, written by John Christiansen and Sharon Barnartt, tells the story of what happened the week of protests at Gallaudet when the students and supporters rallied for eight days around the cry for the school to have a deaf president. The untitled show is an effort from Concordia Studio backed by Nyle DiMarco.

Florida School Staffers identified as being part of offensive photo

Some Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind staff members are in an offensive photo taken of members of Kappa Gamma fraternity at Gallaudet University—including a media specialist and an athletic director. An associate instructor from the University of North Florida is also in the photo, according to a report by The Florida Times-Union. Read more details here. 

Investigation into principal at deaf school

A high school assistant principal at the California School for the Deaf, Riverside, is under investigation for his part in a fraternity at Gallaudet University that was recently suspended for anti-Semitic activities. 

Tim Hile belonged to Kappa Gamma and is seen in a 2006 photo apparently giving a Nazi-style salute As a Gallaudet University student. Read the full story here.

Commissioner for the deaf put on paid leave

The Massachusetts commissioner for the deaf is on paid leave while an investigation is underway into his fraternity activities during college. The fraternity engaged in racist and anti-Semitic practices. WCVB-TV reports Commissioner Steven Florio of the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing told staff about his participation in some of the frat's controversial activities. Florio also sent an email to staff in which he wrote, "I disavow my past affiliation with the fraternity." Read more here.

Steven Florio from WCVB-TV video

Gally's plan for fall teaching

Gallaudet University will start the fall semester remotely, then slowly bring students back for in-person learning based on recommendations from the school’s reopening task force and city officials. Below is a video from President Roberta J. Cordano about the fall semester and you can read more information here.

Gally suspends frat House over racist photo

Gallaudet University has suspended its oldest fraternity. A 1988 photo has come to light showing members of the Kappa Gamma chapter doing what appears to be Nazi salutes. Current members of the Gallaudet chapter have condemned the photo. In 2014, the fraternity was criticized when members wore robes resembling Ku Klux Klan robes. President Roberta Cordano told the campus in a video, “They have become the face of systemic racism in our community, with photographs of the salute and use of robes being shared on social media. This behavior is unacceptable." Watch the entire video below. You can read the text of video here.

Gally gets new swim coach

image from Galluadet.edu

Nick Pezzarossi is the new men’s and women’s swimming and diving head coach at Gallaudet University. Pezzarossi, who is deaf, was twice an assistant coach at the school—three years under former head coach Bill Snape (2004-07) and one year under former head coach Rosemary Stifter (2003-04). The most recent head coach, Larry Curran, recently stepped down after eight years. Pezzarossi's wife, Caroline Pezzarossi, teaches psychology at Gallaudet. Read more about the new coach here.

The Deaf-Blind Fear That Doctors Won’t Save Them from the Coronavirus

The president of Gallaudet University, Roberta Cordano says, “My worry is that the pandemic planning has completely missed" the deaf-blind community. “To be frank, there is no mechanism on a national scale to support the deaf-blind in the current American health-care system.” At least fifteen of Gallaudet students are deaf-blind. The New Yorker has more in a new article written by Robin Wright:

During the pandemic, the new forms of protection—including social distancing, masks, and gloves—only complicate communication for deaf-blind people who can’t read Braille with gloves on because their hands are desensitized. And many who have residual sight can’t lip-read through masks.

Wright goes on to say:

When I started reporting this piece, I had no sense of the scope of the issues or the depth of their fears. More than three dozen deaf-blind people from as far away as Australia poured their hearts out in poignant e-mails and calls, some conducted through complex layers of sign interpreters and Braille. People who are deaf-blind don’t want pity, they told me. Many are exhausted, even in normal times, by simplistic depictions of their heroic survival in a hearing and sighted world.

Read the full article here.

Gally to get federal emergency funds

Gallaudet University will receive $821,498 in emergency federal funding based on total enrollment, the number of full-time students eligible for federal Pell grants and which are awarded to students from low-income families." Read more about the distribution to DC schools in the Washington Post here.