NOTE: ASL Translation will allow for some variations in the process of speaking onstage and interpretation may vary from this draft. The overall message is the same.
Thank you. I am happy to see all of you here. Welcome! There are three key words I want to mention before the whole speech. The themes of Gallaudet’s State of the University speech are…..
Thoughtful, Pragmatic, and Impactful.
So often, thoughtful and pragmatic action, which is achieved through many incremental accomplishments, are the key to creating long-term impact.
Everyone’s contributions are important and valued. All together, the collective impact of our work is powerful.
As the proverb goes, “We stand on the shoulders of those who went before us…” We shall have a moment of silence to recognize those who we have lost in 2017, as they represent our thoughtful and pragmatic community and have contributed to improving Gallaudet and our community. We miss them — however, their impact still remain with us.
We are on a journey toward transformation. What affirms the possibilities of transformation are citizenship and belonging. Both are critical to success. Citizenship is measured by our commitment to our collective success for the common good of Gallaudet University and the global signing communities.
This is happening at Gallaudet. We are citizens of Gallaudet and… We will rise to the opportunities that await us, through measured and strategic steps.
The first step in our incremental journey over the past two years was listening to you and start the development of our Gallaudet priorities. This has now resulted in the Short Term Strategic Plan 2020.
For our community — instead of jumping ahead, we decided that we needed to focus on our community’s basic needs before moving on to big transformation. As we announced last semester, the Board of Trustees approved of the Short Term Strategic Plan in October 2017 and we shared it with you in December 2017.
As we grow from the short term strategic plan, we are creating the conditions to be ready for transformation. Think of this period from 2018–2020, which will fly by quickly, as our “incubation period” where we are preparing to understand and learn about our future and transformation.
During this year, we will not only pay attention to our short-term goals, but also begin to design our long-term transformation. Thoughtful, pragmatic… that’s our approach. By 2019, we will have a design for building our collective long-term strategic plan that is impactful.
Everything that we do together will build the collective impact of improving our conditions for launching our long term transformative vision for Gallaudet, our Gallaudet Vista.
Learn more: www.gallaudet.edu/strategic-plan
Allow us to unveil the hashtag for the strategic plan and the website: #GUVISTA2020
Yes. This is who we are!
Here are our priorities:
Priority 1: WE ARE providing the foundation for our bilingual mission within the diverse, multilingual, and multicultural community within which we live, learn, and work together every day.
Priority 2: WE ARE addressing the issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion, so that everyone who is a part of the Gallaudet family — feels like they belong and valued for their unique contributions.
Priority 3: WE ARE committed to improving the student experience, both academic and social, of every student at Gallaudet from early childhood through university-level.
Priority 4: WE ARE investing in our people, infrastructure, and relationships to have the impact we want for our community and the world.
Priority 5: WE ARE fostering research and interaction that allows us to drive innovation outward to the world and strengthen Gallaudet’s academic vitality.
Priority 6: WE ARE strengthening Gallaudet’s short and long-term financial well-being through planning, budgeting and decision-making.
We have some updates around Gallaudet’s budget, operations, and academics.
Gallaudet has had a legacy of being adaptive over the years; we are building on that legacy with smart investing.
On January 29th, we are beginning a process of review and renewal of our budget. This is the budget reconciliation process and this is not the traditional budget cutting process that we have had previously at Gallaudet University.
The budget reconciliation will identify areas of potential efficiencies and savings that can be reinvested into smart investing into our future for you all. We need to be smart with our resources we have currently and continue to look ahead to where we want to be.
In smart investing, we are reinvesting the same money towards what will add more to your experience here at Gallaudet. What we are doing is investing for the future.
Our Gallaudet in 5 years will be transformed and that positive impact will happen because of the thoughtful and pragmatic work that we are putting in right now.
What is wonderful, where there is challenge — people have responded with remarkable strength and spirit — especially here on Gallaudet campus.
Let’s highlight some incredible work from the past year that notably has resulted into the security of Gallaudet University’s steady fiscal path for the year ahead.
● First, we are responding to students’ financial needs in our tuition and fees. No more course fees! This change has already been made for the FY18 tuition. And we have revised the criteria for loan balances related to re-enrolling at Gallaudet.
● Student experience: We are investing more than a million dollars to improve our dormitories. We also implemented cultural competency training for our Residence Life staff. This will positively impact student success.
● In development, we had the original goal of raising $875,000 from alumni through a pledge commitment process. In half the time, Gallaudet’s alumni committed over $4.8 million! This is beautiful example of Gallaudet’s people truly caring about this place.
● In human resources, Time & Labor procedures have been transferred to online-based and we are in process of getting Payroll procedures online-based to increase streamlining, efficiency, save money, and reduce waste.
● A huge percentage of our annual budget comes from the government, so we have invested heavily in our relations with the government. We are proud to show to the Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, as well as Members of Congress, our amazing campus of dedicated faculty, staff, and dynamic students. Because you were so clearly exceptional in many ways, we closed 2017 with good security in government appropriations. This is a very pragmatic success.
However, we know that you may have questions about the recent Federal Government Shutdown. The Federal Government is now open and there will be another budget vote on February 8th. I wish to emphasize, we are okay and will continue our university activity with no interruption for now.
Departments will need to be a bit careful with spending until we know for sure what may result with the 2018’s budget. We are monitoring the situation and will keep you updated.
This is all thoughtful, pragmatic, impactful. Right? Yes!
Each individual in Gallaudet’s community is bringing a lot of value to this university and your collective contribution is why Gallaudet is not just a degree — it’s a prestigious place in the world.
Still, we must always continually try to make this a better place than last year. Here are a few examples of our community’s effort towards that goal.
Last year, we hosted 7 Mandela Washington Fellows — African emerging leaders. We also began formal work with the Internalization process to make Gallaudet an increasingly global center.
We know there is no place like Gallaudet and our ASL/English bilingual mission is the soul of our university. Faculty ASL competency standards are being redesigned and our academic departments are showing increased commitment and follow-through on our bilingual agenda. I want to thank the Center on Bilingual Teaching and Learning (CBTL) and the Bilingual Task-Force for their leadership.
Math faculty are focused on adaptive learning to meet learning styles. This is especially pragmatic in fostering our students’ learning uniqueness and ensuring success.
The Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) began 2018 with a solid framework to guide the development of an institutional EDI strategic plan that will be completed by September 2018. Dr. Elavie Ndura, Vice President of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, has made strong progress in restructuringthe Office of Diversity and Equity for Students (ODES) into Office of Multicultural Student Development and Mentoring to create collaboration and integration among programs. This will expand the impact of our strategic goals for our students.
We succeed when every individual feels they are being connected and valued. Citizenship is an investment into the collective community; Belonging is a sense of a healthy existence.
As we promised last fall, we have updates for you all on the Living, Well-Being, and Belonging Initiative (LWB). Starting immediately, we are focusing on three key areas: Food Security, PNG Review, and Community Hubs.
1For Food Security, we will have a committee led by Christine Gannon, Director of Health & Wellness Programs, whose work will engage with Dr. Ndura and Dr. Tommy Horejes, Associate Provost of Student Success and Academic Quality. They will analyze current situation and develop recommendations to improve experiences of students related to our food providence. There will be an opportunity for students and community members to be involved.
2 The review of the Persona-Non-Grata (PNG) process under DPS is being led by Dr. Elavie Ndura, VP of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), and Mr. Ted Baran, Director of Department of Public Safety (DPS). They are in the process of instituting a panel that will review all PNG cases under DPS — currently and moving forward. This panel will also develop a package of recommendations for our future PNG system, that considers both the best practices for higher education and our unique community.
This thoughtful work will be underway this spring and summer semester, with transparency and updates to the community throughout it all. By September 30, 2018 we shall have the tools to redesign our new PNG system.
3 There is great opportunity for community to be involved and have big ownership in this campus. We will have “Community Hubs” led by community members, including SBG and GSA.
This will be supported by Eyob Zerayesus, Program Manager for Campus Activities, and Carl Pramuk, Associate Dean of Student Center.
Community Hubs will develop recommendations to be delivered to Executive Team. The first recommendations from these Community Hubs will come to the Gallaudet Executive Team on April 30, 2018.
This is your campus and your input will make it better. This is a movement towards collective thinking that is also pragmatic. Stay tuned for more updates throughout this year on Living, Wellbeing, and Belonging!
In March 2018, we will have a series of events that recognize the 30 years’ anniversary of Deaf President Now! (DPN) and, also, the 200th anniversary of Deaf Education in our country through American Sign Language.
Taking a thoughtful approach to the anniversaries, we will focus on the community — every individual who ensured that the whole movement was a success. Just as Martin Luther King Jr. was a visible leader, but it took the action and commitment of thousands other individuals to accomplish a powerful civil rights advancement.
Historical moments like the DPN movement represent the core of what we are.
We are Gallaudet. The world looks to us to learn. And through Gallaudet, we make an impact on the world.
DPN is our treasured history — but we have more legacies to come in the future.
In 2018, we encourage you to continue discussing the current work that is already ongoing to improve Gallaudet in 2018 — from growing ourselves through Strategic Plan, to smart investing, to showing our academics to Congress and to Department of ED, to strengthening our campus through bilingualism and equity, and to the Living, Wellbeing, and Belonging Initiative.
As Gallaudet citizens, we are capable to rise to the vista ahead of us.
We invite you to be Thoughtful, Pragmatic, and Impactful…
Let’s get to serious business! Thank you!
