Transformation Requires Trust

The Gallaudet administration has announced a major academic transformation. We support thoughtful efforts to strengthen the university. In a functioning shared governance system, faculty hold primary responsibility for the curriculum and are central to any effort to transform it.¹

Transformation on this scale requires trust. In this case, trust requires a clear statement of the problem to be solved, confidence that faculty governance matters, and rules that are clear and consistently applied. Right now, all three are in doubt.

1. What problem is the transformation meant to solve?

Gallaudet’s enrollment decline is real, but the administration has not shown a causal connection between academic programs and that decline, or that reducing academic programs would reverse it. If anything, we would expect that offering fewer programs would attract fewer students.

The administration also has not defined how success will be measured. Closing, consolidating, or transforming programs is an action, not an outcome.

One program was ordered to transform before its first scheduled academic program review (APR), leaving it with no review to identify what needed to change.

2. Decisions are being made before the faculty review is complete.

Although AAUP standards and the Faculty Handbook put faculty judgment at the center of any decision to discontinue a program,^{2 3} the administration has taken consequential steps before those reviews are complete.

The administration has suspended admissions to programs before their reviews are complete. Programs that cannot admit students begin losing their next class before any decision is made.

Faculty also have reason to doubt that a review’s findings will ultimately matter. In 2024, the administration overrode a vote of the faculty as a whole against closing Sociology, then closed the program and laid off a professor.

3. The rubric rules have changed during the process.

The screening rubric is an ad hoc tool created by the administration for this transformation; it is not an official Faculty Handbook process. Even so, its standards have changed and its categories have been applied inconsistently. The cutoff for possible closure was originally 19, but then was raised to 23 after the rubric was distributed, bringing at least one program under review that the original cutoff would have spared. In another case, scores from both faculty and the administration placed a program in “Sustain and/or Grow,” but the administration classified it as “Transform” anyway and told faculty the program still needed improvement in one area.

Gallaudet cannot afford to lose faculty trust.

Merit increases have disappeared, regular cost-of-living adjustments have largely ended, and faculty real wages have fallen nearly 40% since 2001.⁴ In 2023, Gallaudet full professors ranked last in pay among nine DC-area universities, while administrators ranked fourth.⁵ Our AAUP survey found low morale, little confidence in the administration, and many faculty considering leaving.⁶

The administration can announce a transformation, but only faculty can carry out its curricular work. Gallaudet’s bilingual faculty are scarce and hard to replace, and without them the university cannot meet its mandate under the Education of the Deaf Act.⁷ Further erosion of faculty trust risks driving away the very people being asked to carry out the transformation.

To rebuild trust, we call on the administration to:

1. Honor the motion passed by the Faculty Senate yesterday, restoring admissions to any graduate program under review until a final decision is made.
2. State the measurable goals of the transformation and the evidence linking each proposed change to them.
3. Complete the required faculty governance process before acting, and explain the evidence and reasoning behind final decisions when they are made.

Our curriculum may need to change, but lasting change requires faculty trust.

1. AAUP, Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities (1966). ↩︎
2. AAUP, Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure, Regulation 4d(1) (2023). ↩︎
3. Gallaudet Univ., Faculty Handbook §§ 6.13.2–6.13.3 (July 2026). ↩︎
4. Gallaudet AAUP, The Loss of Regular COLAs to Counter Inflation Has Caused a Steep Decline in Faculty and Staff Real Wages (Apr. 9, 2024). ↩︎
5. Gallaudet AAUP, 2023 Salary Data Show Stark Inequities Between Gallaudet Administrator and Faculty Pay (Oct. 23, 2024). ↩︎
6. Gallaudet AAUP, Our Survey Results Suggest a Campus Climate of Limited Freedom of Expression and Lack of Confidence in the Administration (Sept. 17, 2024). ↩︎
7. Education of the Deaf Act, 20 U.S.C. § 4301(b). ↩︎

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The AAUP defends academic freedom, promotes shared governance, and organizes for fair compensation. The Gallaudet AAUP chapter is part of Local 6741 of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), AFL-CIO. Follow us on Instagram and subscribe to our public listserv.