Deaf Students Shut College, Demanding Deaf President

More than 500 angry students blocked entrances to Gallaudet University, the nation’s only liberal arts college for the deaf, and forced it to close Monday in a protest over the selection of an educator who is not deaf to be the institution’s president.

“A lawful, proper and final decision was made,” Gallaudet board chairman Jane Bassett Spilman sternly told students who dramatically confronted trustees on a gymnasium stage.

Hundreds of other students and faculty stormed out of the gymnasium and marched on the U.S. Capitol--source of most of the university’s funds--shouting: “Deaf president now!” They vowed to keep the sprawling campus shut until that and a series of other demands are met.

Triggering the protest was the board of trustees’ selection Sunday night of Elisabeth Ann Zinser, now vice chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, to be the university’s president. The trustees chose Zinser over two deaf people, either of whom would have become the first deaf president in Gallaudet’s 124-year history.

The protest over Zinser, who has just begun learning sign language, reflects a growing determination by the deaf to assert their abilities and to reshape educational policies that they claim are not attuned to their unique language and culture.

“This is a revolt against a system based on the assumption that deaf people have to become like hearing people and have to fit into the dominant hearing society,” said Eileen Paul, co-founder of Deafpride, a community-based advocacy group.

Or, as Gallaudet student Patty Dooley put it, speaking through an interpreter: “We want to show the world that the deaf are not inferior and the deaf can do it. A deaf president would be a good role model.”

The protesters charged that leaving Gallaudet under the control of a majority of trustees and administrators who are not deaf would undercut the special mission of a college that achieved university status only a year ago.

‘Protect Our Dignity’

“Gallaudet is a torch for many of us to save our culture, preserve our language and protect our dignity,” said Gary W. Olsen, executive director of the National Assn. of the Deaf and a Gallaudet graduate who has been active in organizing demonstrations.

But the university also faces a deepening budget crisis spawned by federal spending cuts, and trustees indicated that they were impressed by Zinser’s “extensive experience” in fund-raising and management.

Moreover, the school faces other challenges, including the trend to educate deaf students in so-called mainstream schools. Previously, many deaf students who wanted to go to college viewed Gallaudet as their only choice, but federal laws prohibiting discrimination against the handicapped have made it possible for deaf people, aided by interpreters, to attend a range of schools.

Other Two Are Alumni

In voting 10 to 4 for Zinser, the trustees chose her over deaf finalists I. King Jordan, who has been dean of Gallaudet’s college of arts and sciences for two years, and Harvey J. Corson, superintendent of the Louisiana School for the Deaf in Baton Rouge. Both are graduates of Gallaudet.

Four deaf people sit on the board. Of the three taking part in the vote, all voted against Zinser.

Spilman called Zinser “a caring person” and “a uniquely talented educator who would best lead Gallaudet as we face very challenging times.” She said Zinser has more administrative and management experience than the other candidates.

The protesters demanded not only a deaf president, but also a deaf replacement for Spilman, a deaf majority on the board of trustees and amnesty for any demonstrators facing punishment.

A student leaflet charged that Spilman, in remarks to demonstrators Sunday night, justified Zinser’s selection by saying: “Deaf people are not ready to function in a hearing world.” Spilman could not be reached to comment on whether she made such a remark.

Spilman Attacked

The leaflet went on to attack Spilman, wife of the head of Bassett Furniture Industries Inc., as “a chairperson who herself knows no sign language and cannot communicate with the Deaf!”

Gallaudet’s former president, Jerry C. Lee, resigned to become a vice president of Bassett.

In contrast with raucous campus demonstrations of the 1960s, Monday’s protest at Gallaudet was largely quiet, punctuated only occasionally with chants and catcalls. Leaders, elevated on the shoulders of colleagues who were blocking the school’s main gate, silently declaimed with hand signals. The crowd--eschewing the raised fist of old--silently responded with two fluttering hands held high.

Rejected presidential finalist Jordan, treated as a hero as he strolled the campus, mounted the top of a flatbed truck and thanked the protesters for their support.

“I want to express my pride in you for you positive actions,” he said with both hand movements and a voice loud enough for TV cameras. “Please continue things in a positive way.”

‘Open Dialogue’ Sought

The trustees had hoped to hold what they termed an “open dialogue” in the gymnasium with most of Gallaudet’s 2,200 university students, 400 high school students and 200 elementary school students.

But many in the audience walked out shortly after Spilman began to speak and several students, led by Jennifer Israel of Texas, mounted the stage to assail the trustees as they sat in folding chairs. “You have gone too far,” Israel declared, using signs and an interpreter. “We have to make the decision ourselves.”

In a telephone interview, Zinser said she felt “considerable empathy and compassion for the students and friends of the university who have been wanting so deeply to have a deaf president. . . . They need some time to grieve the sense of loss at not achieving what they so much hoped for.”

However, she said: “I feel that in time I will be accepted on campus.”