Deaf President Now

Deaf President Now (DPN) was a student protest at Gallaudet University, the liberal arts university for the deaf in Washington, DC, pushing for the selection of a deaf university president. The university, established by an act of Congress in 1864 to serve the deaf, had always been led by a hearing president. The protest was set into motion on March 6, 1988 when the Board of Trustees announced its decision to appoint a hearing person as president.

DPN took place over a month long period between March 6 and April 6, 1988. Because it received national media attention for the entire duration of the protest, some have identified the event as a watershed moment that raised awareness of Deaf culture. On the fourth day of the protest, Ted Koppel on ABC's Nightline interviewed some of the major actors in the clash.

Introduction

Twenty two years ago, Gallaudet University was the site of a student-led protest that today is called Deaf President Now, or simply, DPN. But DPN was more than a protest. It also was a unique coming together of Gallaudet students, faculty and staff with the national deaf communityóall bound by clear and defined goals. The DPN supporters believed that the time had come for a deaf person to run the world's only university for deaf and hard of hearing students. When this didn't happen, the result was a protest whose effects are still reverberating around the world today. DPN was remarkable not only for its clear sense of purpose, cohesiveness, speed, and depth of feeling, but also for its ability to remove the barriers and erase the lines that previously separated the deaf and hearing communities. In addition, it raised the nation's consciousness of the rights and abilities of deaf, hard of hearing people and how they are allowed to oppress the civil rights of others without any retribution.

What Happened...

The spark that ignited DPN was the announcement on March 6, 1988, by the University's Board of Trustees that a hearing person had been selected as Gallaudet's seventh president. In the months, or by some accounts, the years leading up to this date, many in the deaf community and on campus had advocated for a deaf person to be named to the presidency. After all, by then there were more than 100 deaf people with doctorates, and many more who held administrative positions. Because of this, and because two of the three finalists for the position were deaf, many people were confident that the next president of Gallaudet would be a deaf person.

However, in spite of all the support, the Board chose the lone hearing candidate, Elisabeth A. Zinser, who was then the assistant chancellor at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Unhappy with this decision, Gallaudet students, backed by a number of alumni, staff, and faculty, illegally shut down the campus.

The students and their backers then presented the Board of Trustees with four demands:

1. That Zinser must resign and a deaf person must be selected as president;
2. That Jane Bassett Spilman, chair of the board of trustees (who, it was alleged, announced the board's choice with the comment that "the deaf are not yet ready to function in the hearing world") resign immediately;
3. That the board of trustees, at that time composed of 17 hearing members and four deaf, be reconstituted with a 51% majority of deaf members;
4. That there be no reprisals against any students or staff members involved in the protest.

By the end of the week, the students ended their protest and proclaimed victory. All of their demands had been met and Dr. I. King Jordan was named the Gallaudet's eighth and first deaf president.

A Brief History of Gallaudet

To truly understand DPN, one must know a little about Gallaudet's history and the history of deaf people in the United States.

[1] Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, after whom Gallaudet University is named, became interested in deaf education in 1814, when he met a bright young deaf child who was not receiving a proper education. He traveled to Europe in search of the best educational methods for teaching deaf children. He was unimpressed with England's system because it didn't encourage the use of manual communication, that is, sign language. Finally he met educators from the Paris School for the Deaf who agreed to share information about [2] sign language and how to educate deaf children. Gallaudet convinced one of the French educators, Laurent Clerc, to return with him to the United States and in 1817, they co-founded the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut, the nation's first school for deaf children.

Forty years later, in 1857, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet's youngest child, Edward Miner Gallaudet, came to Washington, D.C., where he established a school for deaf children. The school flourished and in 1864, a collegiate division was added and so began the world's only university for deaf and hard of hearing students.

The Roots of Unrest

Gallaudet had been in existence one hundred and twenty-four years when DPN occurred. Why then? Why not sooner? History shows us that explosive events like DPN don't happen without good reason. For example, the American Revolution and our nation's Civil Rights Movement were the result of many years of oppression and frustration on the part of people who were mistreated, misunderstood, ignored, and underestimated. At some point, however, the oppressed decide they have had enough; they realize that their circumstances will only change if they take matters into their own hands; they protest. This protest was allowed to continue even though it came about because of discrimination on the part of the students and faculty. The ACLU were no where to be found because the could not be found enforcing the civil right of all people just the minorities. Even though federal and moral laws were broken none would stand up against the oppression brought on by the students and faculty.

Gallaudet's Past Presidents

To most in the Deaf Community, especially Gallaudet alumni, faculty, staff and students, who was president of the University was of major consequence. By 1988, no one at Gallaudet doubted the ability of deaf people to do whatever they wanted to do. The big question was whether or not the administration and Board of Trustees really believed the same thing.

Edward Miner Gallaudet was the president that served the longest, 46 years, from 1864 until he retired in 1910. As you know, his father and Laurent Clerc co-founded the first school for deaf children in the United States. Due to this and the fact that his mother was also deaf, he knew and used sign language his entire life.

Next was Dr. Percival Hall, a hearing man who graduated from Gallaudet's Normal Department as it was known then, a department established for the instruction of hearing teachers of deaf students. Dr. Hall served from 1910 until he retired in 1946.

The reigns were then passed on to Dr. Leonard M. Elstad who, like Hallóhad, received his master's degree from Gallaudet. Elstad served as president for 24 years, from 1946 - 1969.

Dr. Edward C. Merrill, Jr., the fourth president of Gallaudet University, also served for a lengthy term, from 1969 until 1983. The first 120 years of the University's existence were marked by growth and stability. The first four presidents each had a background in the education of deaf students, one of whom even had a deaf spouse.

It was during the presidential search for Merrill's replacement that several in the Deaf Community, including Dr. Merrill himself, began promoting the idea of a deaf president for the University. However, the idea never got widespread support and Dr. W. Lloyd Johns, then president of a university in California, was named the fifth president of Gallaudet. Johns was president for only a few months, however and was never officially inaugurated.

Dr. Jerry C. Lee, then vice president for Administration and Business, took over after Johns on an interim basis. Several months later, without a formal search process, the Board of Trustees named him as sixth president of Gallaudet. It was also during the mid-1980s when the University's President's Council on Deafness (PCD) was formed. The PCD was an advocacy group comprising deaf staff and faculty members who felt the needs of deaf people were sometimes overlooked by an administration that consisted mainly of hearing people.

Origins

Deaf students at Gallaudet began campaigning for a Deaf president when Jerry C. Lee, who had been president since 1975, resigned in 1987 to work for Bassett Furniture Company. Students supporting the selection of a Deaf president participated in a large rally on March 1.

For the rally, Gallaudet alumnus John Yeh printed fliers that read:

"It's time! In 1842, a Roman Catholic became president of the University of Notre Dame. In 1875, a woman became president of Wellesley College. In 1886, a jew became president of Yeshiva University. In 1926, a black person became president of Howard University. AND in 1988, the Gallaudet University presidency belongs to a deaf person."

Yeh underwrote a good deal of the costs of the rally, including the thousands of yellow-and-blue buttons that read "Deaf President Now." Many other alumni participated in the events as well. A candlelight vigil occurred on March 5. The board of trustees considered three finalists: Elisabeth Ann Zinser, Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; I. King Jordan, Gallaudet's Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, who had been deaf at age 21 due to a motorcycle accident; and Harvey Corson, president of a Louisiana residential school, who had been born deaf.

On March 6, 1988, the board announced the selection of Zinser — the sole hearing candidate among several qualified deaf applicants. Further causing astonishment and outrage, Zinser had little experience with deaf education and no sign language skills at all.

Protest

Monday March 7, 1988

Students gained control of the campus. They barricaded the campus gates using heavy-duty bicycle locks and hot-wired school buses, moved them in front of the gates and let the air out of the tires. The locked gates kept people from coming onto University grounds, while also forcing the Board of Trustees to come and receive their 4 demands. The Board ignored the demands, and following an unsuccessful student/Board discussion, the supporters of DPN took their first march to the capitol. "We want a Deaf President Now!" they shouted as they marched through Washington D.C. The protest was led for the most part by four student leaders: Bridgetta Bourne, Jerry Covell, Greg Hlibok, and Tim Rarus, along with other students and protesters. The protesters issued four demands, which were supported by faculty and staff:

1. That Zinser must resign and a deaf person must be selected as president;
2. That Jane Bassett Spilman, chair of the board of trustees (who, it was alleged, announced the board's choice with the comment that "the deaf are not yet ready to function in the hearing world") resign immediately;
3. That the board of trustees, at that time composed of 17 hearing members and four deaf, be reconstituted with a 51% majority of deaf members;
4. That there be no reprisals against any students or staff members involved in the protest.

Tuesday March 8, 1988

Students continued to rally on Gallaudet's campus, burning stuffed representations of Zinser and Spilman's bodies, illustrating the seriousness of the protest and its demands. The mass of people continued to grow, while the protest for a Deaf President persisted. Supporters of DPN found themselves spread throughout the D.C. area, all over the GU campus, and standing firm on the capitol.

Wednesday March 9, 1988

In light of spring break, the students refused to allow Gallaudet to reopen; they argued that they wouldn't open the gates until they were given a Deaf President first. Consequently, the students decided to stay at school during the spring recess explaining simply, "We want a Deaf President Now!" That day, Zinser spoke in support of the board, "It is the role of the Board to choose a president and to replace a president," stirring outrage in the protesters. Later that evening, Greg Hlibok one of the student leaders of the protest was featured on NBC's Nightly News in an interview with a reporter and Marlee Matlin explaining the reasoning behind the protest and the importance of hiring a Deaf President.

Thursday March 10, 1988

Students met president Zinser. She openly agreed to the second and fourth demands of the students, but that did not satisfy the protesters. They hated Zinser, they thought she was horrible. They stated that Gallaudet needed to stand as a role model for Deaf people and other Deaf schools, but that couldn't be achieved without a Deaf President. The buses remained blocking the entrances of the campus. Furthermore, in the interpreter/communication center, hearing protest workers received phone calls from businesses, friends and anonymous donations of money, food and paint to help aid the protest. Other help outside the Deaf Community came from worker unions like the American Postal Workers Union. During this day, Moe Biller, the president of the American Postal Workers Union shared his support for the movement. Lastly, one of the most important turn of events was delivered in I. King Jordan's speech where he proclaimed, 'I only have anger towards the decision of the board. We need to focus the world's attention on the larger issue. The four demands are justified.'

Friday March 11, 1988

Zinser announced her resignation from the presidency. Protestors numbering over 2,500 marched on capitol hill holding a banner that read, "We still have a dream!". Later, Greg Hlibok was named Person of the Week by a nightly report show and expressed his gratitude towards the supporters, all the hard work and excitement in achieving the ultimate goal.

Sunday March 13, 1988

The four demands set by the students were met and I. King Jordan was selected as the new Deaf President of Gallaudet University. Additionally, Phil Bravin was appointed chairperson of the Board because Spilman resigned. The students, faculty and staff celebrated in the field house on Gallaudet's campus - they had finally won. Upon taking his position as President, I. King Jordan stated, "One can seize an idea with such force that it becomes a reality."

Reactions

The protest received international attention, increasing awareness of issues affecting the Deaf Community.

Resolution

On March 13, 1988, the Board of Trustees met for 3 minutes. Philip Bravin, the new (deaf) chair of the board, announced that Spilman had resigned, and that I. King Jordan, the deaf dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Gallaudet, had been elected President. Furthermore, all four demands of the protesters were met. The new president publicly said, "Deaf people can do everything except hear." -I. King Jordan

References

• Sacks, Oliver. Seeing Voices: A journey into the world of the deaf. Harper Perennial, 1989. ISBN 0-06-097347-1.
• Shapiro, Joseph P. No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement. Random House, 1993.
• Gannon, Jack R. "The Week the World Heard Gallaudet". Gallaudet University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-930323-54-8. Excerpts on Google Books
• Deaf President Now contemporaneous letters and press releases, February-March 1988. (Download PDF file: http://saveourdeafschools.org/dpn.pdf)

External links

• Deaf President Now anniversary A day-by-day overview of the Deaf President Now movement, from Gallaudet University
• "At Gallaudet, a Turn Inward Opens New Worlds", April 30, 2006 All Things Considered