Gallaudet Students Boycott Classes in Bid for Deaf President

Students at Gallaudet University boycotted classes today to protest the naming of a person who is not deaf as president of the nation’s only university for the deaf. Some classes were canceled; others were sparsely attended.

The boycott was called after the students, who had closed the school Monday by blocking entrances to the campus, were told by police that they would be arrested if they refused to open the gates.

“We’re going to boycott until we get what we want--a deaf president,” said Tim Rarus, a student protest leader.

Several faculty members supported the students, including the chairman of the school’s mathematics department, Herbert Mapes, who stayed away from his scheduled classes.

“I’m behind the students 100%,” he told a reporter.

But the woman whose appointment as Gallaudet’s president triggered the demonstrations said today she had no intention of rejecting the offer.

“I’m committed to taking the job and I’m committed to the university,” Elizabeth Ann Zinser said on “CBS This Morning.”

Asked about the continuing protests, she said:

“I believe we can overcome that conflict, but I understand and can appreciate the sentiments of some of the students and friends of the university at this time, learning that their seventh president is not deaf.”

Zinser, an administrator at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, was selected over two deaf finalists and does not know sign language. After her appointment, hundreds of chanting students marched through downtown Washington, with stops at the White House and the Capitol, to protest the decision.