Protest Grows Over College for Deaf’s President

The confrontation at Gallaudet University, the nation’s only liberal arts college for the deaf, escalated Wednesday as students closed the institution for the second time, and the faculty voted overwhelmingly to endorse their demand for a deaf president.

Embattled board of trustees Chairman Jane Bassett Spilman, mounting a public relations offensive, called a 90-minute news conference to defend the selection of an educator with normal hearing to the top post and to assert that the board will not back down.

But students who barricaded all entrances to the campus said that they would not return to classes until the trustees’ appointment of Elisabeth Ann Zinser is rescinded. They also demanded that the board be reconstituted with a deaf majority to pick the first deaf president in Gallaudet’s history.

“We’re going to keep going until we get a deaf president,” sophomore student Cindy Deutsch said through an interpreter. “We’ve been waiting 124 years, and that’s long enough.”

Two Deaf Candidates

Zinser was selected Sunday to head the college, which was founded in 1864, from a group of finalists that included two deaf candidates. Protesting students closed the college Monday and most boycotted classes Tuesday, although the campus reopened.

As the standoff intensified Wednesday with students’ cars again blocking the school’s entrances, both sides began maneuvering in Congress, which provides more than 75% of Gallaudet’s $76-million annual budget.

Vice President George Bush, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and California Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Merced), the House majority whip, endorsed the plea for a deaf president for the 2,300-student university. And Rep. David E. Bonior (D-Mich.)--a member of Gallaudet’s board--warned that the controversy could hurt federal funding for a school that already has been hit hard by spending cuts.

In a private meeting, Bonior and Rep. Steve Gunderson (R-Wis.), another board member, “discussed options” with Zinser and Spilman, a Bonior aide said without elaboration.

‘Grave Insensitivity’

Meanwhile, eight House members led by California Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) sent a letter to Spilman, accusing the board of “grave insensitivity” and urging the installation of a deaf president. The faculty senate convened and voted 190 to 11 to support student demands for a deaf president.

Outside the school, one student stood on a curb by the main gate with a sign reading “Honk 4 Deaf President.” This prompted a day-long symphony of blaring horns along busy Florida Ave. Several students, using sign language, said that they could not hear the noise but could feel the vibrations.

Trying to end the turmoil, Gallaudet trustees hired a public relations firm and quickly summoned Zinser from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she had intended to remain as vice chancellor and learn sign language before taking over at Gallaudet in July.

President Takes Charge

Zinser declared after a meeting with student leaders: “I am prepared to assume my duties immediately . . . I am in charge.” Zinser, praised by Spilman for her management and fund-raising skills, said she had asked the students to ease their demands and to “develop a dialogue.”

Spilman sought to clarify a controversial statement, attributed to her Sunday night following Zinser’s selection, that “deaf people are not ready to function in a hearing world.” Calling the statement “patently untrue,” she said it was made when she inadvertently “stated a double negative.”