Deaf President Now!: The 1988 Revolution at Gallaudet University

5. Thursday, March 10, to Monday, March 14: Capitulation and Celebration

5 Thursday, March 10, to Monday, March 14 Capitulation and Celebration JORDAN AND ZINSER CHANGE THEIR MINDS During the night several Gallaudet school buses were hot-wired and driven to the locked gates where the tires were then deflated. As morning dawned, students were observed standing on top of some of the immobilized buses. In addition, shortly before dawn, a few students, including hearing graduate students, gathered around the main entrance to the campus and talked with a Gallaudet reporter about the events of the week. Cars were also parked in front of that entrance, thus effectively blocking all access to the university. The morning also brought some hastily constructed "Old West-style" tombstones to a small segment of Florida Avenue in front of the campus that was undergoing some construction. One ofthe tombstones was erected in memory of "Dr. Zinser," while the other was reserved for "Jean Basset 131 [Jane Bassett] Spilman." Students were also walking around carrying signs urging people not to give up. One sign read: "My dad, mom, brother, sister and friends told me to NOT GIVE up! so DON'T GIVE up!" The command center in Ole Jim was buzzing with activity. Volunteers were busy entering the names of people with special skills or knowledge into the computer as a way of bringing some semblance of order to the incessant demand for information. An interpreter center had been set up in Ole Jim, and several hearing graduate students were helping with the telephones. When Greg Hlibok walked into Ole Jim after an appearance on Good Morning America, he was mobbed and congratulated by faculty, staff, and students. (After appearing on Nightline, Hlibok had stayed awake all night before joining Elisabeth Zinser and Gary Olsen ofthe NAD on Good Morning America.) Tables for ongoing fund-raising efforts were set up near the main entrance to the campus where a motor home, which had been loaned to the university a few days earlier, served as a temporary information center. In addition, several police lines were set up on the curb in an effort to keep students from wandering onto Florida Avenue. Rumors were circulating during the early morning hours, including one that Zinser would be coming to the campus in a helicopter. Anticipating the worst, students vowed to keep their eyes on the skies and, if a helicopter approached, converge en masse on the football field to prevent it from landing. Another rumor was that the Washington, D.C., police had been asked to come in and start arresting protesters. They made no arrests on Thursday, however, nor at any other time during the week. In fact, former provost Catherine Ingold said later that, as early as Tuesday, March 1, the administration had made a decision to take a "very laid back" approach and to avoid any "heavy handed actions against the students" if at all possible. This approach was basically followed throughout the next two weeks. The D.C. police did make a half-hearted attempt on Thursday morning to tow away some of the vehicles that were blocking the gates. Tow trucks were brought in, and a campus police officer informed student leader Tim Rarus that the cars in front of the gates would have to be moved or they would be towed away. However, because the students refused to cooperate, and because the police apparently decided not to force 132 T H U R S DAY, MAR CHI 0, TOM 0 N DAY, MAR CHI 4 the issue, the gates remained locked, and the cars and buses stayed where they were. ,. ,. ,. The DPN council meetings occurred all day, as did a variety of rallies. One rally, in Hughes Gym, attracted students from MSSD as well as from the college. At this rally, a new chant, "Four, Four, Four ..." (meaning the four demands) appeared. After the rally was over, Tim Rarus was interviewed by an off-campus reporter. Among other things, he said the demand that 51 percent of the board consist of deaf people was important because, he argued, only deaf people can understand deaf culture. Rarus also mentioned that, in his view, Congress would not be in a position to underestimate deaf people if they could see what deaf people were capable of achieving. At another rally in the Field House, a speaker announced that several hundred students from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), a unit ofthe Rochester...