The Week the World Heard Gallaudet

Prologue

p R o L o G u E he student protest that shut down Gallaudet University the week of March 6-13. 1988. accomplished far more than just the selection of the world's first deaf university president . It proved. convincingly. that deaf people could band together effectively for a common cause and succeed. The protest experience taught deaf people the need and value of being more assertive. The protest began when the Board of Trustees selected Dr. Elisabeth Ann Zinser. a hearing vice-chancellor at the University of North Carolina. Greensboro. as Gallaudefs seventh president. Dr. Zinser was chosen over two qualified deaf Gallaudet alumni-Dr. Harvey 1. Corson (Class of 1964), superintendent of the Louisiana School for the Deaf and Dr. I. King Jordan (Class of 1970), dean of the Gallaudet University College of Arts and Sciences. The board's decision led to the greatest upheaval the university had ever witnessed, and the impact of the protest that followed was felt by deaf people throughout the world. The week's demonstrations, which history will remember as the civil rights movement of deaf people, focused worldwide attention on deafness and made GaIIaudet University a household word. The protest and subsequent media coverage led to the resignation of GaIIaudefs seventh president after only two days in office and consequently changed forever the way Gallaudet is governed. For the first time, knowledge of sign language and an understanding ofdeafculture became important issues in the process ofhiring a top administrator. The success of the week's protest sent a surge of elation through deaf people and their friends; it gave many a new self-image and renewed their pride in American Sign Language, deaf culture, and deaf history. GaIIaudet had been in existence 124 years when the upheaval occurred. What sparked the movement? Why hadn't it happened sooner? Why NOW? To find the answers to these questions, it is important to look at developments in the deaf community in the years preceding the protest. "If one looks at the evolution toward independence and selfrealization on the part of deaf persons, this event could have had only one outcome, and the activities of the protest itself were the denouement," according to Dr. Edward C. Merrill, Jr., fourth presi15 dent of Gallaudet University (1969-1983). "Why were so many persons (deaf and hearing, but especially deaf) surprised at the outcome?" asked Merrill. "They were surprised because they were largely unaware of the vast movements toward this end over the past years. These movements had created a climate which made change possible, inevitable." I What Led to the Protest? Many factors were involved in effecting change at this time. The protest was the tip of an iceberg. Society at large has long misunderstood and ignored deaf people, a problem Dr. Yerker Andersson, president of the seventy-nation World Federation of the Deaf, explained as "a struggle that has been going on for centuries."2 As any minority or disabled group knows, society's ignorance has contributed to unnecessary obstacles, discrimination, and oppression. The roots of unrest in the deaf community go back to the fundamental differences that have existed among educators of deaf students in the United States since the mid-nineteenth century. These differences were exemplified by Edward Miner Gallaudet, the founder of Gallaudet University, and Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone and a strong proponent of the pure oral method (the exclusive use of speech and speechreading) in the education of deaf children. Gallaudet supported the use of sign language in the education of deaf children and believed that deaf people could, when given a good education, live productive lives just as hearing people did. Bell viewed deaf persons as disabled individuals who could be successful only to the degree that they could be trained to act like hearing persons. Deaf people are still smarting from the indignity they suffered at an international meeting of educators in Milan, Italy in 1880, which banned the use of sign language in the teaching of deaf children and led to the expUlsion of deaf teachers from many classrooms. As a result, deaf people had practically no input into how deaf children were educated. Gallaudet University Board of Trustees Although the university was established April 8, 1864, it was not until 1947 that a deaf person was named to the thirteen-member Gallaudet Board of Trustees. During the Merrill administration the number of board members increased to 21 and the number of deaf persons...