The Week the World Heard Gallaudet

Day One

o A y o N E unday, March 6. Word had circulated on the Gallaudet campus that the formal announcement of the selection of Gallaudefs seventh president would be made in the field house at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday. Many Gallaudet employees and alumni made the trip to the campus to learn of the board's decision. Those arriving close to the appointed hour found a small crowd milling at the university's main entrance on Florida Avenue. They learned that, instead of the formal announcement they had been expecting to witness, a news release had been hastily distributed two hours earlier. The news release proclaimed: "Gallaudet University Appoints First Woman President. The Board of Trustees is confident that Dr. Elisabeth Ann Zinser will prove to be an effective and innovative leader who will represent Gallaudet University with distinction." Once again a hearing person had been appointed to what Jill Lawrence, a reporter, correctly described as "the loftiest post to which a deaf person could aspire." The reaction to the news and the furtive handling of the announcement was met with shock, anger, disbelief and, in some cases, tears. Posters and news releases were burned and speeches were made. A large crowd of students and their supporters (including faculty and staff members and alumni) took to the streets and marched-without a permit-to the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington, where the board had been meeting, to demand an explanation. Police, unable to effectively communicate with the crowd, blocked off Florida Avenue and provided escort to the hotel. NAD Executive Director Gary Olsen helped lead the march. Downtown, a very angry crowd gathered at the entrance of the Mayflower Hotel. After a long wait, Board of Trustees Chair Jane Bassett Spilman consented to talk with a group of three representatives . The group included SBG President Greg HIibok, Past SBG President Tim Rarus, and Jeff Rosen, an alumnus. It was at this meeting Spilman is purported to have said, "Deaf people are not ready to function in a hearing world" (The Washington Post, March 9, 1988, p. A24), a statement she later said was misinterpreted. She said she had used a double negative. Regardless of whether or not Spilman made such a statement about deaf persons, it was picked up by reporters and appeared 37 nationwide. The damage was done. Her comment added fuel to an already volatile situation and became a rallying cry for the students. It angered alumni and their friends and, as the week wore on, it won the students many supporters from among people who had never had any connection with deafness or deaf people. Spilman's remark surprised and puzzled many persons and provided the media with a continual source of editorial material throughout the week. Many people, including deafboard members and deafadministrators who knew her well and were aware of her commitment to the university, doubted she had made such a statement. The students asked Spilman to speak to the crowd waiting outside the hotel and she agreed. Board member Phil Bravin, who since August had chaired the Presidential Search Committee, accompanied her. The crowd consisted mainly of adults because most of the students had departed on a march to the White House and the Capitol, still with police escort. During the encounter with the crowd outside the Mayflower, Bravin was accused of being a "Judas." He became the target of many obscene TOO calls that week. The majority ofthe board members were stunned by the reaction to their selection. The input they had received from the campus community had been supportive of Zinser. Eight groups representing different campus constituencies (the students, central administration , the deans, faculty senate, pre-college programs, the President 's Council on Deafness, the alumni, and staff) had interviewed the six finalists and given their recommendations to the board. All groups except PCD and the pre-college faculty had included Zinser (as well as Jordan and Corson) in their recommendations. Some had Zinser as the leading candidate. In the final voting session, Dr. Harvey Corson was eliminated in the first-round, leaving Jordan and Zinser. The deaf members on the board-Dr. Frank B. Sullivan, Dr. Robert G. Sanderson, and Phil Bravin-and a lone hearing colleague, Dr. Laurel Glass, argued vigorously in support of Jordan. They warned their colleagues on the board that a backlash could occur if they appointed Zinser. The deaf members were acutely aware of the criticism that had followed the selection of a hearing...