Deaf President Now!: The 1988 Revolution at Gallaudet University

Epilogue

Epilogue During the week of March 8 through 12, 1993, the Gallaudet University community celebrated the fifth anniversary of DPN. The theme for the week was "DPN: The Power and the Promise," and a variety of activities took place from Monday afternoon to Friday evening. An exhibit featuring photographs, buttons, and other memorabilia from the protest was also on display in the Merrill Learning Center during the week. Throughout the five-day celebration those who participated in the events were encouraged to not only remember what had happened five years before, but also to reflect on its significance and think about tasks that remained to be done. The anniversary celebration got under way on Monday with a ninetyminute "national satellite conference," which originated from the televi220 sion studio on campus. The conference began with a recent edition of Deaf Mosaic, the Emmy-award winning television series produced by Mary Lou Novitsky and Gil Eastman. This program stressed the many positive things that have happened to deaf people, both in the United States and abroad, during the past five years. Viewers were informed that there is now more support for American Sign Language than there used to be, that many new occupational doors have opened for deaf people, and that hundreds of businesses owned by deaf people have been established throughout the country. In addition, the program emphasized that the number of deaf superintendents of residential schools has increased dramatically since 1988. The program also mentioned that the Gallaudet board of trustees is more diverse now than it was in the late 1980S and that many young deaf people are aspiring to professional occupations that, in the past, were beyond the wildest dreams of almost all deaf people. While much of the DeafMosaic program looked at what has happened since DPN, some of it was devoted to the protest itself. The part that focused on the events of 1988 emphasized that it was the Gallaudet students who "taught the world" that they had "had enough" and demanded a deaf president for the university. Nothing was said about the important role ofthe Ducks, Gallaudet faculty and staff, local or national associations of deaf people, or other advocacy groups in organizing and supporting the events that, as we have shown, set the stage for the protest. Moreover, during the rest ofthe anniversary celebration DPN was repeatedly referred to as a successful student protest.l At a rally a few days later at the U.S. Capitol, for example, one of the former student leaders inaccurately referred to DPN as the "only successful student protest in history." Early Monday evening a small but enthusiastic group, composed primarily of Gallaudet students, assembled in the Field House to watch a variety of skits and speakers. For the most part, the speakers talked about 1. At least one person also referred to DPN as a "peaceful" student protest. Congressman Steve Gunderson placed a statement in the Congressional Record during the fifth anniversary week that said, in part, that DPN was "a week in which Gallaudet students peacefully shut down their University in order to effect what history will remember as the civil rights movement for deaf people" (Ellis, 1993). Since the fifth anniversary celebration, media accounts of the protest still typically refer to DPN as a student-led protest (see, for example, Solomon, 1994). EPILOGUE 221 the profound effect that DPN has had on their lives, the positive impact it has had on deaf children in general, and the fact that much still remains to be done. After the skits and speeches were over, someone from the audience stood up and shouted out the latest demand: "Friday close." This was an effort that would continue, off and on during the rest of week, to get the administration, or the faculty, to cancel classes on Friday of that week so students could participate in the rally and march to the Capitol scheduled for that afternoon. While there was much stomping and cheering in support ofthis effort on Monday evening, the administration made it clear later in the week that it did not support this demand. In the end, however, many students did stay away from classes on Friday afternoon, and many of them went on the march. On Tuesday afternoon King Jordan delivered his fifth "state of the university" address. Speaking to an audience ofstudents, faculty, and staff, Jordan said that much has changed at Gallaudet...