Protests on Campus Increase

Independent Probe of Presidential Search Process Sought

Gallaudet student Michael Pachuilo, holding a sign over the balcony, and others angry about the selection of Jane K. Fernandes as president disrupt a ceremony honoring her predecessor, President I. King Jordan. (By Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)

Protests sparked by the selection of the next president of Gallaudet University escalated yesterday, with students walking out of classes, camping out and yelling to disrupt celebrations honoring longtime President I. King Jordan and his wife, Linda.

Last spring, the naming of then-Provost Jane K. Fernandes to be the next president of the school for the deaf touched off angry demonstrations on campus, with some complaining that the search process was unfair and should be reopened.

Yesterday, protesters added a demand for the board of trustees, which is meeting at the school this week: Conduct an independent investigation of the search process and the situation on campus, and report back within a month.

If that demand is not met, the coalition of students, faculty, staff and alumni warned, the protests would heat up.

They have been strengthening this week, the last time the board is expected to meet on campus before Fernandes becomes president in January.

Yesterday, students waved cardboard coffins and signs and marched to a ceremony naming a gallery for Linda Jordan. They were yelling so loudly, said some who couldn't get through the crowd, that deaf people outside could feel the vibrations in the glass windows. Someone threw water or juice into the crowd.

A student leader then asked protesters to quiet down and show more respect at the next ceremony, which named a student center for I. King Jordan.

They crossed a line, said Margaret Weigers Vitullo, chairwoman of the sociology department, who said the Jordan family was at the event. "Students are there saying awful, horrible things to people, in front of their grandchild. . . . It was unbelievably vile."

Latoya Plummer, a student protest leader, wrote in an e-mail that student government leaders gave a speech to the board yesterday morning. "The BOT ignored us and said that the protest is causing a stalemate" that angered many and prompted more people to join.

Some faculty members were angry because the trustees did not seem to want to discuss their concerns.

Students camped out in tents complained that grounds crew sprayed smelly liquid fertilizer in the area -- which the administration said was routine maintenance. The administration said the student government violated the code of conduct by keeping tents up overnight and moving them without permission.

Plummer said Fernandes had demonstrated a lack of leadership by telling people that there is no problem at Gallaudet. She described Fernandes as "a leader who is uncertain of how to lead the university into harmony."

Also yesterday, the school announced a more than $800,000 initiative, funded mainly by a gift, to further diversity planning led by Fernandes -- and to bring in an expert to try to unify the divided campus.

"She's serious about looking at some of the issues, the same issues the protesters are talking about," said spokeswoman Mercy Coogan. "Social justice, audism [bias against the deaf] and racism. She's on the same page."