Gallaudet Faculty Opposes Incoming College President

The head of the alumni association has said there's "overwhelming support" for Fernandes to step down. Protesters said dozens of supporters have rallied across the nation and overseas.

A week ago, 200 rallied at the Texas Capitol in Austin. Alumni in Tennessee plan brief tent cities.

Demonstrations began in the spring, when the board announced Fernandes's choice. When the board met this fall, protests resumed amid complaints that academics had suffered in Fernandes's six years as provost, that diversity and sufficient sensitivity to the deaf were lacking and that she had deepened divisions in the school in recent months.

But she retained Jordan's support and that of others in the administration.

"Dr. Jane Fernandes has the leadership qualities to lead this school," Jordan wrote to the campus community Sunday. He said she was selected from a diverse field and could help expand deaf culture to include all the deaf. He said she was well prepared to help students succeed.

Fernandes has said the protests are really about the evolution of deaf culture at a time of change and has said consistently that she would not quit.

Staff writers Sylvia Moreno in Austin and Martin Weil in Washington and special correspondent Theo Emery in Nashville contributed to this report.