Gallaudet Board Ousts Fernandes

Gallaudet, founded in 1864, has a student body of about 1,800 students, and its campus also includes a high school and elementary school for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Because of the school's status, its president is often seen as a national leader in the deaf community -- a symbolic importance that makes selecting a president there an even more complicated process than it is on most college campuses.

In 1988, after the university's board selected a hearing woman as its president, mass protests swept Jordan into office as the school's first deaf leader. This spring, the selection of Fernandes to succeed Jordan set off a new protest movement that -- while its objections were far more complex than the old rallying cry of "Deaf President Now" -- reached a similar level of intensity.

Some said there was insufficient diversity among members of the candidate pool, that a white man with a master's degree advanced further in the process than a black man with a doctorate and that Jordan was overly involved in the search.

Other objections focused on Fernandes, who has long been a controversial figure at Gallaudet. Some objected to the way she was appointed provost by Jordan six years earlier and others said she had alienated too many staff and faculty members in her 11 years at the school. Immediately after the board announced she would be the next president, students walked out of the auditorium.

After a quiet summer, protests resumed this month as the board came to campus for its October meeting.

Student leaders took over an academic building for several days. Then members of the football team joined the protests, and all entrances to the campus were blocked. The campus was shut down until more than 130 protesters were arrested. Faculty voted to ask Fernandes to resign or be removed, and alumni joined the tents dotting the lawn. Last weekend, an estimated 2,000 people marched to the U.S. Capitol.

Before yesterday, Fernandes had insisted that she was the only person to lead the campus at a time such as this. She said the roots of objections against her lay in deaf identity politics: Fernandes is deaf, but she grew up among hearing children and did not learn American Sign Language -- used commonly at Gallaudet -- until her 20s.

But, as the protests went on, support on the board began to erode.

Yesterday's meeting brought the conflict to a new turning point. Near the hotel, a group of 250 or so protesters arrived on buses Saturday evening. They held candles along a roadside. On campus, protest leaders were already promising a new blockade at 6 a.m. today if the board did not reject Fernandes.

The 20-member board includes three members of Congress, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) and Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey (D-Calif.), reflecting the fact that a majority of Gallaudet's funding comes from the federal government.

When the board decided to oust Fernandes, the reaction spread by pager and e-mail through the coalition of parents, alumni, students, staff and others in the U.S. deaf community who had sought it.

On campus, people hugged, leapt in the air and cheered aloud and in sign language. When a student leader held up a large wood-and-cardboard drawing of Fernandes, many in the crowd yelled, "Burn it!" or waved their fingers in the air to say "burning" in sign language.

But as time passed, all protesters wanted to talk about was healing the divisions.

Some on campus, however, said yesterday that the entire episode might leave Gallaudet divided between those who backed Fernandes and those who opposed her. One of Fernandes's supporters, sociology professor Margaret Vitullo, said that yesterday was a "very, very sad day" for the school.

"The short-term gain may be there," she said, for those celebrating on campus. "They think they've done this wonderful thing for Gallaudet -- but they've fundamentally weakened the rule of law, and they've fundamentally weakened the university."

Sources close to the board, who asked not to be named because board negotiations are private, said the board will be talking about the role Jordan will have and whether to bring in an interim president. One possible candidate, sources said, is Robert Davila, who served as chief executive for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

Jordan issued a statement yesterday afternoon urging the Gallaudet community to overcome divisions that, in his words, "overtook reason, respect, and civility."

"We should not look for a resolution to the struggle of recent months in terms of winners and losers," he said. "If we do, Gallaudet and our students will be the losers."