Standing Up for DiversityAs a university established 
for deaf students, Gallaudet's diversity initiatives seek to further empower and enlighten its community.

By Phaedra Brotherton

WASHINGTON
When Jerry C. Lee, former president of Gallaudet University — the Washington, D.C.-based university established for deaf and hard of hearing students — resigned in 1987, students rallied on campus for the board of trustees to name a deaf president to head the university for the first time in the school's history.
But when the board of trustees named a hearing president in 1988, students revolted. They took over the campus, marched on Capitol Hill and demanded a deaf president, the new president's resignation, the board chairman's resignation and a shuffling of the board to include a 51 percent deaf membership.
The school shut down for a week. The newly appointed president resigned along with the board chairman. When the dust settled, Dr. I. King Jordan, then dean of the university's College of Arts and Sciences, a Gallaudet alumnus and one of two deaf candidates in the running to lead the university, was named the first deaf president in the school's 124-year history.  
"Gallaudet had some of the same issues that HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities) had in their beginnings," says Frank H. Wu, member of Gallaudet's board of trustees and associate professor of law at the Howard University School of Law in Washington. "Most HBCUs were founded by Whites or founded with White patrons or donors.  And they were run by Whites," explains Wu, who is also director of the Clinical Law Center at Howard's law school. Before 1988, Gallaudet was run by hearing people. Students felt that this was condescending, says Wu.   
That 1988 movement — known as Deaf President Now or DPN — empowered Gallaudet and the deaf community, says Wu. Today more than half of the members of the board are deaf. Many of those who teach and work in the administration are deaf. And nearly everyone on campus is bilingual and knows how to sign.