Students at Gallaudet University are continuing to protest the appointment of a new president at the university for the deaf, according to an article in today’s Washington Post. As many as hundreds of students have demonstrated for two days, occasionally blocking the Washington campus’s front gate.
The new leader and current provost, Jane K. Fernandes, has drawn fire from students for a range of reasons. They say all the finalists were white, but minority candidates should have been considered; that the search did not get input from students; and that Ms. Fernandes is insufficiently warm as a leader (The Chronicle, May 1). There are also signs of faculty discontent with the choice.
The outgoing president, I. King Jordan, who took office in 1988 after a lengthy and bitter series of student protests, told the students on Tuesday that the situation 18 years ago bears no similarity to today’s.
