Gallaudet U. Diversity Officer Demands Reinstatement After Being Placed on Leave

Gallaudet University’s chief diversity officer, who was placed on leave last week amid a controversy over her decision to sign a petition to put Maryland’s same-sex marriage law to a vote on the November ballot, demanded on Tuesday to be reinstated to her job. The Washington Times reported that Angela McCaskill called the university’s actions “utterly wrong” at a news conference. Through a sign-language interpreter, Ms. McCaskill said that she was “dismayed that Gallaudet University is still a university of intolerance, of management by intimidation, which allows bullying among faculty, staff, and students.” Ms. McCaskill also said she was not anti-gay but pro-democracy, and had signed the petition so voters could make the decision, The Washington Post reported. Both supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage have called on the university to reinstate Ms. McCaskill in the fury that has ensued since she was placed on leave. Earlier on Tuesday, T. Alan Hurwitz, Gallaudet’s president, said in a written statement that university officials would like to work with Ms. McCaskill so that she can return to her job, but her lawyer responded by saying that he was “questioning their sincerity in light of the media attention this issue has received,” the Times reported.