When Nobody Will Listen

On March 6, 1988, the board of trustees at the nation’s oldest university for the deaf, Gallaudet University, announced that Elizabeth A. Zinser was selected as the university’s president. Zinser was a hearing person with little knowledge of the deaf community. The decision shocked Gallaudet faculty, staff, and students, who had hoped the board (most of whom were hearing) would for the first time hire a deaf president.

A large crowd of student protesters gathered. Board chair Jane Spilman, a hearing person, refused to listen to the students’ concerns and defended the board’s decision, saying, “Deaf people are not able to function in a hearing world.” The protest escalated, and the demonstrators made four demands: Zinser must resign and be replaced by a deaf president, Spilman must resign from the board, deaf representation on the board must be at least 51 percent, and there must be no reprisals toward any of the protesters.

The board refused to listen and the students responded by refusing to meet with Zinser and blocking campus gates (Mercer, 1998). Zinser realized her candidacy was doomed by administrators’ and students’ refusal to listen to each other. As she notes, “We had found no reasonable means to establish contact or communication on campus. So I resigned.” The board then met the remaining demands.

Ten years later, former protesters, board members, and Zinser returned to Gallaudet to remember and honor the protest. Zinser was asked, if she could go back in time, knowing what she now knows, would she change her decision to resign? She responded, “Gallaudet looms large in my life, in the deeper awareness that I gained for what people who have been oppressed feel. I’ve had fantasies of getting through those gates, talking with all the students and listening to their concerns. But had I found a way to actually sit down and talk to them, in fairly short order I would have concluded the same thing” (Mercer, 1998).

discussion questions

Note: All information was obtained from “Deaf President Now Protest” (n.d.), “Deaf President Now” (n.d.), and Mercer (1998).