Gallaudet Celebrates! "DPN" Revolution Continues - World Around You Mar-Apr 1998--

M A R C H / A P R I L - 1 9 9 8

Gallaudet Celebrates!
"DPN" Revolution Continues

"What does DPN stand for?" President I. King Jordan asked deaf students who gathered outside Kendall Demonstration Elementary School (KDES).

"Deaf President Now!" they responded.

Ten years ago, "Deaf President Now!" was the rallying chant of Gallaudet students and deaf community leaders. The students chanted to protest a decision of the Gallaudet Board of Trustees. The Trustees had picked a new president for Gallaudet. There were deaf candidates for the job, but the Trustees had not picked any of them. Like all of Gallaudet's former presidents, the new president would be hearing, they said. Gallaudet students were furious.

They decided to take action. They refused to go to class. They closed the gates to the university campus. They launched a protest and a boycott.

They signed again and again: "Deaf President Now!"

TV news reporters showed up. The news flashed around the country. Hearing and deaf people looked at each other and wondered why the nation's oldest university with deaf students had never had a deaf president.

Looking Back
"I was young and naive then," said Terry Giansanti, a Gallaudet senior.

Terry Giansanti speaks to KDES students

Terry, now 22, was remembering when he was a young student at KDES on the Gallaudet University campus in 1988. Terry found himself caught up in the "Deaf President Now" demonstration. He stood before all the college students and newspaper reporters-and announced his belief that the next university president should be a deaf individual. Terry returned to Kendall to celebrate the event.

"It was a huge audience," Terry told the KDES students assembled in celebration. "I was so nervous...my knees were knocking!"

President Jordan stood with Giansanti before the KDES students. In a sense, Jordan has done exactly as Terri predicted when he was a young boy. For 10 years Jordan has served as a role model for deaf and hard of hearing students and showed the hearing world that deaf people are perfectly capable of running a university.

Joshua Weinstock is a student at KDES today. Joshua tried to remember DPN.

"I was a baby then," he said. "I really didn't know what was happening. "Now I feel...deaf people can do anything!"

Dr. Jordan releases balloons to indicate start of
DPN10 celebration

Want to learn more about the DPN 10 celebration?
Then visit our website

Gallaudet University
800 Florida Ave. NE
Washington, DC 20002-3695