The Nation - News from March 15, 1988

After a week of turmoil, Gallaudet University’s campus in Washington opened with the first deaf president in its 124-year history proclaiming jubilantly, “deaf people can do anything . . . except hear.” I. King Jordan was greeted with a standing ovation by students at a campus news conference introducing him and new board of trustees chairman, Philip Bravin. Jordan, 44, lost his hearing at age 20 in a motorcycle accident. He speaks clearly, but also uses sign language when he talks. The two officials were joined at the news conference by student body president Greg Hlibok, one of the campus leaders during a week in which the students shut down the campus in protest over the hiring of Elisabeth Ann Zinser, a hearing woman, as president. Zinser resigned late Thursday. Jordan has been dean of the school’s college of arts and sciences since 1986 and was chairman of the psychology department before that.