Hundreds of protestors are involved, and as of Monday October 9, an administration/classroom building is still occupied! According to the Washington Post Newsroom; Students at Gallaudet University continued a third day of protest yesterday and vowed to stay hunkered down in a classroom building until the board of trustees reopens the search for a president.

They have no intention of leaving Hall Memorial Building, where a majority of academic departments are housed, said Latoya Plummer, a student protest leader at the university, considered a cultural hub for the deaf.

Protesters at Gallaudet University have taken over Hall Memorial Building, where a majority of academic departments are housed. The students want the board of trustees to reopen the search for a president. Classes were canceled or moved Friday because of the building's occupation. Midterm exams are scheduled to begin this week."

CNN reported Friday: "Students at Gallaudet University remained barricaded inside one of the main campus buildings Friday, protesting the school's presidential selection and what students call a pattern of prejudice at the largely deaf institution.

Students said campus police on Friday morning forced their way into the Hall Memorial Building, shoving and elbowing students and pepper spraying some.

The school denied use of pepper spray and said authorities needed to rush in because of a bomb threat, though there turned out to be no bomb.

Ryan Commerson, a student and leader of the protests, said the campus police apparently did not know sign language and could not communicate their concerns to students as they pushed their way in.

A lack of knowledge of sign language by those charged with protecting the students has historically caused troubles at the university not far from the U.S. Capitol, but the school has previously said it took steps to address that.

Commerson said one student went to doctors on campus Friday after being sprayed because he had a burning sensation on his neck.

But Gallaudet University spokeswoman Mercy Coogan told CNN she checked with the head of security and was told that no pepper spray or Mace had been used and that no one was hurt.

University officials said the students were illegally occupying the building, and that authorities had the right to enter.

Coogan did not say how the bomb threat came in. Campus police called D.C. Metro police to the school, she said, but only campus police entered the building, and D.C. police soon left."

Campus Progress says: "A makeshift campground has arisen in the middle of Gallaudet Universitys attractive campus, an island of grass and red brick buildings in a drab section of Northeast Washington, D.C. Thirty-five tents form a large circle around the perimeter of the plaza in front of the Student Union. At night the tents house approximately 150 protestors. By day another 300 comrades come by to lend support. This diverse group of protestors mostly students, but also faculty, alumni and staff set up camp at the beginning of the semester on Monday, continuing a movement that culminated last May in a two week tent city camp out. They are there to protest the selection of university provost Dr. Jane K. Fernandes to replace long-serving icon Dr. I. King Jordan as the schools president, and the manner in which she was chosen…. Though Fernandes appointment is the FSSA Coalitions primary grievance, their concerns surrounding the presidential search and hiring process represent more basic issues of how much, or how little, the university respects and incorporates the views of its constituents.

Alison Aubrecht, who holds two degrees from Gallaudet and now works for the university as a personal counselor at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD), a high school run on Gallaudets campus, is one of the leaders of the FSSA. She held a sign and sports a shirt that both feature the phrase Unity for Gallaudet. She has a litany of problems with Fernandes and the way in which she was chosen. Fernandes was provost for six years and her performance was unsatisfactory, she began. Fernandes was appointed by King Jordan without faculty participation, and the faculty gave her a vote of no confidence because she was unwilling to share governance with them. This is the protestors most basic issue that Fernandes was handpicked by former President Jordan and pushed through without support from the larger community. Graduate student Erin Moran complained, [Jordan] should be neutral but he obviously has a bias towards Fernandes.

She's oppressive in small ways, continued Aubrecht. One professor was a victim of harassment because of his sexual orientation and Fernandes fired him. They called it non-reappointment. She banned the yearbook with no explanation. The students [who had already ordered one] didnt get their money back…. Student activists also complain that the administration has been unwilling to respond to any of their concerns. They claim their letters, going back to one sent last year about the lack of diversity on the search committee, have received no response. The Gallaudet public relations office told Campus Progress that the school spokesperson was too busy to answer any questions by press time for this article. The FSSA Coalition movement is not limiting itself to the physical confines of campus. Various websites devoted to the protest movement have sprung up, including an event calendar at http://www.deafbison.net, and video broadcasts in sign language that are frequently updated at http://www.signcasts.com. And, according to Laurene Simms, an associate professor in the Education Department who received her MA in Deaf Education Programs from Gallaudet, there are alumni groups in the San Francisco Bay area and Wisconsin organizing to pressure the administration as well.

The October 9 Washington Post story reports that: "Interim Provost Michael L. Moore, Dean of Student Affairs Carl Pramuk and Deborah Destefano, executive director of enrollment services, met with student leaders Saturday. "The main purpose of that meeting was to seek a peaceful resolution of issues that would lead to resumption of classes in the classroom building," Moore wrote in a statement posted yesterday on the university's Web site. "The University is committed to providing a positive learning/teaching environment, in which everyone feels safe and respected on campus."

[Gaulludet student] Plummer called the meeting a start and said it means the protesters have the university's attention. "That was literally the first time in years that we had a meeting face-to-face with an administrator," she said yesterday through an interpreter.

But the protesters in the past week have not heard from outgoing President I. King Jordan or his appointed successor, Jane K. Fernandes, who has refused to resign despite dissent among students, faculty and staff.

Plummer said the protesters believe hindering classes in the building is the only way to get the administration to listen.
…
In one room, open jars of peanut butter and jelly were on a table along with loaves of bread, pretzels and hot wings. Plummer said the protesters were receiving money, food, soap and toothpaste from supporters.

"This building is the academic center of the university," Plummer said. "We've continued to keep this building shut down. . . . We, the students, are not going to give up until our demands are met."

For Plummer, a junior from Suitland majoring in political science and sociology, the objection initially was to the lack of diversity among the finalists for the job. All of them were white, despite what she and other members of the Black Deaf Student Union saw as a strong black candidate among the applicants. "To me, as a black deaf person, the message that is being sent is: Even if they have the highest degree of education . . . they are not given the chance to compete for university president," she said….
Now, the protest is about "respect," said Plummer, who wore a white plastic bracelet on her left wrist with the word emblazoned on it….
In 1988, student protests led to the board of trustees' appointment of Jordan as the school's first deaf president.

On Plummer's right wrist, she wore a blue plastic bracelet reading, "Nothing About Us Without Us," which she received from the American Association of People With Disabilities.

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