Cover next page > title: Seeing Language in Sign : The Work of William C. Stokoe author

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Page What a wonderful letter. If I can measure up to what he said I have the potential to do, Gallaudet is really going to be abetter place. Jordan applied for the presidency soon after Dr. Lee announced his decision to retire in 1987. However, in March of 1988, the
Board of Trustees nominated Elisabeth Zinser as the next president. Jordan initially supported her appointment, but the students of Gallaudet refused to accept the board's choice. Not only was Zinser hearing, she knew no sign language. Within hours, the
Deaf President Now Revolution began a weeklong event that captured the country'sand the world's attention and admiration.
Stokoe remained at home with Ruth but kept his television on and watched anxiously as events unfolded. He describes how he felt that week:
When the revolution got to the point of demanding the resignation of the board chairman and the replacement of the current board with a majority of deaf members, I thought to myself, "Good Lord, I can't believe it's finally happening" It was something that I wanted so much to see that I was afraid to turn the television on in the morning for fear of discovering that the police or the national guard had been sent into disperse the strikers. I wanted to know how it was going, yet I always feared that it would go badly for the good side. . I was so heartened when I heard the student leaders being interviewed on television, with an interpreter voicing for them. I
was reading their signs and knew what they were saying "We want a president who knows and understands and appreciates our culture and language" Just that coupling of culture and language in there. You can't separate them. It wasn't just "sign language" that the students wanted, they wanted someone who understood the deaf experience, who participated in their likes and dislikes, their values, their customs, their beliefs. I felt very good at the end of that revolution.20
Even before Jordan became Gallaudet's first deaf president, Harry Markowicz (currently an English professor at Gallaudet)

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