Sunday night, I sat down to dinner at a Thai restaurant in Eastern Market with two of my friends. The waiter had just served my dinner, a vegetarian glass noodles dish, and I was about to dig in when I felt the vibration of my Sidekick. I’d been waiting for it all day, really all month. The Board of Trustees had just met to decide whether or not to continue [...]

I won’t deny that right now there’s a jumble of opinions, facts, non-facts, as well as shouts of protest, spirit, and venom. It’s hard to keep your head clear and remember the basic points of the protest. Everyone has their own take on the protest and reasons for supporting it. The two unifying goals, though, is for Jane K. Fernandes to resign and re-open the presidential search. Why do I [...]

I’m sitting on a camping stool just behind the right part of the front gate. I see staff and faculty trying to get on campus and the football players, in their most valiant defensive stop of the season, are blocking them from getting in. I see five news vans parked on the other side of the street. I see tired students lugging their blankets and pillows already blackened by the [...]

A friend of mine, Ben Moore, came over last night to sit on my porch and unwind with some wine. We got to talking. The recurring theme of our conversation? You guessed it! The Gallaudet protest. Earlier that night, when Ben emailed me and said he wanted to stop by, I thought to myself, “This will be a good time to catch up. I’m NOT going to bring up the [...]

In a statement released by Gallaudet, the Board of Trustees, at the conclusion of their two-day semi-annual meeting, announced that Dr. Jane Fernandes will immediately step down as Provost “to allow for the transition to her presidency. Dr. Fernandes will concentrate her work to carefully review all of the issues brought up during the lst few weeks and to work with the campus community to address them.”

Graduation is today. Hundreds of students are about to get their hard-won degrees–bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D’s. It’s one of the proudest days in a student’s life, but today’s graduation at Gallaudet University comes amid extraordinary circumstances. FSSA has done a great job in ensuring that their protest activities do not get in the way of the festivities.

Last night, Celia May Baldwin, the interim chair of the Board of Trustees, resigned from her position. In her letter, she cited that The presidential search and the controversy that has ensued have put an enormous strain and stress on me. I simply could not ignore the numerous aggressive threats I have received over the past weeks. Aggressive threats? She isn’t the only one who has complained of receiving them. [...]

This protest has evolved to take on much larger dimensions than the spontaneous gathering on May 1st (yes, that one that I prematurely declared “abortive”). It is no longer a movement to solely force Dr. Fernandes’s resignation or to reopen the process, even though that last demand remains the main objective of the protest.

We have learned that at 3:00 PM today, the D.C. police will begin arresting Gallaudet students, staff, faculty, alumni, and anybody who continue to block the entrances to the university campus. It is apparently a federal offense to block the entrance to a federal property. I cannot stress enough that, in a confrontation with law enforcement officials, it is almost always the officials who will win. Be peaceful and don’t [...]

It has been nearly 48 hours since Dr. Jane K. Fernandes’s selection as Gallaudet’s next president was announced. A great deal has transpired since then; students slept outside at the main entrance; several rallies have been held; faculty and staff have gotten moderately involved; and President Jordan and Dr. Fernandes have participated in discussions with students. It’d be futile for me to repeat these events one by one. Elisa Abenchuchan [...]