Deaf President Now

The rally for a deaf president at Gallaudet University is pretty intriguing. I think I may have heard about it briefly before this assignment, but not enough to be able to explain it, let alone have an opinion on the matter. I never realized how crazy and intense the situation became. The students completely shutting down the school wasn't as much of a surprise, I suppose. But the clips of people making dummies with name tags that read, “Spillman”, and “Zinser”, and hanging them on lampposts seemed a little extreme to me. Then, when the students took it a step further, and lit the dummies fire, my opinion of the students' reaction to the matter was hindered even more. If I'm completely honest, I thought it was kind of pathetic, and much too extreme. I can understand their great disappointment with the board's decision to declare a hearing person as president of a deaf university, it's completely reasonable to be upset. But to take things to such extreme measures seems, in my opinion, somewhat immature. The board's job is to manage the university and all that comes with it. It is the board's job to take into account what is in the university's best interest. If the board believes someone is legitimately qualified for the job, whether they're hearing impaired or not, the board has a right to appoint that person as president. Now, from the perspective of the students, is it justifiable to announce that the university is ill-represented by having a hearing president, and therefore request a deaf president? Of course not; it makes perfect sense. Still, is it justifiable to demand the hearing president, as well as the head of the school board, to resign from their positions immediately? I don't believe so. The students have a right to state their wants and needs for the future of the university, but they shouldn't abuse that right by segregating the hearing from the non-hearing. I believe the end result was a solid decision, though, because although this new