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The Columbus Dispatch - Local/State
A gathering protest against the nation's premier school for the deaf made its way this week to Columbus, where the president of the school's board of trustees lives.
About two dozen members from the deaf community in northern Ohio have brought the protest to the office and home of Brenda Brueggemann, who is acting chairwoman of Gallaudet University's board of trustees.
Brueggemann also is an English professor at Ohio State University and lives in Clintonville.
The protesters are opposed to the selection of Jane Fernandes as the next president of Gallaudet in Washington, D.C. The school is the nation's sole liberal-arts university for deaf people.
The protesters wanted Brueggemann to call an emergency board meeting to resolve the conflict, and it appears they might have gotten their wish.
Brueggemann was unavailable for comment yesterday and was thought to be in Washington to attend a board meeting of trustees set for Sunday. They ordinarily would not meet again until February, said Mercy Coogan, a spokeswoman for the university.
"The purpose of the meeting is for the board members to come together and address the concerns that have been raised in the protests," Coogan said.
Fernandes, 49, is scheduled to assume her new role in January. Her opponents accuse her of being a negative force on campus while in her position as provost.
The local events have been spawned by large protests on the university's campus in Washington, which have resulted in more than a hundred arrests and several sit-ins.
In Columbus, three protesters went into Brueggemann's office Monday to try to talk about the conflict, said DawnMarie Fucile of Cleveland. She is chairwoman of the action committee of the Deaf and Deaf-Blind Committee on Human Rights, based in North Olmsted.
"She got very upset, was frantic, and said she was going to call police," Fucile said through a translator Wednesday night. "We wanted to talk about how to resolve the situation."
OSU police threatened to arrest them, but the three left the office, said Heather West, one of the protesters.
That led to a vigil outside Brueggemann's home Tuesday and a rally outside Denney Hall, where the professor's office is, on Wednesday. Group members say they plan to stay in town until the "crisis" is resolved.
The protesters said Fernandes has "created an atmosphere of distrust and fear" and is an ineffective leader, according to a flier they handed out.
Protesters also are unhappy that Fernandes, who was born deaf, did not learn American Sign Language until she was in her 20s.
On the Web site for the Gallaudet University Faculty, Staff, Students & Alumni Coalition, Fernandes is called an ineffective administrator who does not support diversity.
Last week, university faculty members passed a resolution demanding that Fernandes resign from her position. They also voted "no confidence" in her.
Fernandes, who used to be the university's provost, was chosen by the trustees in May to be president. The university's current president, I. King Jordan, will leave in January.
A gathering protest against the nation's premier school for the deaf made its way this week to Columbus, where the president of the school's board of trustees lives.
About two dozen members from the deaf community in northern Ohio have brought the protest to the office and home of Brenda Brueggemann, who is acting chairwoman of Gallaudet University's board of trustees.
Brueggemann also is an English professor at Ohio State University and lives in Clintonville.
The protesters are opposed to the selection of Jane Fernandes as the next president of Gallaudet in Washington, D.C. The school is the nation's sole liberal-arts university for deaf people.
The protesters wanted Brueggemann to call an emergency board meeting to resolve the conflict, and it appears they might have gotten their wish.
Brueggemann was unavailable for comment yesterday and was thought to be in Washington to attend a board meeting of trustees set for Sunday. They ordinarily would not meet again until February, said Mercy Coogan, a spokeswoman for the university.
"The purpose of the meeting is for the board members to come together and address the concerns that have been raised in the protests," Coogan said.
Fernandes, 49, is scheduled to assume her new role in January. Her opponents accuse her of being a negative force on campus while in her position as provost.
The local events have been spawned by large protests on the university's campus in Washington, which have resulted in more than a hundred arrests and several sit-ins.
In Columbus, three protesters went into Brueggemann's office Monday to try to talk about the conflict, said DawnMarie Fucile of Cleveland. She is chairwoman of the action committee of the Deaf and Deaf-Blind Committee on Human Rights, based in North Olmsted.
"She got very upset, was frantic, and said she was going to call police," Fucile said through a translator Wednesday night. "We wanted to talk about how to resolve the situation."
OSU police threatened to arrest them, but the three left the office, said Heather West, one of the protesters.
That led to a vigil outside Brueggemann's home Tuesday and a rally outside Denney Hall, where the professor's office is, on Wednesday. Group members say they plan to stay in town until the "crisis" is resolved.
The protesters said Fernandes has "created an atmosphere of distrust and fear" and is an ineffective leader, according to a flier they handed out.
Protesters also are unhappy that Fernandes, who was born deaf, did not learn American Sign Language until she was in her 20s.
On the Web site for the Gallaudet University Faculty, Staff, Students & Alumni Coalition, Fernandes is called an ineffective administrator who does not support diversity.
Last week, university faculty members passed a resolution demanding that Fernandes resign from her position. They also voted "no confidence" in her.
Fernandes, who used to be the university's provost, was chosen by the trustees in May to be president. The university's current president, I. King Jordan, will leave in January.