All about Gallaudet University Quiz

Answer: True

Elizabeth Zinser, previously the Dean of Women at an Eastern school, was fully qualified to be a university president, but as someone who knew no sign language, and nothing about American Deaf people or their sub-culture, was not qualified to oversee Gallaudet, according to the protesters. While it was true that Gallaudet had previously had only hearing presidents, that was because there had not been qualified Deaf applicants: few Deaf people held Ph.Ds and had the experience to be a university president. This time around, however, there were several Deaf applicants, with two in particular, a superintendent of a highly ranked Deaf School, and I. King Jordan, the Dean of Students at Gallaudet who were more than qualified. Both were signing Deaf people with Ph.Ds in fields more relevant than Zinser's, whose degree was in nursing.

Zinser resigned after 6 days, and was thanked by the students. I. King Jordan was appointed president in an emergency session of the board of trustees.

All the student protesters four demands were met: 1) the resignation of Zinser and the election or appointment of a Deaf president; 2) the resignation of the chairman of the board (who was also a hearing person who could not sign) and her replacement by a Deaf person; 3) no appointments of hearing people to the board until it was 51% Deaf (every single Deaf board member had voted for a Deaf presidential applicant, while some of the hearing members had as well, but some of the hearing majority had voted for Zinser, and the majority had ruled); and 4) no reprisals for students or faculty who took part in the protests.

Answer: Edward Miner Gallaudet

Edward Miner Gallaudet (February 5, 1837 - September 26, 1917), was the son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Sophia Fowler Gallaudet, the latter of whom was Deaf. EM Gallaudet named the school in honor of his father.

Thomas Gallaudet, along with Laurent Clerc, had established the Columbia Institute for the Deaf, which like most schools, ended with secondary education. EM Gallaudet took over running it after his father, and had a vision of it going further; he sought college status for the Columbia Institute. He got it when President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill into law which authorized the school to award bachelor's degrees. This College of the Deaf eventually became Gallaudet University in 1987, although it had been functioning as a university for years before, in the sense that it had areas of study outside a liberal arts college, and granted master's degrees and Ph.Ds.

Answer: Alice Cogswell

Alice Cogswell is the girl. There is a statue just inside the front gate to Gallaudet of Thomas Gallaudet with a child Alice Cogswell.

Answer: English

Clerc really had as much to do with the original Hartford, CT school, which was subsequently moved to its present location in DC when it needed more space, as Gallaudet did, and some people think the university should be called "Gallaudet and Clerc."

As it is, there is a building on campus named for Clerc.

In America, French Sign Language changed, as what is called "Old American Sign Language," and varieties of spontaneous "home signs" came to Gallaudet's school with its new students, and those signs were incorporated into the students' everyday language. However, French and American sign language are still mutually intelligible to a great extent, even though linguists consider them distinct languages.

Answer: Shave their heads, and try to get more shaved heads than the class the year before.

These are all traditions at Gally, but only one is associated with the freshman class. It is the preparatory students who stalk and kill a rat (although since 1980, they have claimed they use stuffed, toy rats, and only pretend to kill them). The junior class hangs the much-purloined banner. Dressing in formalwear and maintaining silence is a practice of those pledging sororities and fraternities.

Answer: Pre-Calculus (or testing out of it)

Math is usually the one subject mainstreamed students have kept up with their peers in, so Gallaudet concentrates on subjects that will remediate the problems with a "mainstreamed education," or a Deaf School education, where brighter students were often left to their own devices while a teacher remediated slower students in language skills.

Answer: True

Many students, even those who claim generally to be skeptics, won't walk through the door, at all, not just as freshmen. Aside from the superstition, it's creepy-looking.

Answer: Yes

Gallaudet takes all qualified Deaf students first. If it still has room it takes hearing students who are interested in majors that may lead to careers where they may either often interact with Deaf people, or specialize in working with a Deaf population, such as students who want to be teachers, social workers, nurses or lawyers, to name just a few. In addition, Gallaudet offers a bachelor's degree in interpreting for hearing people, and a certain number of freshman admissions slots each year are reserved for those students.

Hearing students may also apply to be visiting students, and attend either for one semester or one year. These visiting students must be enrolled in another accredited college or university, and be in good standing, with a 3.0 GPA or better. Their own school will transfer their credits when they are done, and usually look upon it as the student's "junior year abroad."

Before the "Deaf President Now" protests put Gallaudet on the map, Gallaudet took nearly all applicants, including hearing people, just to fill the dorms, but after the protests, suddenly everyone wanted to go to Gallaudet, and there was a cap on admissions for the first time. No new hearing students were admitted for a few years, while the school expanded.

Hearing students must be prepared to function without an interpreter, which means they must know some sign language reasonably well. Their fluency will improve enormously in just a few weeks.

Answer: Washington, DC

Gallaudet in in DC, on the Kendall Green, which is that name of the campus, because its original two acres were donated by Amos Kendall, the postmaster general during the administrations of Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren. Many of the original buildings are still standing, although none of them are classrooms-- they are all departmental offices, because they are historical buildings that are not fully accessible to people with all types of disabilities.

In fact, not only is Gallaudet University there, but there is still a Kendall school: the Kendall Demonstration Elementary School, and the Model Secondary School for the Deaf are both located on the same campus at the university. These schools use the very latest curricula, often when it is still in its testing and revision stages, and also provide a place for students at Gallaudet majoring in education to do their student teaching.

Rochester, NY, is the location of the Rochester Institute of Technology, where the National Technical Institute for the Deaf is housed. It is an excellent place for Deaf students, but unlike Gallaudet, relies on interpreters in the classrooms, not on signing professors, as is the case at Gallaudet.

California State University at Northridge is a university on the West coast, with an interpreting program, so lots of student interpreters are available to interpret classes there as well, and it has a large Deaf population.

Answer: Bison

The sign language symbol for the bison is a "Y" handshape (thumb and pinky only extended), placed on the forehead. At a football game, when the Gallaudet students chant "Bison!" they thrust the Y hand (bison horns) forward toward the enemy. A sea of several hundred people doing that is quite formidable.