Former NTID chief to lead Gallaudet

From: WCAX - Burlington,VT,USA - Dec 11, 2006

ROCHESTER, N.Y. A former vice president of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester has been hired as interim president of Gallaudet University.

Students at Rochester Institute of Technology's N-T-I-D have closely watched the controversy over Gallaudet Universitys hiring of a new president. Gallaudet, in Washington D-C, is the nation's only liberal arts college for the deaf.

There were protests in the deaf community after Gallaudet's former provost, Jane Fernandes, was selected in May as the school's president.

N-T-I-D students joined Gallaudet students in protesting Fernandes, who was viewed as not sufficiently supportive of sign language and deaf culture.

In late October, N-T-I-D students set up a "tent city" on the front lawn of the Rochester campus to support their peers at Gallaudet.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.