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TIME'S UP: The first deaf president of Gallaudet University, I. King Jordan, has announced that he will step down on December 31, 2006. He was also the first deaf American college president.
Mr. Jordan, who is 62, became Gallaudet's president in March 1988, after the Board of Trustees' decision to hire a new president who was not deaf sparked protests by students and alumni that shut down the institution. The board's choice for the job, Elisabeth A. Zinser, resigned after four days, and Mr. Jordan, then a dean at Gallaudet, was selected to lead the university.
"I became president in a very public way," said Mr. Jordan during a recent speech to students, faculty members, and administrators at Gallaudet.
Mr. Jordan said that as president, he has been a spokesman for the larger movement touched off by the 1988 protests, which is still known as Deaf President Now. The protests were seen by many as a seminal moment for deaf equality, and have been hailed by civil- rights leaders and politicians as having helped spur passage of the Americans...