Déjà vu all over again

Students are often at the university for only a few years at a time. However, persistent efforts of students who have already graduated should not be forgotten.

What has been said:

1991

Boston University Today, September 23-29, 1991. Pages 7-8.

Let's hear it for American Sign Language: Prof. urges greater recognition on campus

By Brian Fitzgerald

Is American Sign Language, the language of the deaf in the United States, a bona fide foreign language? Yes, says Ben Bahan, a professor in the School of Education's Program in Deaf Studies. And he believes Boston University should academically recognize American Sign Language (ASL) as a language other than English. "ASL courses aren't recognized by the College of Liberal Arts as foreign language courses, and this is a mistake," says Prof. Bahan, who speaks through an interpreter using ASL.

Prof. Bahan lost his hearing when he was four years old--probably because of heredity, because his parents are also deaf. But he doesn't regard himself as handicapped. He says he is part of a linguistic minority--but an oppressed minority just the same.

"Most people are taught to view deafness as a medical and pathological problem," says Prof. Bahan. "But when deaf people are together, the medical view is nonexistent. That's when the pathological explanation of deafness doesn't help us anymore."

What does help deaf people is to be recognized as a linguistic and cultural group, and that's the message they will be spreading during National Deaf Awareness Week September 22-28. Events in the Boston area will include entertainment and various workshops, many of them using ASL. The Boston University Deaf Studies Club plans to hold its own Boston University Deaf Awareness Week later--November 4-7, when there will be an information table at the George Sherman Union. Deaf awareness: What does the deaf community want from the hearing community? "To be treated as a group that uses a different language. We have our own language, our own culture," says Prof. Bahan, who came to Boston University because it has one of the best deaf studies programs in the country. But he wants fluency in ASL to carry more academic clout on campus.

At Boston University, CLA bachelor's degree candidates are required to be proficient at the advanced level in a language other than their own. CLA associate dean Burton Cooper says, on the average, only once a year does a student request to study ASL and use it as a requirement. He adds that while the issue comes up in the CLA administration once in a while, recognition of ASL as a foreign language isn't likely in the near future.

"We sympathize with students who want to learn sign language. But it doesn't answer the needs that of CLA's language requirement. Using sign language is not the same as speaking another language," says Dean Cooper. "American Sign Language students learn the English language in a different fashion. American Sign Language is another way of speaking American English."

The virtues of ASL have long been debated. Some feel that teaching ASL, as opposed to teaching lip-reading the speech, further isolates the deaf from the rest of society.

Dean Cooper says that students who wish to learn ASL have noble motives, most of them having deaf relatives and friends, but he points out that learning ASL is far different from learning a foreign language. Dean Cooper adds that sign languages also exist in French, German, and Italian. "Learning French, Japanese, or Swahili is really a different kind of education," he says. "One learns the literature of that language. One learns the country's social and economic world defined in that language."

Kip Opperman, director of the Office of Disability Services, and a former professional interpreter for the deaf, feels that ASL should be treated as a language. It has its own syntax, its own grammar, he says. "In higher education ASL is becoming more accepted as a language."

Professor Katherine O'Connor, chair of CLA's Modern Foreign Languages Department, says, "Personally, I can see several arguments in favor of distinguishing American Sign Language from the study of a foreign language, but I can also see arguments relating the two. It's a complex issue."

 

Letters to the Daily Free Press, 10/1/91

University official does not understand nature of American Sign Language

* During National Deaf Awareness Week, an article appeared in Boston University Today, the official BU faculty/staff newsletter (Sept. 23) in which Ben Bahan, a deaf Ph.D. student who is on the faculty in the School of Education, was interviewed on the subject of American Sign Language and several BU administrative officials were quoted offering their opinions on ASL.

Nothing could be further from the truth than to suggest that [American Sign Language] is merely English on the hands.
I am disturbed to learn that the official BU spokespeople have such harmful misconceptions about the status of ASL as a language. There is a consensus among linguists, and within the scientific community generally, that recent research has demonstrated conclusively that ASL is a full-fledged language, with its own rich and complex organization that is very different from that of English but profoundly of the same character as that found in other natural languages.

Nothing can be further from the truth than to suggest that ASL is merely English on the hands. Consider the fact, for example, that British Sign Language and American Sign Language are mutually unintelligible. American Sign Language has developed autonomously of English. It has a syntax which is rather different from that of English; in fact, it may resemble more closely the syntax of French.

ASL is extremely rich morphologically, and a great deal of work has been done to uncover the ways in which the morphology of the language is acquired. The articulation of ASL is quite analogous structurally to the phonological analysis proposed for spoken languages. Moreover, studies of

language acquisition in children have shown that the acquisition of signed and spoken languages follows much the same developmental sequence. It is also most interesting to note that the linguistic analysis of ASL has shown that the language faculty of humans is not bound only to the auditory modality, but can be manifest in all its complexity in the spatial modality as well.

The discovery that the universal principles of human languages are exhibited by ASL is regarded as incontrovertible evidence of its status as a language. Recent reports in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, Nature, Science, inter aria, bear testimony to this claim.

All of this is somewhat orthogonal to the point of this letter: it reveals astonishing ignorance (at best) to suggest that the language of Deaf people in this country is merely a different (read: inferior) form of English. At a center of higher learning, a university, one would expect an acquaintanceship with the scientific facts by those who profess expert judgments. It alarms me that official university statements are further perpetuating precious misconceptions

[R]ecent research has demonstrated conclusively that ASL is a full-fledged language.

about ASL instead of encouraging scientific inquiry. Moreover, the tone of these comments is completely insulting to Ben Bahan and the other 17 deaf students here at Boston University. It looks like discrimination on the basis of language, but perhaps it is merely ignorance. If the latter is the case, I hope for the sake of Boston University that such opinions are permeable to the facts.

Debra Aarons, GRS '93

The following letter is an open letter to College of Liberal Arts Associate Dean Burton Cooper

* I am writing in response to your comments in the recent Boston University Today article "Let's hear it for American Sign Language" (Sept. 23-29). It does not shock me that the College of Liberal Arts does not accept or recognize American Sign Language (ASL) as a foreign language, for I have seen this treatment of ASL for the four years I have attended BU. I was, however, appalled and insulted by the comments made in regard to ASL and its academic value to the university community.

Some facts should be made clear. You state that "American Sign Language students learn the English language in a different fashion. American Sign Language is another way to learn English." This is simply not true. ASL is a language complete with its own syntax, morphology, semantics and grammar structure. It is impossible to translate a paragraph in the English languages word for word into ASL; in ASL the ideas and concepts, rather than the individual words of this paragraph, would be expressed using the grammatical structure of ASL--not English. THerefore, ASL is not simply "English on the hands." You also state "Language (another language) is really quite a different kind of education. One learns the literature of that language. One learns the... social and economic world defined in that language." Perhaps you are unaware that in studying ASL, students not only learn the languages, but also are exposed to the Deaf culture--along with its history, folklore, literature and sociological implications. There are even those students who choose to follow in this field for four or more years in a major called Deaf Studies (which is rapidly gaining popularity within the School of Education).

According to this article, you also said that "students who wish to learn ASL have noble motives, most of them having deaf

relatives of friends." How kind of you to think so, but in reality, this is not the case. Most ASL students simply wish to learn another language that is indeed foreign to them. By making statements such as these, you belittle and patronize not only those individuals taking ASL but also those Deaf studies majors who have devoted four years of their time to this field of study, and those members of the Deaf culture itself. It is also disturbing that you still do not allow those studying ASL to use it as their foreign language requirement--despite the fact that ASL is clearly a separate language in itself, used by a minority culture of the Deaf as a native language.

Students not only learn the language, but are exposed to the Deaf culture.

Perhaps all this would be understandable if this concept was new to our campus, yet the Deaf Studies department has been in existence and offering classes since 1982! Nearly 10 years of ignorance is simply intolerable. It is attitudes such as these that prolong the oppression of ASL and the Deaf culture in American Society.

I urge you to re-research your information. Numerous linguistic studies on the subject are available. I challenge both you and the entire university community to find out more about ASL and Deaf culture through outlets in the Boston area and through the upcoming Boston University Deaf Awareness Week (Nov. 4-7) sponsored by the BU Deaf Studies Club. Most importantly, I sincerely hope that you and the CLA administration will reconsider your decision and in the future respect and accept American Sign Language for what it is -- a language in its own right.

Diane Nutting, co-president, BU Deaf Studies Club, SED/SFA '93


Letter to the Editor of Boston University Today, published in the October 14-20, 1991 issue

ASL: "Hearsay," not expertise?

It is unfortunate in this day and age that academic issues cannot be aired on the basis of fact and research. I am responding to an article regarding American Sign Language in Boston University Today (September 23-29). This article could have been a timely and newsworthy information piece providing a look at ASL as a foreign or second Language in the US. Instead it presented an apparent controversy over ASL's linguistic integrity, a "controversy" which had long been settled by professionals in the field. The fact is that ASL has its own grammar and a complex morphology equivalent to many of the spoken languages of the world. Its history dates back to the original settlers on Martha's Vineyard in the late 1600s. Its use and structure was discussed in prestigious journals in the 1840s and since the 1950s there has been an explosion of research that substantiates that ASL is a language, different from English in structure. Notable linguists, including Noam Chomsky, have reported on this research. Today more than two million people in the United States use ASL as their native language.

The information obtained by Brian Fitzgerald raised some of the misunderstanding about ASL and how Deaf people live. Except for an interview with Mr. Bahan, a professor with the School of Education and deaf himself, all of Mr. Fitzgerald's sources provided only hearsay. Instead of publishing such conjecture and misstatements, it would have been to the reporter's benefit to substantiate claims from persons who are not expert within this field. One would expect that a newspaper supported by an academic institution like Boston University would verify denigrating statements especially after just completing an interview with Mr. Bahan.

CLA has a long history of avoiding a real discussion regarding the merits of ASL as a second or foreign language. In the past 10 to 15 years there has been a substantial amount of research that speaks to how a language that is in a spatial modality is constructed. ASL is not another way of doing English, it is a spatial language that follows spatial rules. That it is a spatial Language does not make it "unique." The rules of ASL are similar to rules found for many other spoken languages, ones that are also different than English. Research on the acquisition of ASL demonstrates that ASL follows universal principles found for all languages. With an extra hour of work this research could have been located and would have proven that typical layperson's comments about American Sign Language are based on ignorance and prejudice and have no place within academic pursuits.

The Deaf Studies Program at BU has been in existence since 1982. We have serviced over 2,500 students since its inception. These students have learned that ASL is not only a language used by the majority of Deaf people in the US but it carries with it a strong and well developed culture. The Deaf, through ASL, have transported generations of folklore, literature, mores and values. Persons who feel they have comments to make on behalf of the Deaf Community and their Language should first investigate what is known and maybe then one can proceed from an enlightened stance rather than reporting ignorance..

Robert J. Hoffmeister, Ph.D.
Director, Deaf Studies Programs, Education of the Deaf, Center for the Study of Communication and Deafness.
 

Daily Free Press, Wednesday, November 13, 1991

Editorial

Understand zero

College of Liberal Arts associate dean Burton Cooper says that American Sign Language (ASL) is simply a translation of English into gesture. He does not consider it a language, and thus CLA will not recognize ASL to fulfill a modern language requirement.

Were one to ask any of the professors or students of the School of Education Deaf Studies program their response to this, it might come in two simple signs. They would be translated, very loosely, as "understand zero." The sign represented here by the word zero far exceeds just this basic meaning. Putting this ASL word adequately into English is impossible.

The grammar of this translated sentence further proves that ASL is a language in its own right, not a primitive version of English. English grammar would not accept this sentence and yet in ASL it is a common, complete phrase. in fact it, and variations on it, are frequently used in ASL.

The fact that a great many members of the faculty and student body at CLA are ashamed by Cooper's denouncements of ASL allows hope. As of Friday, more than 1,500 signatures were already collected by the Deaf Studies Club supporting ASL language requirement fulfillment, which the group will soon present to the CLA administration. As DSC president Diane Nutting said last week, "ASL is the language of the deaf community as a legitimate society, with its own culture and "sociological implications"--which Nutting points out are part of the Deaf Studies curriculum.

Maybe the college will be able to rise above Cooper's own primitive approach to the issue. He showed, in our own microcosm, the extremely ignorant discrimination which rules this macrocosm we call America.

Any language which expresses a concept, however rustic, as in cave drawings, or detailed and astute, as in ASL, deserves recognition. Cooper needs to listen to those with the information and take their advice. This is one matter where he should bow out of the proceedings.

 

Daily Free Press, Thursday, November 14, 1991

Letter to the Editor

CLA deans defend Cooper

The attack on Associate Dean Cooper over the issue of American Sign Language (ASL) in the Nov. 13 editorial "Understand zero" is misguided and unfair. Misguided in that he is the messenger, not the decision-maker. Unfair in that he is not rejecting ASL as a language per se but rather attempting to explain why it is not currently accepted in fulfillment of a particular degree requirement.

Your second sentence in the editorial makes these mistakes clear: "He does not consider it a language, and thus CLA will not recognize ASL to fulfill a modern language requirement." Please note the following:

1. Dean Cooper has not denied that ASL is a language. The question is whether it is appropriate in fulfillment of the (not a) foreign language requirement in the College of Liberal Arts.

2. ASL courses are offered in the School of Education, not in the College of Liberal Arts. Courses taken in fulfillment of the foreign language requirement are offered by the Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures Departments of the College of Liberal Arts.

3. The reason CLA does not accept ASL in fulfillment of the foreign language requirement has nothing to do with Dean Cooper's opinion. It is a matter of academic policy determined by the Academic Policy Committee and the faculty of the college. The question of ASL has been debated and voted on by the Academic Policy Committee in years past, and the decision has always been against accepting ASL in fulfillment of the foreign language requirement. I believe Dean Cooper has been clear about this.

4. If members of the faculty or members of the Academic Policy Committee, wish to reconsider this issue, they are certainly free to do so.

Reading the description of the foreign language requirement in the CLA "Bulletin" is instructive. The following is from page 39:

Foreign Language: The study of a foreign language is a significant element in liberal education, providing access to the literature and culture of another society. In planning language work, students should consider the particular needs of their proposed fields of concentration and should remember that graduate degrees frequently require one or, more commonly, two languages, often French and German. Degree candidates are required to demonstrate proficiency at the advanced level in one language other than their own.*

Even this brief statement flags several of the previous concerns with proposal to accept ASL in fulfillment of the foreign language requirement. To what literature does ASL proficiency provide access? In what way does ASL proficiency enable students for further academic study, meaning graduate of professional education? And is the academic study of culture associated with SL equivalent, from the perspective of curriculum to the cultural components of the foreign languages currently associated with the liberal arts degree?

Students want recognition for ASL as a language, and no one is denying this general claim. The real question is not, however, whether ASL is sufficiently rich in structure and syntax (computer languages have these attributes also), but whether the study of ASL accomplishes the general goals of the foreign languages requirement for the liberal arts degree. Clearly, more will be said on this subject. Keeping the arguments focused on the essential points, and not on the straw men (Dean Cooper included) will greatly improve the quality of this discussion.

Dennis D. Berkey
Dean, College of Liberal Arts

*NOTE - this is still the wording of the requirement: http://www.bu.edu/bulletins/und/item12.html#anchor05

It would seem that for purposes of this requirement, a "foreign language" is being defined as a non-native language.

Daily Free Press, Thursday, November 14, 1991

Letter to the Editor

Clarifying the ASL facts

I am writing to comment on the recent debate about American Sign Language and the question of whether it should satisfy the CLA language requirement. It is unfortunate that the discussion of these important matters has become personalized and clouded by factual distortions.

The status of ASL as a language is a matter of scientific fact, not an issue over which CLA has jurisdiction. There is an increasing body of linguistic research to demonstrate that ASL and other signed languages share the fundamental structural and organizational properties of natural languages, and are processed and acquired in much the same way as spoken languages. (In this crucial respect, ASL is thus not comparable to either computer languages or cave drawings.)

However, as Dean Berkey made clear in his letter of Nov. 14 ("CLA deans defend Cooper"), the College of Liberal Arts has an absolute right to determine what shall be deemed to satisfy its various degree requirements. In fact, the college's Academic Policy Committee has tacitly endorsed the finding that ASL is a language by approving the undergraduate concentration in linguistics, which requires knowledge of two languages, one of which is explicitly allowed to be ASL. I am pleased that Dean Berkey has indicated that the college may reconsider the question of whether ASL should be allowed to satisfy the general collegewide language requirement as well.

Carol Neidle
Associate Professor
CLA Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures Department

 

Daily Free Press, Thursday, November 21, 1991

Letter to the Editor

Course descriptions give ASL legitimacy

     Editor's note: The following is an open letter to College of Liberal Arts dean Dennis D. Berkey

In your letter, "CLA deans defend Cooper" (Nov. 14), you pose viable questions that deserve serious consideration. The topic of debate is, as you put forth, whether the study of American SIgn Language accomplishes the general goals of the foreign language requirement for the liberal arts degree. I will therefore use specific examples of classes that do meet the requirements and compare them with ASL study, as I propose to answer your questions.

1) To what literature does ASL proficiency provide access?

One year of study of African Language serves as a prerequisite to the CLA course Forms and Functions of African Oral Literature, a class that provides access to forms of non-written literature on African societies south of the Sahara. In much the same way, ASL proficiency provides access to many different types of signed literature, including narrative, fiction, nonfiction, drama, poetry, song, riddle, folklore, and game--all of which play an important role in the Deaf community.

2) In what way does ASL proficiency enable students for further academic study, meaning graduate or professional education?

There are many ways in which this can be accomplished. Proficiency in ASL enables students to continue their studies into the structural linguistic study of specific aspects of phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicology in ASL as well as language variation, dialect, realization and bilingualism as in the School of Education course American Sign Language Structure. In addition, ASL proficiency allows students to participate in instruction of the deaf, in both residential and classroom settings as well as resource rooms, itinerant and clinical settings, as in the SED course Practicum 2: Student Teaching.

3) Is the academic study of culture associated with ASL equivalent, from the perspective of curriculum, to the cultural components of the foreign languages currently associated with the liberal arts degree?

Consider the following: Satisfactory completion of the CLA course Second Year Russian II fulfills the CLA language requirement. The prerequisites are three semesters of Russian in CLA or demonstrated proficiency to that level. I reproduce the course descriptions from the undergraduate programs bulletin. CLA First Year Russian I and II: An introduction to the fundamentals of Russian Grammar. Extensive practice in orthography and pronunciation: oral drills, development of comprehension and conversation skills, reading of simple texts. Lab required. CLA Second Year Russian I and II: The fundamentals of Russian Grammar and Syntax. Development of reading and oral skills. Satisfactory completion of CLA Second Year Russian II fulfills the CLA language requirements.

Now for the course descriptions for SED's course American Sign Language, first year only. SED American Sign Language I: Introductory Course that provides non-native signers an opportunity to study American Sign Language as a foreign or second language. Emphasizes ASL grammatical structure and receptive skills. An introduction to the Deaf community is presented through conversation. American Sign Language II: Continuation of American Sign Language I. Patterns of lexical and grammatical structure reviewed and extended. Extensive information is presented through conversation.

By comparing these course descriptions, and by realizing the availability and accessibility of American Deaf culture by a proficient signer, it is evident that the academic study of culture associated with first year ASL is at the very least equivalent to the academic study of culture associated with first year Russian.

In closing, I would like to point out an inconsistency in your letter. You state that "the reason CLA does not accept ASL in fulfillment of the foreign language requirement has nothing to do with Dean Cooper's opinion. It is a matter or academic policy determined by the Academic Policy Committee and the faculty of the college." Dean Cooper is a member of the Academic Policy Committee and therefore the reason CLA does not accept ASL in fulfillment has somewhat more than nothing to do with Dean Cooper's opinion.

Thank you for your willingness to consider this topic.

Daniel C. DeLuca
Deaf-Blind Program
Perkins School for the Blind

 

1992

Daily Free Press, October 22, 1992

Push for ASL as language revived

By: David B. Caruso

The Student Union has revived a longstanding campaign by students in the School of Education deaf studies program to make American Sign Language part of the College of Liberal Arts' foreign language curriculum.

SED senator Lynette Pitman, in conjunction with Student Union vice president for academic affairs Jason Patton, is working on an extensive research project on ASL which the Union is planning to present to CLA administrators later this year.

ASL's proponents in the Union and SED have argued that students in CLA should be able to take sign language classes to fulfill CLA's four-semester foreign language requirement.

"It is a foreign language--it is not English done with the hands," Pitman said. "It's got a completely different syntax. I could not sign exactly what I am saying in English."

CLA dean Dennis Berkey, long opposed to the inclusion of ASL as part of CLA's modern foreign language curriculum, said ASL does not fit the requirement because it is not part of a foreign culture.

"The language requirement in CLA is not a linguistic requirement," Berkey said. "It has to do with introducing a literature, a culture and a people to the student. It opens students to a literature not of their own."

Berkey, however, did welcome debate on the subject.

"It's not a simple question and I don't want to dismiss it offhand," Berkey said.

Both Pitman and Berkey compared ASL to languages that are used in large parts of Africa today, languages which do not have written words to correspond to the spoken language.

Berkey said CLA offers classes in these unwritten languages because the culture is different, and is reflected in the language.

Pitman's research hypothesis is that deaf culture is a separate culture, one that is just as vibrant and worth studying as African culture.

"The deaf do have a culture of their own. For a long time, they were considered not a part of regular society... and they adapted by forming their own culture," Pitman said.

Deaf studies club president Monica Kaufman, a junior in SED and CLA, said that research has been in existence for nearly three decades which shows there is a distinct deaf culture in America.

"Since the mid '60s there has been linguistic proof that deaf people have their own culture," Kaufman said. "I don't understand why this university has been ignoring all the research that has been done, not only by linguists, but by anthropologists and sociologists."

The deaf studies program at SED includes deaf history, literature and folklore classes, as well as four semesters of ASL.

Pitman questioned CLA's motives for opposing the inclusion of ASL in the foreign language curriculum and suggested that administrators in CLA might be reluctant to send students to SED.

"This whole culture bit, on the front, is a good cover. BUt it all comes down to money. [The modern foreign language department] will lose money if students go to SED to take classes," Pitman claimed.

Daily Free Press, Thursday, October 29, 1992

letter to the editor

ASL classes teach language plus culture

I wish to state for the record that my quotation in the Oct. 22 Free Press article ("Push for ASL as a language revisited") was taken out of context. I was quoted as saying "But it all comes down to money. [The modern foreign language department] will lose money if students go to SED to take classes." In no way do I wish to imply that College of Liberal Arts dean Dennis D. Berkey is placing monetary concerns over academic ones.

I am sure Berkey has only the students' best interests in mind in his opposition to the recognition of American Sign Language. I understand that he wants foreign language students to leave a class with more than the ability to speak the language. I believe he wants students to also understand the people and their culture. I agree with him that these are very important issues. Carrying the point one step further, I feel that only through this kind of understanding can the ignorance of one culture about another be overcome. In my mind, this should be an intrinsic part of any modern foreign language class.

These are the reasons that have motivated me to work toward the inclusion of ASL in the modern foreign language curriculum in CLA. This is exactly the manner in which ASL is taught in SED. Deafness is a culture, not a disability.

I appreciate Berkey's openness to debate. I look forward to speaking with him on this topic later in the year.

Lynette Pitman

SED '94

 

 

Daily Free Press, Tuesday, November 10, 1992

Student Senate hears ASL case: Deaf students urge support

By David B. Caruso

A delegation of deaf students and professors last night urged the Student Union Senate to support their drive to have American Sign Language adopted as part of the College of Liberal Arts modern foreign language curriculum.

Representatives from CLA and the School of Education, which has its own deaf studies program, have been trying for years to have ASL count as foreign language credits in CLA.

CLA students are required to take four semesters of a foreign language as part of the liberal arts curriculum.

CLA dean Dennis D. Berkey has objected to ASL being included as a foreign language ont he grounds that sign language does not have an original body of literature and does not spring from a distinct culture.

Deaf students, whose testimony was translated from sign, tried to convince senators of a distinct deaf culture.

"ASL is a language in its own right... to become fluent in ASL takes a lifetime, just like it would in any other language," CLA freshman Shannon Bourke said.

BU teaching fellow Jim Challis argued that ASL has met CLA's requirements to be counted as a foreign language.

"If we are going to meet the requirements and they are still going to keep us out, I would like them to give us a reason why," Challis said.

SED senator Lynette Pitman, a junior, said she is planning to present a research paper on ASL to Berkey later this year.

Though many senators seemed to support allowing foreign language credit for ASL, the Senate may not officially vote to issue its support until next semester, after Pitman's research is complete.

 

Daily Free Press, Thursday, November 12, 1992

letter to the editor

CLA dean sets the record straight about school's position on ASL

Yesterday's lead editorial in The Daily Free Press ("Approve ASL") was grossly unfair. You have blatantly misrepresented my position and demanded that I accept American Sign Language without the benefit of being able to read or hear discussed the proposal that is winding its way through some arm of student government. Foul!

I have never said or asserted that ASL does not spring from a distinct culture. Rather, I have questioned whether the culture so referred to is the type of culture implied by a requirement in foreign language for a liberal arts degree.

I have never said or asserted that there is no original body of ASL literature. Rather, I have questioned whether the associated "literature" is consistent with that envisioned in the requirements for a liberal arts degree.

I have never said or asserted that ASL is limited to "converting the spoken word into hand signs and facial expressions." I do worry, though, that ASL does not even offer unique means of expressing common notions and that signing among non-American (not even non-English) can be quite different (foreign?) than signing ASL.

I have never denied that ASL is a distinct "language" with "distinct nuances and rules." In fact, I have made clear my position that the foreign language requirement in CLA is not a linguistic requirement.

I have never asserted that ASL can "benefit only a small group of students." I am unaware of any limitations on course enrollments in the ASL courses.

I wrote a letter to the editor almost exactly a year ago to this date on precisely this same subject. Readers will find there the position that I explained a year ago, and explained again about a month ago to a Free Press reporter. It bears scant resemblance to what the Free Press claims my position to be in its editorial. Whose ignorance are we discussing?

Let's face it. The Free Press has used its editorial space to attempt to bludgeon me into accepting a proposal I have not even seen. In the year that has elapsed since The Daily Free Press last championed the cause, not a single proposal has been advanced to this office or anywhere in the College of Liberal Arts on this subject. Frankly, I believe that the Free Press has fallen victim to a misguided ideology that says that the way to achieve progress in curriculum reform is through political pressure. That's wrong.

No one in CLA is opposed to students studying American Sign Language. It is also fully accepted by the College of Liberal Arts for elective credit toward a liberal arts degree.

The position against accepting ASL in lieu of mastery of a true foreign language is strongly held by many members of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and by the CLA faculty, I believe. Please stop acting as if the opposition is due only to a character flaw in the dean. Free Press readers deserve better arguments, even when they are wrong.

Dennis D. Berkey
Dean, CLA

 

1993

Daily Free Press, January 12, 1993

ASL must meet CLA standards

By: David B. Caruso

College of Liberal Arts dean Dennis D. Berkey said yesterday that a recent Student Union proposal to have American SIgn Language classes adopted as part of CLA curriculum must be supported by CLA faculty before it can be approved.

Last night Berkey said that although he has been opposed to ASL becoming a part of CLA's foreign language department, a procedure exists for changing CLA's policies.

Student Union senator Lynette Pitman's formal proposal to Berkey was given a vote of confidence by the Senate Dec. 14 and was handed by Pitman to Berkey the next day.

But during their brief meeting, Berkey said he told Pitman that any changes to the CLA curriculum would have to be initiated by the faculty and from within CLA.

If the foreign language department chooses to approve ASL, its recommendation would be voted on by a collegewide academic policy committee and then ratified by the CLA faculty, Berkey said.

Berkey added that since ASL classes are offered by the School of Education, they cannot count towards a CLA degree. He did not rule out future policy changes.

Pitman, an SED junior, said she was disappointed with Berkey's insistence that changes come from within CLA.

"I can't do anything more myself... at least not with my name on it. But I did not get into this because of the credit," Pitman said.

 

Daily Free Press, Wednesday, April 14, 1993

Students approve five ballot questions

By: David B. Caruso

Students yesterday approved two referendum questions advocating a community service fee to pay for the publication of "The Source Guide" and the establishment of a rape crisis center on campus.

The two proposals were part of five non-binding referendum questions on yesterday's student government election ballots, all of which were accepted by voters.

Students overwhelmingly supported a $4 increase in fees to pay for a rape crisis center by a vote of 1,545 to 701.

Surprisingly Metropolitan College senator Louis DelValle, who initially lobbied diligently for the question to be placed on ballots, withdrew his support for the measure.

DelValle last night said he had recently asked Student Union president Scott Reihnardt to remove the question from the ballot after representatives from the Women's Center argued that BU already has adequate services for rape victims.

But DelValle said increased funding could strengthen and unify these services.

"We do have stuff, but it has to be streamlined," Del Valle said. "THe $4 will help to streamline what we have to make it better."

A proposal to increase the community service fee by $1 to pay for the continued publication of "The Source GUide," a booklet published by the Student Union every year offering evaluations of BU courses, passed by a mere 170 votes.

The narrow results showed that 1,215 students voted for the proposal, while 1,045 voted against it.

Students also said the Student Union Election Committee should allow a write-in candidate to take office if that candidate receives the most votes.

A whopping 2,003 voters out of the 2,527 voters that cast a ballot yesterday voted in favor of the proposal. Only 217 students voted against the validity of write-in votes.

SUEC chairman Ken Norton, who was not allowed to take office as Union executive vice president last year because he was a write-in candidate, as part of the Kaos slate, said he was happy with the massive support of the write-in vote.

"It just proves what I knew and what the students knew all along, Norton said. "[The students] want to pick who their leaders are."

In another referendum question victory, students voted 1,879 to 366 for American Sign Language to be accepted by the College of Liberal Arts as fulfilling the school's foreign language requirements.

School of Education senator Lynette Pitman, who has led the campaign to bring ASL to CLA, said she hopes the CLA administration will listen to student support for the proposal.

"The students spoke and they are in favor of it," Pitman, a SED junior, said. "Now we need to get the administration to fall behind [the proposal]."

The least surprising referendum vote was in favor of a student acquiring a non-voting seat on the BU board of trustees.

Students voted 1,663 to 554 in favor of having a seat on the board of trustees, despite BU president John R. Silber's adamant stance against having a student position on the board.

 

 

Student reaction - April 1994

It was reported at a recent faculty meeting of the College of Liberal
Arts that the Academic Policy Committee had voted unanimously against
a proposal to allow American Sign Language (ASL) to fulfill the CLA
foreign language requirement, and that as a result, the issue would
not be brought before the faculty for discussion and consideration.

For many years, students have been working to achieve recognition of
ASL for purposes of the CLA language requirement -- until last year.
At that time, the students were informed that the question should be
addressed through "proper faculty channels," and that if the question
were pursued in this manner, success would be more likely. However,
those procedures have just run their course, and the issue has still
not been brought before the faculty, and students are still not allowed
to have classes in ASL fulfill the CLA foreign language requirement.

As students, we are left to wonder if the University is acting in the
best interests of its students or is merely attempting to advance its
own ideological and political agendas. The University exists because
it has a student body that is willing and eager to learn. This
student body overwhelmingly supports inclusion of ASL to meet its
modern foreign language requirement. In last Spring's referendum, 85%
of the student body supported its inclusion. For many of those
people, ASL will be invaluable in their post-graduation careers
(whether in education, medicine, law, social work, or whatever).
Presently, Boston University has a willing, able, and exemplary
faculty prepared to teach the language and culture of the Deaf to
students who currently demand this knowledge and have enough elective
hours to learn about it.

When we were told by the Dean that this issue could only be brought to
CLA via faculty, we were encouraged by the strength of faculty
support. It is our understanding that a proposal was put forward to
the APC by Professors Neidle, Hoffmann, Hutchison, Reynolds, and Trigo
(all of the Department of Modern Foreign Languages), and that there
were supporting signatures from 136 members of the Boston University
faculty, including about half of the faculty in MFLL, many faculty
from the English department, and the vast majority of the faculty in
Linguistics.

The purpose of a university is to educate. The purpose of the faculty
of a university is to facilitate education. The purpose of the
administration is to ensure the ability of the faculty to educate. In
addition to these purposes, the university also is engaged in the
pursuit of higher knowledge. Diogenes said, "The foundation of every
state is the education of its youth." Proper education is the key to
unlocking the prisons of our prejudices. We are pleased that in this
last round of discussion, the administration has not repeated
erroneous statements it has made in the past about the status of
American Sign Language. (Dean Burton Cooper, in Boston University
Today, 9/23-9/29, 1991: "Using sign language is not the same as
speaking another language... American Sign Language students learn the
English language in a different fashion. American Sign Language is
another way of speaking American English." Dean Dennis Berkey, in the
Daily Free Press, 11/12/92: "I do worry, though, that ASL does not
even offer unique means of expressing common notions and that signing
among non-American (not even non-English) can be quite different
(foreign?) than signing in ASL.")

At this time, the issue seems to come down to the definition of
"foreign language." ASL is certainly a non-native language to
English-speaking students at this university, and has a rich literary
tradition and a culture that may, in fact, be more "foreign" to us
than those associated with the some of the languages now accepted for
the requirement (which may explain, in part, why administrators may be
unfamiliar with it). ASL literature is accessible through a large
body of videotapes (many of which are available right at Boston
University). Currently all natural languages other than English
taught at Boston University count for the CLA requirement, EXCEPT
American Sign Language. That means that Zulu would count but American
Sign Language would not. We feel strongly that it is discriminatory
and unjustified on academic or any other grounds to exclude ASL.

Recently, President Silber stated that Boston University is a place
that is open to the exchange of ideas. By suppressing Deaf culture,
denying that a distinct culture exists, and rejecting its study for
fulfillment of a requirement for Liberal Arts study, the University is
showing that it is not open to an exchange of ideas.

We urge that this issue receive consideration by the full faculty of
the College of Liberal Arts.

Rob Wedge
Student Union Senate Co-Chair Elect
SED '96

Lynette Pitman
SED Undergraduate Student Council President
SED '94

 

Note: This archive is not complete. If you have additional articles from this period that should be included, please contact us and we will add additional materials as we get them. (We recall a few noteworthy contributions that we do not have copies of; so this page may be updated soon if we are able to obtain them.)

 

Back to main page about ASL and the BU foreign language requirement

[last modified 04/05/2004]