WASHINGTON, D.C. - When I heard that Brown had decided to for all intents and purposes eliminate the American Sign Language program entirely, I was crushed. I learned sign language at Brown through the ASL program. I started my sophomore year knowing the alphabet and a few signs, but nothing else. Three semesters later, I find myself spending a semester at Gallaudet University, the only liberal arts university in the world specifically designed for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. All my classes are taught in ASL, the televisions all have closed captioning, the vast majority of my social interactions are virtually silent and my neighbors play music loud enough to shake the floor all day long.
Let me give you a crash course in Deaf studies: ASL is a complete natural language, and is just one of the almost 200 sign languages that exist worldwide. Although some of its vocabulary derives from English, its grammar is unrelated. Until 1960, people thought of it as an undeveloped gestural system or a bastardization of English, but in that year, the first linguistic analysis of it was done and research on it in a variety of fields continues to rapidly expand. The Deaf community (big D Deaf refers to the culture and its members, little d deaf refers to an audiological condition) considers itself a cultural and linguistic minority, and not a disability group, although its members are not afraid to use laws like the American Disabilities Act to gain equality.
How could Brown decide to end the program? Doesn't the administration know how ASL is expanding across the country as more people recognize its social and linguistic value? Don't they know about the research opportunities it grants? Don't they know about its uses for study away and for theses? Don't they know about the culture, community and history surrounding the Deaf community? Don't they see how knowledge of it can be extended to work in linguistics, sociology, ethnic studies, anthropology, education, community health and medicine, just to name a few?
The answer must be no.
According to Dean of the College Paul Armstrong, "The APC (Academic Priority Committee) gave highest priority to languages that are closely related to the needs of the undergraduate concentrations, study abroad programs, graduate requirements and faculty research interests." Although there are no official programs that require ASL, this past December, Brown had its first Deaf Studies concentrator, and more may follow. As for study abroad, I know of three Brown students (two current seniors and myself) who came to Brown with no knowledge of ASL and have since studied away at ASL universities (two here at Gallaudet, and one at the National Technical Institute of the Deaf, a school of Rochester Institute of Technology).
As for faculty research, that's something that may change. Brown faculty in the cognitive science, linguistics, anthropology, psychology and education departments have pledged their support for the ASL program the research possibilities it provides. Students are already doing research: Two seniors last year had theses related to American Sign Language, this year I know of one independent study relating to ASL and anthropology and I myself am hoping to do a thesis on ASL linguistics or cognitive science next year.
The APC suggested two possible courses of action: improve the ASL program or cut it. Without discussing it with any of the students, any of the teachers or the coordinator of the program, the APC made the final decision to cut the program. I understand that the University may not have the resources to expand the program right now. If that's true, I propose that for the time being they keep it at the status quo until ways for improvement and sources of funding can be found. Why cut a program that, and I am living proof of this, is successful?
Please help the ASL club - look for the buttons and t-shirts they're passing out. We need to convince the administration to reinstate Brown's American Sign Language program. It's in our hands.
Nora Paymer '06 is a cognitive neuroscience concentrator currently studying away in the United States at Gallaudet University.
