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Deaf students fight for their education in Haverhill - EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA
Kevin Wilson's dream of a better life begins every weekday morning at 4 a.m., when he gets up, gets dressed and catches the commuter train from Boston to Haverhill.
When he arrives here, he takes a bus to Northern Essex Community College for classes for deaf and partially deaf students.
"After years of working in hotel kitchens, I would like to transfer to Gallaudet University and become a chef," said Wilson, 41.
He is among the 15 students enrolled in the college's English Language Cluster program. Now in its 25th year helping deaf and partially deaf students become more proficient in reading, writing and English grammar, the program that has helped improve the lives of many students such as Kevin Wilson may be coming to an end.
Students in the program were told in February that the cluster would not be continued after this semester unless funding outside the school budget was found. Yesterday, they were told the college plans to use federal stimulus money to continue the program for just one more year, and only for those students who are enrolled and plan to continue.
"It was a painful decision in the first place and if it weren't for the extraordinarily challenging budget we're in, we would not have made this cut," said Lane Glenn, NECC's vice president of academic affairs.
Glenn said the cluster program is not funded by the state and that student tuition does not entirely cover the instructor's $85,000 salary or the many associated costs of running the program.
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. yesterday, Wilson and his classmates held a rally on the college's Haverhill campus to bring attention to the possible elimination of their program.
They wore T-shirts and held signs with sayings like "Don't close the English Cluster Program." They held a bake sale to raise money for the program and they gathered more than 170 signatures on a petition, which they plan to send to the Statehouse in hopes of gaining the support of legislators. Many of the students who signed the petition knew little or nothing about the cluster program, said Sumit Malik, 20, who moved from the western part of the state to Haverhill just so he could attend the special program.
With the assistance of an American Sign Language interpreter, Malik, who coordinated the rally, said he and his classmates have been meeting with college President David Hartleb and that Hartleb has tried to find alternative funding to continue the program.
"We are hungry for education and we can't just sit idly by," Malik said. "We can't get 170 people to rally at the Statehouse, but we can send the petition."
Jane Nunes, a college administrator who works with deaf and partially deaf students on the Haverhill campus, said NECC's cluster program is the only one of its kind in New England because the instructor uses sign language when teaching and tutoring students in the program.
"There is a program in Connecticut, but it is taught by an instructor who is not deaf, and who uses an ASL interpreter," she said. "Our program is called direct instruction, without the use of an interpreter."
Elena Williams, 43, a Native American who grew up on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma, moved from Everett to Haverhill six months ago so she could attend the cluster program. With the assistance of an ASL interpreter, Williams said that only by improving her reading and writing skills will she have a chance to be something other than an assembly line worker.
Glenn said the temporary extension gives the college one more year to serve students who are in the program, while continuing to seek external funding.
The decision around this program had nothing to do with the quality of the program or quality of instruction, Glenn said.
"This is a program that for a long time has helped serve a population that is not served anywhere else," he said.
Kevin Wilson's dream of a better life begins every weekday morning at 4 a.m., when he gets up, gets dressed and catches the commuter train from Boston to Haverhill.
When he arrives here, he takes a bus to Northern Essex Community College for classes for deaf and partially deaf students.
"After years of working in hotel kitchens, I would like to transfer to Gallaudet University and become a chef," said Wilson, 41.
He is among the 15 students enrolled in the college's English Language Cluster program. Now in its 25th year helping deaf and partially deaf students become more proficient in reading, writing and English grammar, the program that has helped improve the lives of many students such as Kevin Wilson may be coming to an end.
Students in the program were told in February that the cluster would not be continued after this semester unless funding outside the school budget was found. Yesterday, they were told the college plans to use federal stimulus money to continue the program for just one more year, and only for those students who are enrolled and plan to continue.
"It was a painful decision in the first place and if it weren't for the extraordinarily challenging budget we're in, we would not have made this cut," said Lane Glenn, NECC's vice president of academic affairs.
Glenn said the cluster program is not funded by the state and that student tuition does not entirely cover the instructor's $85,000 salary or the many associated costs of running the program.
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. yesterday, Wilson and his classmates held a rally on the college's Haverhill campus to bring attention to the possible elimination of their program.
They wore T-shirts and held signs with sayings like "Don't close the English Cluster Program." They held a bake sale to raise money for the program and they gathered more than 170 signatures on a petition, which they plan to send to the Statehouse in hopes of gaining the support of legislators. Many of the students who signed the petition knew little or nothing about the cluster program, said Sumit Malik, 20, who moved from the western part of the state to Haverhill just so he could attend the special program.
With the assistance of an American Sign Language interpreter, Malik, who coordinated the rally, said he and his classmates have been meeting with college President David Hartleb and that Hartleb has tried to find alternative funding to continue the program.
"We are hungry for education and we can't just sit idly by," Malik said. "We can't get 170 people to rally at the Statehouse, but we can send the petition."
Jane Nunes, a college administrator who works with deaf and partially deaf students on the Haverhill campus, said NECC's cluster program is the only one of its kind in New England because the instructor uses sign language when teaching and tutoring students in the program.
"There is a program in Connecticut, but it is taught by an instructor who is not deaf, and who uses an ASL interpreter," she said. "Our program is called direct instruction, without the use of an interpreter."
Elena Williams, 43, a Native American who grew up on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma, moved from Everett to Haverhill six months ago so she could attend the cluster program. With the assistance of an ASL interpreter, Williams said that only by improving her reading and writing skills will she have a chance to be something other than an assembly line worker.
Glenn said the temporary extension gives the college one more year to serve students who are in the program, while continuing to seek external funding.
The decision around this program had nothing to do with the quality of the program or quality of instruction, Glenn said.
"This is a program that for a long time has helped serve a population that is not served anywhere else," he said.