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Progress seen in advancements for ASL, deaf studies - News
The College of Communication will begin counting American Sign Language as a foreign-language credit in response to last semester's debate about its legitimacy.
Prior to the decision, ASL did not fulfill COM's two-semester foreign language requirement.
"COM acknowledges that there is a strong deaf community living within our national borders and that the study of this culture is no less significant than studying the culture of any foreign nation," said acting COM assistant dean Micha Sabovik in an email.
While COM has already reviewed and updated its ASL policies, the new College of Arts and Sciences dean, Virginia Sapiro, and her college will review its policies and ask professors for their opinions.
CAS only allows ASL to fulfill its foreign-language requirement if a student takes a proficiency exam administered by the School of Education at the end of the fourth semester of study.
Sabovik, who is also the COM student services director, said the policy change was made after COM representatives spoke with other schools' deans and examined their policies. She said they also talked with people knowledgeable of ASL.
COM's former policy only allowed spoken or written languages to fulfill the requirement, but the philosophy behind the requirement changed, she said.
"No longer [as] a literal interpretation, our foreign language requirement now strives to enable students to communicate directly with a group of people or people they would otherwise not be able to do so with," Sabovik said.
New policy details should be posted on the COM website this week, she said, but as of last night it was not available.
"We think that linguistically, it is a language, and it does have a culture," said former CAS dean Jeffrey Henderson in an April 24 Daily Free Press article. "We don't think it's a liberal-arts language to the extent that we would want to put it in one of our departments and offer a series of language-based culture classes in it."
Sapiro said one of the main problems in accepting ASL courses toward the requirement without a proficiency exam is that classes are taught in SED, so it is not under direct CAS administration.
"Can we guarantee the courses will be there with the quality we need?" she said. "[ASL] will be reviewed some time in the foreseeable future. As I understand it, it is really a historical issue with American Sign Language."
The College of Communication will begin counting American Sign Language as a foreign-language credit in response to last semester's debate about its legitimacy.
Prior to the decision, ASL did not fulfill COM's two-semester foreign language requirement.
"COM acknowledges that there is a strong deaf community living within our national borders and that the study of this culture is no less significant than studying the culture of any foreign nation," said acting COM assistant dean Micha Sabovik in an email.
While COM has already reviewed and updated its ASL policies, the new College of Arts and Sciences dean, Virginia Sapiro, and her college will review its policies and ask professors for their opinions.
CAS only allows ASL to fulfill its foreign-language requirement if a student takes a proficiency exam administered by the School of Education at the end of the fourth semester of study.
Sabovik, who is also the COM student services director, said the policy change was made after COM representatives spoke with other schools' deans and examined their policies. She said they also talked with people knowledgeable of ASL.
COM's former policy only allowed spoken or written languages to fulfill the requirement, but the philosophy behind the requirement changed, she said.
"No longer [as] a literal interpretation, our foreign language requirement now strives to enable students to communicate directly with a group of people or people they would otherwise not be able to do so with," Sabovik said.
New policy details should be posted on the COM website this week, she said, but as of last night it was not available.
"We think that linguistically, it is a language, and it does have a culture," said former CAS dean Jeffrey Henderson in an April 24 Daily Free Press article. "We don't think it's a liberal-arts language to the extent that we would want to put it in one of our departments and offer a series of language-based culture classes in it."
Sapiro said one of the main problems in accepting ASL courses toward the requirement without a proficiency exam is that classes are taught in SED, so it is not under direct CAS administration.
"Can we guarantee the courses will be there with the quality we need?" she said. "[ASL] will be reviewed some time in the foreseeable future. As I understand it, it is really a historical issue with American Sign Language."