Miss-Delectable
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MLive.com: Everything Michigan
For Jill Maxwell, talking at grandma's house was always normal.
Even though it meant blending the letters I, L and Y with her fingers to say "I love you."
Or that she asked for her favorite treats - cookies, pop and cheese - with swift-sliding hand shapes and facial expressions.
And that calling someone from another room meant flipping a light switch or pounding on the floor so vibrations rippled through the rooms.
But as a student at the University of Michigan-Flint years later, Maxwell was told her family's language didn't count - at least not when it came to fulfilling her foreign language requirement.
"We're very cultural and immersed into our deaf heritage," said the UM-Flint education student, 30, who uses American Sign Language to communicate with roughly 25 relatives who are deaf.. "But UM-Flint won't accept our language. It's discriminatory."
More than a year ago, Maxwell - who is not deaf - unsuccessfully petitioned the school to allow her to test out of the foreign language mandate with ASL, which is considered the third most common language in the country behind Spanish.
Colleges nationwide, including the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, UM-Flint's parent campus, and Michigan State University, accept ASL as a foreign language. Some academic officials say deaf culture comes with a history of political struggles and ethnic variations. It has its own syntax, grammar and etiquette.
But according to a letter from UM-Flint's Academic Standards Committee, the Department of Foreign Languages' policy is that ASL is not considered foreign.
The department's chairwoman, Jamile Lawand, said Michigan colleges that offer ASL usually do so out of a different department, such as communication or linguistics.
"We are interested in exploring how other universities include ASL in their curriculum," she said in an e-mail to The Flint Journal. "Traditionally, it is not offered out of a foreign language department."
She said the college tries to accommodate students. For example, a student who already knows another language with or without any formal instruction, such as Spanish, can place out of the requirement by demonstrating proficiency.
But Maxwell, a DeWitt resident who also is trying to start an ASL club on campus, argues that ASL can be one of the most valuable languages to know in the world. And it's the most relevant to her future plans to teach the deaf, she said.
"It's more personal to me than someone who just wants to study ASL, " she said. "I don't think the visual language is getting the same respect as hearing languages. It's insulting.
"I love UM, and I love going here," she added. "This is the one part that is shameful to me."
Maxwell said shealways felt left out of family reunions where the majority of people signed. She even faked going deaf so her mother would teach her more sign language.
But once she learned the language, she always called herself bilingual.
In UM-Flint's letter, the university noted that Mott Community College also does not consider ASL a foreign language.
But MCC's dean of humanities, Patricia Bergh, said there is no language requirement to obtain an associate's degree, so there's never been an effort to make ASL count as a foreign language.
"It's only been in recent years that ASL is being looked upon across the country and at four-year institutions as meeting requirements for another language," she said. "I fully perceive this happening here at Mott in the near future."
Stevie Naeyaert, MCC's coordinator for the American Sign Language and interpreter education program, has been through many struggles for equality.
This just seems to be one more, said Naeyaert, who is deaf. "ASL is a full language with its own syntax and own grammar structure, and it's very different from English," she said through an interpreter. "The word order is similar to French, so it can definitely be considered a foreign language.
"People think ASL is like English on the hands, but it's not. It's a different language entirely."
Naeyaert said there are many misconceptions about the deaf community.
Some people "look at deafness as a handicap or disability and that people need help," she said. "No, we're a language minority. We aren't disabled. We just speak a different language."
Genesee County - home to the Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint- has 38,034 residents who are deaf or hard of hearing, according to a report by the state's Division on Deaf and Hard of Hearing that's based on Census data from 2003.
Maxwell, who left General Motors to go back to school and plans to pursue a master's degree in deaf education at MSU, ended up taking French at UM-Flint to complete requirements on time.
"It's too late for me," said Maxwell who will graduate from UM-Flint next year and is contemplating collecting student signatures on a petition to spur change.
"I'm fighting it for other students who have the doors closed to them. It seems likeone of the last hurdles for civil rights."
For Jill Maxwell, talking at grandma's house was always normal.
Even though it meant blending the letters I, L and Y with her fingers to say "I love you."
Or that she asked for her favorite treats - cookies, pop and cheese - with swift-sliding hand shapes and facial expressions.
And that calling someone from another room meant flipping a light switch or pounding on the floor so vibrations rippled through the rooms.
But as a student at the University of Michigan-Flint years later, Maxwell was told her family's language didn't count - at least not when it came to fulfilling her foreign language requirement.
"We're very cultural and immersed into our deaf heritage," said the UM-Flint education student, 30, who uses American Sign Language to communicate with roughly 25 relatives who are deaf.. "But UM-Flint won't accept our language. It's discriminatory."
More than a year ago, Maxwell - who is not deaf - unsuccessfully petitioned the school to allow her to test out of the foreign language mandate with ASL, which is considered the third most common language in the country behind Spanish.
Colleges nationwide, including the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, UM-Flint's parent campus, and Michigan State University, accept ASL as a foreign language. Some academic officials say deaf culture comes with a history of political struggles and ethnic variations. It has its own syntax, grammar and etiquette.
But according to a letter from UM-Flint's Academic Standards Committee, the Department of Foreign Languages' policy is that ASL is not considered foreign.
The department's chairwoman, Jamile Lawand, said Michigan colleges that offer ASL usually do so out of a different department, such as communication or linguistics.
"We are interested in exploring how other universities include ASL in their curriculum," she said in an e-mail to The Flint Journal. "Traditionally, it is not offered out of a foreign language department."
She said the college tries to accommodate students. For example, a student who already knows another language with or without any formal instruction, such as Spanish, can place out of the requirement by demonstrating proficiency.
But Maxwell, a DeWitt resident who also is trying to start an ASL club on campus, argues that ASL can be one of the most valuable languages to know in the world. And it's the most relevant to her future plans to teach the deaf, she said.
"It's more personal to me than someone who just wants to study ASL, " she said. "I don't think the visual language is getting the same respect as hearing languages. It's insulting.
"I love UM, and I love going here," she added. "This is the one part that is shameful to me."
Maxwell said shealways felt left out of family reunions where the majority of people signed. She even faked going deaf so her mother would teach her more sign language.
But once she learned the language, she always called herself bilingual.
In UM-Flint's letter, the university noted that Mott Community College also does not consider ASL a foreign language.
But MCC's dean of humanities, Patricia Bergh, said there is no language requirement to obtain an associate's degree, so there's never been an effort to make ASL count as a foreign language.
"It's only been in recent years that ASL is being looked upon across the country and at four-year institutions as meeting requirements for another language," she said. "I fully perceive this happening here at Mott in the near future."
Stevie Naeyaert, MCC's coordinator for the American Sign Language and interpreter education program, has been through many struggles for equality.
This just seems to be one more, said Naeyaert, who is deaf. "ASL is a full language with its own syntax and own grammar structure, and it's very different from English," she said through an interpreter. "The word order is similar to French, so it can definitely be considered a foreign language.
"People think ASL is like English on the hands, but it's not. It's a different language entirely."
Naeyaert said there are many misconceptions about the deaf community.
Some people "look at deafness as a handicap or disability and that people need help," she said. "No, we're a language minority. We aren't disabled. We just speak a different language."
Genesee County - home to the Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint- has 38,034 residents who are deaf or hard of hearing, according to a report by the state's Division on Deaf and Hard of Hearing that's based on Census data from 2003.
Maxwell, who left General Motors to go back to school and plans to pursue a master's degree in deaf education at MSU, ended up taking French at UM-Flint to complete requirements on time.
"It's too late for me," said Maxwell who will graduate from UM-Flint next year and is contemplating collecting student signatures on a petition to spur change.
"I'm fighting it for other students who have the doors closed to them. It seems likeone of the last hurdles for civil rights."