UPDATED: Oct. 23, 2018 at 9:02 p.m.

A long-standing push to recognize American Sign Language across all schools and colleges at Syracuse University could soon be put before the University Senate, pending signatures on a student interest petition launched by SU’s Student Association. 

If SA’s petition gets 250 signatures, ASL could be discussed by the Senate. A 250-signature petition is the “unofficial standard” for something to get talked about at the Senate, said SA President Ghufran Salih, in a text message to The Daily Orange.  

SA is currently working on a report comparing the ASL policy at SU to policies implemented at peer institutions. SA leadership and Disability Cultural Center officials said they supported expanding ASL’s reach at SU. 

ASL is its own language, largely used in the Deaf community, in which people use hand gestures to communicate. It comes with its own culture and is one of many dialects of sign language across the globe, said Kate Corbett, the Disability Cultural Center’s coordinator, in a newsletter.  

The School of Education is the only college at SU in which ASL courses count as language credits. The School of Education has historically been “progressive with disability issues,” Corbett said.   

When Corbett, who is Deaf, was a student at City University of New York Hunter College, she was not allowed to use her ASL credits to fulfill her language requirements because of the curriculum structure, she said. Instead, Corbett had to make up language requirements with culture-based classes — which she said was part of the reason it took her seven years to get an undergraduate degree.  

“Some hearing person had decided what ‘culture’ entailed, and disability and Deafness were not a part of it,” she wrote in a 2017 newsletter. 

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Disability Cultural Center Director Diane Wiener has long been an advocate for ASL to become an official language at SU. As the co-chair of the Council on Diversity and Inclusion, with Barry L. Wells, she said she’s seen support for the idea grow among administrators, including Chancellor Kent Syverud.  

In 2016, the Chancellor’s Workgroup on Diversity and Inclusion recommended that ASL be eligible to fulfill language requirements in all schools and colleges at SU. Syverud approved the recommendation soon after.  

Wiener said that the task force originally wanted ASL to fulfill language requirements. In October 2018, Salih stood in front of the SA assembly and announced her support for making ASL an acknowledged language.  

After years of working with students, faculty and administrators, Wiener said she was confident the proposal could pass through the Senate. 

“I don’t feel a need to advocate elaborately because I have confidence in the process as it’s unfolding already,” she said. “And I know there are faculty all over this campus who already know very well and very deeply that this needs to happen and that it will. I think it will happen.” 

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Neither Salih nor Wiener could provide an estimated cost for adding ASL as a recognized language. Salih said that SA’s initiative is still in its “infancy.”  

Rather than creating a curriculum for the bachelor of science immediately, it will be necessary to start the curriculum in stages, Salih added. Recognition could start as an ASL minor or certificate program, she said. 

Salih said her end goal was for ASL to expand. And Corbett said this is important for the way ASL is perceived on campus. 

“It would send the message that this is a real language,” Corbett said. “A lot of people think that it’s word-for-word translation of English. There’s a lot of bias and misinformation around sign language, and that’s why it’s routinely denied as a language credit because people don’t view it as a language.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, Diane Wiener’s position was misstated. She is the co-chair of the Council on Diversity and Inclusion. The Daily Orange regrets this error. 

Published on October 21, 2018 at 8:25 pm

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326