American Sign Language recognition (follow-up from meeting on March 4)

[Kumar]

Dear all,

Those of you who were at the past two Sunday meetings know that I've been pursuing a way to tackle the issue of American Sign Language courses not being recognized towards Part 1 of the Tufts language requirement. We agreed in the meeting to pursue this as a group of unaffiliated concerned students, through the official means of proposing it to the Curriculum Committee. My personal hope is that a show of student investment in the issue will tip the balance towards recognizing this important and culturally distinct language. Details on the issue and the method of submitting a proposal are in the attached file, which is what I brought to the last meeting. I also wrote an article for the Daily last semester on the debate surrounding ASL; I hate linking to myself, but it's easier than organizing all that information again: http://www.tuftsdaily.com/asl-program-grows-works-for-recognition-1.2679929#.T1cHK9GOpY0

The next step in this process is to look for a professor to sponsor the proposal. It seems the standard course of action to begin with is to email one of student Deans asking for their support – even if they don't sign on, we'll have done our due diligence and can't be criticized for not pursuing all avenues later. If you are interested in signing your name onto this proposal at this early stage, please let me know by responding to this thread with your email address or emailing me. I will CC those interested on the email that I send out to the Dean about this. If you're not comfortable with that, we'd certainly love to have your support later on when, hopefully, the issue moves to a faculty vote. Finally, if anyone wants to help out organizing more action, I'd love to hear your thoughts (join us on Sundays, 3pm at East Hall Lounge!).

Cheers,

Kumar