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

[Ryan Clapp]

Great job Kumar, I'd be happy to sign on, although I'm not incredibly knowledgeable about the issue.

-Ryan

On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 2:19 AM, Kumar <kum...@gmail.com> wrote:

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 decided in the meeting to pursue this as a group of concerned students, through the official means of proposing it to the Curriculum Committee. My personal hope is that a show of student involvement 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 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 this – 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. 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

[Romina Akemi]

Definitely sign me on! I came across this info about the ASL Studies certificate at the University of Pittsburgh.  It states: This certificate program should lead students to:

›	a high degree of proficiency in ASL
›	an understanding of the linguistic structure of ASL as a visual/gestural language
›	an understanding of important issues in Deaf culture and education

Also, it is considered a language at UPitt.
http://www.lctl.pitt.edu/certificate.html

--
romina.


"Pero que lo entiendan aquellos que quieren retrotraer la historia y desconocer la voluntad mayoritaria de Chile; sin tener carne de mártir, no daré un paso atrás." -Dr. Salvador Allende Gossens (XI de septiembre de 1973)

[Nick Perricone]

Sign me on as well. This policy isn't right and it affects a number of Tufts students who are studying a language and a culture. Please include my e-mail/ name in this, and I'm happy to know how to help. -Nick

[Aliza]

Good news I think: during my chat with Dean Herbert today, the ASL
proposal came up. I was confused because she said it had been shut
down again already - turns out she was behind the first proposal and
recently tried to resubmit it on her own. She was super excited to
hear that a group of students had been working on this independently
and she immediately offered to be the faculty sponsor... she thinks
that with more student support it's less likely to get rejected
outright (hope so).

On Mar 9, 2:11 pm, Nick Perricone <perrico...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sign me on as well. This policy isn't right and it affects a number of
> Tufts students who are studying a language and a culture. Please include my
> e-mail/ name in this, and I'm happy to know how to help. -Nick
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 3:15 PM, Romina Akemi <rominaak...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Definitely sign me on! I came across this info about the ASL Studies
> > certificate at the University of Pittsburgh.  It states: This certificate
> > program should lead students to:
> >  ›  a high degree of proficiency in ASL  ›  an understanding of the
> > linguistic structure of ASL as a visual/gestural language  ›  an understanding
> > of important issues in Deaf culture and education
>
> > Also, it is considered a language at UPitt.
> >http://www.lctl.pitt.edu/certificate.html
>

> > On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 11:17 AM, Ryan Clapp <ryan.cl...@tufts.edu> wrote:
>
> >> Great job Kumar, I'd be happy to sign on, although I'm not incredibly
> >> knowledgeable about the issue.
>
> >> -Ryan
>

> >> On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 2:19 AM, Kumar <kuma...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>> 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
> >>> decided in the meeting to pursue this as a group of concerned students,
> >>> through the official means of proposing it to the Curriculum Committee. My
> >>> personal hope is that a show of student involvement 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-1.2...

>
> >>> The next step 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 this – 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

[Kumar]

That's such great news, Aliza! I'm working on writing up a new proposal now and should have it done by tonight. Could you put me in contact with her?