BU’s Muted History of ASL

Though some Boston University students can satisfy foreign-language requirements by completing four semesters of American Sign Language and passing a proficiency exam, they were not given this option 20 years ago.

The struggle to offer ASL as a language requirement involved the efforts of students and professors who worked together to petition the administration to accept the language that is never spoken or heard.

For almost 15 years, deaf studies professors have challenged College of Arts and Sciences administrators who say ASL, offered through the School of Education, does not have enough of a culture to be considered a foreign language.

The debate began in 1991, when former associate dean Burton Cooper, of the College of Liberal Arts — now CAS — was quoted in a September issue of Boston University Today saying ASL is “another way of speaking American English,” implying that ASL students just learn English in a different way.

The BU Deaf Studies Club responded to Cooper in an open letter by then-club co-president Dian Nutting, which appeared in an Oct. 1, 1991 issue of The Daily Free Press.

“Perhaps you are unaware that in studying ASL, students not only learn the language, but also are exposed to the Deaf culture — along with its history, folklore, literature and sociological implications,” the letter reads.

The argument continued throughout the academic school year in BU publications and, in 1992, a student-signed and faculty-supported petition approved by the Student Senate — which later became the Student Union — was presented to former CLA dean Dennis Berkey, who had opposed including ASL in the CLA modern foreign-language curriculum.

The petition, signed by four undergraduate students and supported by 135 faculty members, called for an acceptance of ASL to be able to fulfill the language requirement within CLA. It also cited “major” universities that already considered ASL a foreign language, including New York University, the University of Michigan and all public universities and high schools in Massachusetts.

“Although ASL does not have a written form, CLA accepts other languages (such as African languages) that are essentially oral but not written languages,” the petition stated.

In an Oct. 22, 1992 issue of the Free Press, Berkey said the goal of the CLA language requirement is to introduce students to a new type of literature and culture belonging to a language.

The petition was rejected by a unanimous vote in April 1994 by the CLA Academic Policy Committee, which made decisions on which courses fulfill school requirements, according a 1994 official response from then-APC Chairman Gary Jacobson.

The APC said the basis of its rejection was that ASL did not provide students with a foreign culture that could be studied.

The next month, Berkey responded to the increasingly heated debate in a Nov. 12, 1992 letter to the editor, saying he never “questioned” the distinct culture or body of literature surrounding ASL — he only questioned its ability to “offer unique means of expressing common notions.”

Although ASL courses were then taught as electives within SED, the ASL debate came to a standstill for almost 10 years until April 2004, when French and linguistics professor Carol Neidle submitted a new proposal to the APC to have ASL count for a foreign-language credit, provided students pass proficiency exams, according to the BU ASL website.

CAS dean Jeffrey Henderson accepted the new proposal in March 2005.

Although ASL gained recognition within CAS with Henderson’s approval, the College of Communication, does not acknowledge ASL as a foreign language.

Deaf studies major Jaimee DiMarco said learning languages helps students communicate with distinct groups of people and “better understand [deaf] culture and . . . help bridge the gap that results from inadequate communication.”

“There is a large Deaf community within the United States that for years has been isolated because of problems of communication,” the SED freshman said in an email. “If more colleges offered ASL as an option, maybe there would be better relations between the Deaf and the Hearing communities.”