Sign language course to begin in October

While Yale offers its students a daunting number of courses, everything from Latin American Soap Operas to Electromagnetic Fields and Optics, one group of students, led by Jennifer Christenson, BR '02, has recently begun to organize in order to address the lack of a program in American Sign Language (ASL). As a result of their initiative, a basic class in ASL will be taught weekly beginning in October.

COURTESY INFOPLEASE.COM American Sign Language standard alphabet. Over one million Americans use ASL as their primary method of communications.

Christenson arrived on campus three years ago only to realize that one of her main interests fell squarely into an inconspicuous corner of academia, one that Yale's curriculum did not specifically address. Despite the unique modality of ASL—its gestural/visual rather than oral/aural mode of operation—over one million Americans use it as their primary method of communication, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

Christenson sought a way of continuing her study of ASL after having developed a life-long interest in the subject. Before attending Yale, she pursued her passion fully throughout her primary and secondary education, starting an ASL club in her high school by acting as a teacher to her fellow classmates. When she arrived at Yale, she had hoped to be on the receiving end of instruction once again, but was dismayed that Yale had no course offerings in ASL. "Most other colleges have a class in sign language," Christenson said.

But the new class she has created is completely independent of the University and thus loses many of the benefits that an affiliation course would offer. Due to lack of support from Yale, Chris-tenson must charge $115 for the class and materials. In addition, limited publicity has kept enrollment to a minimum, which has consequently limited class meetings to once a week. "It's only an hour a week. If Yale offered the course, it could be much more comprehensive," Christenson said.

"ASL is a legitimate language," she continued. "You can even use it to pass out of your language requirement here."

In the past few months, over 420 courses have been proposed for formal addition to the curriculum, according to Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72. Without a distinct department's oversight and support, the course in ASL has, as of yet, stalled in proposal form, failing to garner the overwhelming support necessary for final acceptance.

Christenson also applied for funding from the Undergraduate Organizations Funding Committee (UOFC) in order to cover the cost of books and a teacher, Sallie Romano, a resident of East Haven. "Yale's policy is [not to] fund outside teachers, so they gave us no money," Christenson said.

When does the University support the addition of new language courses? The new program in Hellenic Studies took years of petitioning and lobbying before it finally was realized. Maria Georgopoulou, one of the program's directors, said that nine years ago, there was already a lot of pressure on the University to offer Modern Greek. "I think it was always there on the backburner," she said.

The trials of Greek's slow passage into the curriculum only hints at the obstacles ASL faces. "Yale doesn't really want to add any more languages," Georgopoulou explained.

However, it was not until a group of alumni from the Yale Club of New York issued a formal proposal in 1995 that the campaign was fully underway. Eventually, the program caught the attention of the Center for International and Area Studies. With the center's support, the tone of the Administration's responses changed drastically. "Once we got organized and had the money, it was only a matter of months," Georgopoulou said.

Of course, few languages possess either the organization or the critical mass necessary to bring about a program's birth at Yale. Wallace DeWitt, ES '03, wanted to learn Dutch when he and his roommate came across Directed Independent Language Study (DILS).

"The program was really helpful," DeWitt said. "They found us materials, paired us up with a Dutch grad student to have conversations with, and [they] are even getting a professor from Columbia to give us a final evaluation."

However, DILS does have its drawbacks. Despite Yale's endorsement, the University still provides no credit for any languages studied in this manner, and it does not place DILS on a student's transcript. But, as is currently the case with ASL, any language studied through DILS may count towards the completion of the language requirement.

Mairin Burke, SM '03, in response to a recent e-mail from the Administration regarding the fate of ASL, said, "It's like Yale is saying, `Okay, if you really want to learn it, you're allowed,' but that's basically it."

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