Hearing the Case for ASL

Although the debate over the legitimacy of American Sign Language to be considered as a foreign language has continued at Boston University for years, its inclusion is now under review again by the College of Communication and School of Management.

SMG has been re-evaluating its foreign-language policies after College of Arts and Sciences dean Jeffrey Henderson accepted a new ASL proposal in March 2005 to allow students to earn credit for taking ASL as a foreign language if they pass a proficiency exam at the completion of four semesters of the language.

The proposal came from French and linguistics professor Carol Neidle, who in April 2004 submitted the proposal to have ASL count for foreign-language credit in CAS. The proposal was given to the Academic Policy Committee, which decided ASL can count as a foreign language if students pass the exam.

SMG does not have a foreign-language requirement except for students who major in international management, and it does not currently count ASL as a foreign language.

"Given that CAS has changed its requirement and does allow ASL to fulfill the foreign language requirement, SMG will need to bring this change forward to our Undergraduate Program Development Committee," said SMG Undergraduate Programs assistant dean Sandra Procopio in an email.

Procopio, a 1989 School of Education graduate, said the committee will review the policy soon and "make its recommendation to the SMG faculty."

The COM administration will make its final decision on whether to include ASL to fulfill the language requirement over the summer, said acting assistant dean Micha Sabovik. The policy has been under review for a year.

The University Professors Program has a four-semester foreign-language requirement that is not fulfilled by ASL.

"We had followed the general BU position [still in effect in 2004] that ASL is not a 'foreign' language as regards [to] that language requirement, and the question has not come up in UNI since that time," said UNI Program Coordinator Edna Newmark in an email.

When UNI Director Bruce Redford's term ends June 30, the new director, yet to be named, will be in charge of deciding whether or not ASL should fulfill the language requirement, but only "if [the question] should arise again," Newmark said.

For years, the College of Liberal Arts -- now CAS -- had been under heavy scrutiny from students and faculty about former CLA dean Dennis Berkey's decision to exclude ASL from the foreign-language requirement course offerings.

"The landscape has certainly evolved since those early debates, and I am not up-to-date with the current issues at BU," said Berkey in an email.

"Since I am now 'ancient history' at BU . . . I'm not sure it would be helpful to the current discussion to hear from me," continued Berkey, who is president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.