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                        <h1>American Sign Language petitions for new minor at Penn</h1>
                        
                                <h2>A proposal for the minor was deferred last semester due to a lack of standing faculty</h2>
                        

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                <span class="byline">By
                
                        <a href="http://thedp.com/index.php/staff/ella_duangkaew">Ella Duangkaew</a>
                
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        <span class="time">January 24, 2012, 11:48 pm</span>

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                        <p class="img-src"><a style="display:inline" href="http://thedp.com/index.php/staff/photo_illustration_by_justin_cohen">Photo illustration by Justin Cohen</a>
                        
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                                <p>A new petition is asking students not to sign with pens, but rather with their fingers.</p>

        <p>Penn In Hand  — a student-run group for people interested in 
learning how to sign — is asking students to fingerspell their names in 
sign language and video record their signature for a petition for the 
approval of a new American Sign Language and Deaf Studies minor.</p>

        <p>The minor, which would be housed in the College of Arts and 
Science’s Linguistics Department, would consist of five required core 
courses and one elective.</p>

        <p>The core courses would be made up of several linguistics classes on 
deaf culture and sociolinguistics, as well as an academically based 
community service course that will require students to be involved with a
 native deaf community.</p>

        <p>“It is an interdisciplinary minor centered around language, culture,
 linguistics and academically based community service that allows 
students to integrate engaging locally and globally in a research-based 
way,” said Jami Fisher, a linguistics professor and the <span class="caps">ASL</span>
 program coordinator. “It also asks of students to contribute 
significant amounts of their own personal interests to what they get out
 of <span class="caps">ASL</span>.”</p>

        <p>A proposal for the <span class="caps">ASL</span> minor was initially
 presented to the College’s curriculum committee last semester, but was 
deferred upon further review due to “the lack of standing faculty” 
teaching the proposed courses, College Dean Dennis DeTurck said.</p>

        <p>DeTurck added that the committee also questioned whether the minor 
could be “sustainable on the backs of people who are not standing 
faculty.”</p>

        <p>The minor will be up for re-approval when the curriculum committee meets again in February, Fisher said.</p>

        <p>College senior and Penn in Hand President Arielle Spellun is 
optimistic that the minor will be approved this time around, since the 
petition that is currently circulating “has the student voices 
represented and shows that there is a lot of student interest.”</p>

        <p>Penn in Hand’s video petition has seen participation from more than 
50 students. Another e-petition has gathered more than 170 signatures as
 well.</p>

        <p>“It’s very important for the committee to see that students want 
it,” Fisher said. “The students took it upon themselves to show that 
they are interested.”</p>

        <p>College sophomore Connor Bartholomew, a Penn in Hand board member 
and the creator of both petitions, added that while there is no specific
 number of signatures desired, the group’s goal is to get as many as 
possible.</p>

        <p>“It’s important to show that people outside of the College and the <span class="caps">ASL</span> program are interested, too,” said Nursing senior Lauren Olsen, Penn in Hand’s events coordinator.</p>

        <p>Olsen, who has taken every <span class="caps">ASL</span> course available at Penn, added that her <span class="caps">ASL</span> classes have “opened my eyes to a completely different culture and way of life.”</p>

        <p>“Though I won’t get the chance to have the minor [as a senior], I 
hope that future years, and especially future freshmen have the 
opportunity to enroll,” she said.</p><p><a href="http://thedp.com/index.php/article/2012/01/students_petition_college_for_sign_language_minor">http://thedp.com/index.php/article/2012/01/students_petition_college_for_sign_language_minor</a><br>
</p><p><br></p>
                </div><br><br>-- <br>=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of<br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture<br>Dept. of South Asia Studies                    <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone:  (215) 898-7475<br>Fax:  (215) 573-2138                                     <br><br>Email:  <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a>   <br>
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