Deaf Studies Cut: Students Petition To Reinstate Program

Deaf Studies students make posters and buttons to protest the changes to the program. Image from @save.deaf.studies.umd on Instagram.

Students are petitioning UMD administration to reinstate the Deaf Studies minor after an email from CEHSP on March 31 announced the program was no longer accepting new minors; those who are currently enrolled in the program will be able to finish their minor at UMD, per emails from CEHSP on March 31 and April 3. Deaf Studies instructors say they were not informed of the decision until after the email was sent out. 

“Although we use our hands to speak, this department will not go silently,” states the petition, which has garnered more than 5,600 signatures as of time of publication. “We will fight for our right to stay and teach at this university. Not just for the students, but for representation, cultural diversity, and belonging that this program brings to so many.” 

The Change.org petition, as well as an Instagram account called @save.deaf.studies.umd, were created by UMD ASL Club Secretary Cami Connolly. According to Connolly, the writing of the March 31 email confused many students, who believed they would no longer be able to complete their degrees. She blamed the bluntness of the email, mainly the use of the phrase “effective immediately”.

“A lot of students freaked out because they were like, ‘Am I gonna be able to finish?’” Connolly said. “Also, the fact that the faculty weren't involved in the conversation or didn't really get to advocate for the department also made people more angry.”

The program cuts are part of larger 2.2% budget reductions occurring across all four colleges at UMD. According to CEHSP Associate Dean Scott Carlson, Deaf Studies and Coaching were chosen to minimize the overall inconvenience of the cuts for students, though Coaching has not been cut. 

“One of the reasons is that [they are] freestanding minors, which means that they involve unique classes that aren’t completely embedded in any major that have students taking them to complete major requirements,” said Carlson. 

“So we’re trying to preserve majors as much as possible in the process. And we did not want to get rid of these programs, but given our desire to reduce the impact on students being able to complete majors, and these programs having unique classes, which then makes them an expense to offer above and beyond what we were offering for our majors, it’s one of the reasons that they were the ones that are going,” Carlson continued.

The original March 31 announcement concerned students and faculty because its wording, including the phrase “effective immediately,” and stated that previously enrolled students would have to finish their minor by transferring to a different university and then transferring those credits back to UMD. This would have bypassed the ‘grandfather process,’ in which enrolled students would be able to finish at UMD, a required component of UMD’s accreditation. 

However, the April 3 communication clarified this, saying that students who are currently enrolled in the Deaf Studies program “will be provided a pathway to complete their program at UMD within a reasonable amount of time.” 

Deaf Studies minors who are already enrolled will be able to finish the minor through UMD or another institution. CEHSP offers a transfer guide that lists UMD courses and their transfer equivalent at different colleges. If they chose this route, students would be required to enroll and pay tuition at those colleges while taking their classes and then transfer those credits back to UMD to complete the minor. 

UMD Chief Marketing and Public Relations Officer Lynne Williams said April 3 that the March 31 email was intended to help students in registering for classes beginning April 1. To her, it was a clear miscommunication, and she hoped the update could provide clarity to students. 

“Hopefully this [April 3] message reassures them that they can complete their degree here, that we will work with them to make sure that we can do that,” Williams said. “And that was just really unfortunate, and a gap. We need to do better in our communication moving forward, and make sure that we've got everything buttoned up, because we don't want to provide that level of stress and uncertainty.”

What further upset students and faculty was that select staff were not informed of the change. 

Deaf Studies Program Coordinator Christina Cariveau and ASL Lab Head Mary Soltis were told of the program’s end on Friday, March 28 by Dean Pinkney Pastrana. They were instructed not to tell the rest of the Deaf Studies staff of the change. Cariveau said she was under the impression that administrators would share the information with the rest of the staff before the announcement, but Deaf Studies staff Monica Marciniak, Michael Knapp and Dawn Stevenson, were all informed of the change by students.

“A student emailed me immediately to express their condolences for the decision and I was completely unaware of what they were referring to,” Marciniak said.

Members of the faculty did not directly receive the April 3 update from CEHSP, with some either learning about it from students or from The Bark asking for comment. Once they had seen it, several members of the staff agreed that it felt “unclear and confusing.”

“It feels like we, as ASL faculty and members of the Deaf community, were completely left out of the conversation,” Knapp said. “There was no communication with our team before this decision was made. It’s frustrating and hurtful.”

It is unclear whether the employment of the Deaf Studies instructors will be affected by the program cancellation. Williams says that it is impossible to know until the final budget presentations have been made to the system.

As of now, the Coaching and Deaf Studies courses (excluding ASL) are not being offered on Schedule Builder. Associate Dean Carlson says that this is due to the logistics of scheduling the classes, but that students should expect to see those classes available for registration in the coming days. 

Regardless of the timeline and budget cuts, Stevenson says the Deaf Studies minor represents much more than just a language program. 

“I hope the passion of the students, the competence of the instructors, and the support from the Deaf community will help the university to see the importance of this program. We promote inclusivity, foster cultural understanding, equip students with valuable communication skills that benefit them personally and professionally, and support and socialize with the Deaf community.”