Language: Classes are growing in popularity
m Continued from Page 1
My schoolmates’ parents would
n’t let their kids come near me.”
Growing up with discrimina
tion cemented Larson-Muhr’s de
sire to devote her life to studying
deafness. Now, Larson-Muhr, a
certified Sign-linguist and head
of the University’s Communica
tion Disorders program, is one of
two instructors who teach Amer
ican Sign Language at the Uni
versity.
“There’s really a growing inter
est in ASL. We offer three sec
tions of Sign I and II, and they al
ways fill up,” said Larson-Muhr,
who divides her time between
the University and helping out
with community events, such as
interpreting for Mayor Jim Tor
rey's State of the City address
Wednesday. Larson-Muhr’s af
ternoon class was packed Tues
day, with waiting lists for each
section.
‘T’ve always been interested
and have wanted to take it, just to
know it for myself,” said sopho
more Whitney Reynolds.
ASL is more than just signs. It
has a written form and its own
grammatical structure that close
ly resembles Chinese or Navajo,
and it can be more difficult than
most students imagine.
“It’s a physical language, too,
and the course is more like a dra
ma class because of all the ex
pression you need to convey it,”
Larson-Muhr said, explaining
that ASL has thousands of signs
and variations. American Sign is
only one of about 200 different
forms around the world. Schol
ars estimate there are roughly
500,000 speakers in the U.S.,
making it the third largest non
English language in the country.
The popularity of Sign classes
at the University indicates its
growing prominence nationwide.
More than 90 universities and
colleges from Yale to East Texas
State recognize ASL as a full for
eign language.
The University, however, still
does not accept ASL.
“It's a really controversial is
sue,” said Teresa Quinn, inter
preter coordinator at Disability
Services. “Many people in acad
emics don’t regard it as a lan
guage because they feel it is not
different enough from English,
and also that there is no literature
or culture connected with it," she
said.
Hillary Gerdes, a University
Senator who is on the Academic
Requirement Committee, said
she would like to see ASI, be
come part of the curriculum. A
motion was passed in 1994 by
the Undergraduate Educational
Policy Coordinating Committee
that recognized its significance,
she said. But the committee de
cided ASL should not be accept
ed as a language.
Yet many people, like Ruth
Bradley, disagree. Bradley, a Uni
versity interpreter who has
worked with the deaf since 1967,
calls the policy “discrimination”
and one that creates barriers to
deaf students.
“Far too many people who
should know better don’t recog
nize it,” she said. “It's insulting
when someone degrades your
language, because language is a
great deal of who we are as peo
ple.”
Bradley argues that despite
some academic objections, ASL
does have a rich literature and
culture.
"There’s film, poetry, and
plays written in and for ASL,"
she said. “It’s been proven and
researched by linguists as having
all the elements of a language.”
Larson-Muhr said she will con
tinue to advocate for ASL and
fight misconceptions about it.
She said her work interpreting
for a seminar about Sudden In
fant Death Syndrome recently
made her mother realize her
son’s death was not the fault of
her deafness.
“My mother just never had ac
cess to that kind of information
before."
Proposal: Difficult to predict future changes in funding
State aid
State appropriations for higher
education from 1997-98:
Oregon State University
Oregon Health Sciences University
53,948,000
Portland State University
■■■M8.054.000
University of Oregon
IHMM 45,388,000
Southern Oregon State University
Ml 6.122.000
Western Oregon State University
■ 13,328,000
Oregon Institute of Technology
■ 14,969,000
Eastern Oregon State University
■ 11,393,000
Community colleges
tBTgrMMM—
Student aid
M&16.250.000
Other
■Hi 6,250,000
SOURCE: The Chronicle of Higher
Education
CARA STRAZZO/Emerald
is Continued from Page 1
ture committees are working on
proposals.
OSSHE’s Budget and Finance
Committee is working on
Kitzhaber’s suggestions to create a
new budgetary proposal that al
lows tuition and state dollars to
follow students to their institu
tions. The present system pools
the tuition money from separate
institutions and redistributes it.
OSSHE board member Tom
Imeson, vice president of govern
ment, public affairs and commu
nication for PacifiCorp in Port
land, chairs the Budget and
Finance Committee and also
served on the governor’s Higher
Education and the Economy Task
Force. The proposal is expected
in late spring.
In the short term, it appears that
the University will benefit the
most, along with Portland State
University, Dennis said. "They
have the largest enrollment with
the cheapest degree programs,” he
said.
Schools like the Oregon Insti
tute of Technology and Eastern
Oregon University are likely to
lose out with the new tuition dis
Gov. Kitzhaber’s
recommendations
e Changing the way tuition dollars
are distributed so that the tuition |
students pay goes to their school
instead of into the system budget
■ Establishing a system budget
process that shows what programs 1
are being subsidized and why
• Shifting the management focus
from the needs of individual institu- j
tions to the needs of the public and |
economic marketplaces; shifting |
budgetary priorities to match
^Achieving complete transferability of |
courses among community colleges,
universities; facilitating transferability
with private and out-of-state schools
tribution because of the high cost
of their programs, he said.
Dennis said it is difficult to pre
dict what the decentralization of
tuition dollars will mean for indi
vidual institutions in the long
run.
“At the University of Oregon,
you could see bigger classes, you
could see UO shying away from
more expensive programs that are
important to the state,” he said.
But the current favorable cli
mate toward technology could
also mean a redirection of subsi
dies to schools like OIT, which
can show benefits to high-tech in
dustries, and less subsidies for
schools like the University,
whose philosophy and English
degrees are less appealing to busi
ness, Dennis said.
The Governance and Structure
Committee is “looking at ways to
increase campus autonomy over
program creation and making
campuses more enterprising,”
Clifford said. By more enterpris
ing, Clifford said individual insti
tutions need to be “more creative
in meeting the needs of the state.”
The Higher Education and
Economy Task Force, which
made one of the reports Kitzhaber
based his recommendations on, is
composed primarily of Oregon
business leaders; it is chaired by
John Lee of the Providence Health
System in Portland and includes
Eugene’s Gretchen Pierce of Holt
and Associates and Randy Pape of
The Pape Group.
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