The American Sign Language program at Bowling Green State University is on the chopping block, but
students and staff are fighting to retain it.
There is a student-led petition, with almost 12,000 signatures, circulating to keep the four ASL classes
at BGSU. There was an on-line protest held last week.
The classes have between 250 to 350 students enrolled across the four levels, and it was in the process
of becoming a minor within the College of Education and Human Development, said Dean Dawn Shinew, Ph.D.

It ran into the budget cuts handed out last spring when 119 university employees lost their jobs.
“BGSU and EDHD took a hit to our permanent operating budget. We had to make some difficult decisions.
Those decisions are always agonizing. When making those decisions we prioritized what was most
immediately impacting students and keeping students on track for degree completion,” Shinew said.
She said that the program was both expanding and new, with 10 students formally declared. However, it
would not have led to any licensure or certifications.
In a statement to the community on Friday, BGSU President Rodney Rogers said he is aware of the feedback
about the decision to eliminate the ASL courses in May.
“Provost (Joe) Whitehead will be reaching out to those affected students to provide clarity and support.
In addition, while it is very difficult to recruit faculty in this area, we are exploring new
partnerships and possibilities that would provide opportunities for students to have access to ASL
courses,” Rogers said.
In making the cut, Shinew said she was forced to prioritize.
“In our college we have almost no electives. Lots of our programs are designed to meet licensure, or
certification requirements, We have crediting requirements that have to be met in order to put our
students into competitive positions after they graduate,” she said.
ASL and physical education courses were eliminated.
“They were old physical education courses that were part of the general education curriculum. We
continued to offer them because students enjoyed them and they had good enrollments … but in the end
were not required for anyone’s degree completion,” Shinew said.
The PEG courses are all single credit courses in subject areas like weight training, aerobics and yoga.
Most of the courses are also taught at the Student Recreation Center, but not for credit. Shinew has
recommended that the number of courses be increased and that the professors be hired on to teach the
additional offerings.
PEG had 44 different sections offered with a total of 1,214 students enrolled in the 2019-20 school year.

Rebecca Sidders, BGSU American Sign Language instructor, is the one full-time qualified rank faculty
member working in the ASL program. There are five other instructors who also teach ASL. All are
non-tenure track, part-time adjunct instructors, three of which teach regularly, according to Shinew.

Sidders is still on contract to continue teaching through the end of summer. There are no classes in ASL
scheduled for the fall semester. She was also in the process of preparing a study abroad experience for
BGSU students with the Jamaican School for the Deaf, which was funded by a BGSU grant.
“There is contagious enthusiasm for this program, and for the new minor that was never allowed to start.
Not only do we provide a quality education in ASL, we also educate about deaf culture and the deaf
community. I have brought a global connection to the university by creating a service learning travel
abroad experience to Jamaica to serve their deaf schools,” Sidders said.
She has been spoken of highly by fellow instructors and by Shinew.
The wider disabled community is weighing in.
Sheri Wells-Jensen, Ph.D., and a BGSU professor in the English department, is blind and has worked with
various divisions and groups at the university on improving relations with the disabled community.
“We just want to remind people that the languages of disabled people matter,” Wells-Jensen said.
She believes that it will mean a significant loss in diversity at the university. It will also have an
impact on the diversity that makes its way out through the educational programs taught by the teachers
who graduate from the BGSU College of Education and Human Development.
“Dawn is a passionate believer in civil rights,” Wells-Jensen said. She said removal is contrary to the
university’s stated goals of inclusion and diversity, as well as the “public university for the public
good,” slogan.
The BGSU Faculty Association union President David Jackson said he supported continuing the programs.
“From what I understand of the enrollments in those courses and the need for that skill, in so many
different majors, it would be a mistake not to continue to offer those courses,” he said.
BGSU should not be eliminating any faculty positions right now, Jackson added.
“BGSU should be offering classes that people want — which the evidence is that people want and need these
classes and just as we have seen the awareness we have right now with all the press conferences they
have been watching, I think indicates it is a useful skill for us to be teaching to our students.”
Jackson was referring to press conferences like Gov. Mike DeWine holds twice weekly. A person who signs
is featured prominently.
The pandemic has affected BGSU enrollment. While the total university enrollment is up, the current class
of freshmen students is down 300 from last year.
The situation has not gone unnoticed by Shinew.
“We could not make any additional cuts that would not immediately affect a student’s degree completion.
All of our other programs include courses and students that have declared this as a major and are in
various stages of progressing through that,” Shinew said. “Nothing about this feels good and certainly I
would not in any other circumstance cut the ASL or PEG programs. It didn’t start with ‘let’s get rid of
these programs.’ It started with ‘We’ve got to respond to the reduction of funding, and what are our
choices,’ and there aren’t any good ones.
“I think it’s noteworthy that the EDHD faculty took on additional teaching responsibilities in an effort
to give us some time to figure out the best plan moving forward, in order not to lose more full time
positions,” Shinew said.