Key faculty left out of meeting on Deaf Ed cuts
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An Academic Governance committee reviewed a request to freeze admissions to MSU’s Deaf Education Program on Thursday, leaving one of the program’s directors questioning MSU’s College of Education administrators’ decision to not notify him and other faculty members of the meeting.
Deaf Education Program co-director Harold Johnson said he did not know the University Committee on Academic Policy, or UCAP, discussed the program’s proposed moratorium — which is a freeze on admissions — until UCAP student representative Justin Lippi told him.
“I would have liked to have answered questions and provide accurate information (at the meeting),” Johnson said. “Now I’m questioning the extent that all the information now available on the program’s benefits is being heard by the committee.”
Although the cuts are part of the list of about 30 departmental, program and specialization cuts MSU Provost Kim Wilcox announced as part of an effort to trim operating budgets university wide, Johnson said the Deaf Education Program was not included in the original list.
“We thought we made the cut,” he said. “In mid-October, we were told the Deaf Education Program and American Sign Language classes would be closed and we were totally surprised.”
UCAP Chairman Martin Crimp said the committee advises the provost, but does not have the authority to make decisions on recommended program moratoriums.
Susan Dalebout, the College of Education’s academic student affairs director and certification officer, said she attended UCAP’s meeting last Thursday to answer questions from committee members on the moratorium proposal, but referred questions on the program’s recommended elimination to Cassandra Book, associate dean for external relations and student affairs of the College of Education. Dalebout said she was invited to the meeting by Book.
“I was an invited guest, just to be there to see if I could answer any questions,” Dalebout said. “I was there as an observer and a listener.”
Book did not return several phone calls to her office and home seeking comment.
Lippi said he expressed concern at the meeting about whether the program’s faculty members had an opportunity to attend.
“I have some concern myself that relevant faculty were not notified, as I believed that was something that was supposed to happen for these meetings,” Lippi said. “I can say it was pretty apparent to a lot of people at the meeting that a lot of people didn’t know about the meeting.”
Crimp said although some question if the program’s faculty members were notified, they still can raise questions through Academic Governance processes. He said UCAP agendas are available on the committee’s Web site, ucap.msu.edu.
“It was not clear whether all concerned parties were notified,” Crimp said. “I would have hoped they would have been informed by the college’s administration.”
Commentary
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Jeannette Johnson
(12/07/09 10:19am)Report
This is outrageous and shows the MSU administration’s prejudice against the Deaf Education program.
Anon
(12/07/09 10:42am)Report
How would you not know about this?
I have no ties to the department and hardly know what is going on in the talks and even I knew there was a meeting about it last Thursday.
Sounds like a departmental problem rather than an MSU prejudice.
Jeannette Johnson
(12/07/09 11:03am)Report
I think the point is, since the reporter makes it clear – at least to me – that everyone knew there was a meeting, but NOT that the Deaf Education program was up for cuts.
Homebrew
(12/07/09 11:46am)Report
I guess they didn’t hear about it. Haha!!!
Todd Morrison
(12/07/09 12:06pm)Report
Anon – It is quite clear it’s prejudiced. You knew about the meeting and you had no ties to the department. It’s clear to me they chose not to invite Johnson to the meeting. By no way would he chose to skip the meeting if he knew about it.
Homebrew – Nice zing there.. Let me guess – you’re a Rush Limbaugh lover?
student
(12/07/09 2:19pm)Report
@ Todd Morrison – What an idiotic comment to make about Rush Limbaugh….especially since he is DEAF….you moron!
todd Morrison
(12/07/09 4:12pm)Report
Student – Rush is deaf?
Todd Morrison
(12/07/09 4:14pm)Report
Oh wait.. Maybe you’re a Republican! ;-)
Anon
(12/07/09 4:22pm)Report
“By no way would he chose to skip the meeting if he knew about it.”
again, how would he not know about it? Word of mouth (hand sign) travels fast when your department is on the chopping block. I don’t personally care what happens to the program but I really doubt he was oblivious to the meeting or that MSU somehow kept him from knowing about it.
Todd Morrison
(12/07/09 4:23pm)Report
Fact – Rush Limbaugh has described himself as being “100%, totally deaf”.35 In 2001, he was diagnosed with a rare Autoimmune inner ear disease (AIED), which, in the span of three months, rendered his right ear completely deaf and left ear severely deaf. “I cannot hear television. I cannot hear music. I am, for all practical purposes, deaf – and it’s happened in three months.”116 On December 19, 2001, doctors at the House Ear Clinic in Los Angeles were able to successfully restore a measure of his hearing through a surgical procedure known as a cochlear implant surgery. Limbaugh received a Clarion CII Bionic Ear.117 In 2005, Limbaugh was forced to undergo “tuning” due to an “eye twitch”, an apparent side-effect of cochlear implants.118
Anybody who’s really DEAF, knows Limbaugh is not Deaf. He’s hard of hearing and doesn’t know any sign language at all nor does he live the lives that people of hearing loss face everyday.
He runs a radio show, how’s that being DEAF?
I’m thrilled you are ‘student’ because it appears you have a lot of learning to do what DEAF really means.
Jeannette Johnson
(12/07/09 5:16pm)Report
Do you honestly think that Dr. Johnson would sit back and not attend a meeting that would lead to his position being terminated?
If so, then Todd’s comment applies to you as well, Anon. You still have a lot of learning to do – especially in the area of critical thinking and analysis.
Jeannette Johnson
(12/07/09 5:53pm)Report
Wait a minute – something doesn’t make sense here. I just realized that Dr. Johnson and his co-director won’t lose their jobs. They’ll be teaching online courses if this decision isn’t reversed.
But the entire point is supposedly to save money… they both earn 100k per year. That won’t be really saving MSU any money if they keep on Dr. Johnson and his co-director.
MSU’ll just be losing the program.
Something’s really fishy.