When Ithaca College quietly announced that it would cut its Deaf Studies minor and ASL classes starting Fall 2025, the reaction wasn’t quiet. At all.
There was no campus-wide email. Most students only found out through an April 16 article in The Ithacan, which revealed that faculty had been informed weeks earlier. Professors weren’t involved in the conversation and students weren’t asked. The message was clear: this isn’t up for discussion.
But for students who built their academic paths — and their identities — around this program, it wasn’t going to be that simple.
Deaf Studies Minor
In Spring 2025, around 50 students were enrolled in the Deaf Studies minor: 30 seniors, 14 juniors, five sophomores and one first-year. Courses like ASL I filled up every semester, often beyond capacity. This fall, only three Deaf Studies courses will be offered — ASL II, ASL III and Perspectives on Deafness — just enough to let current minors finish. ASL I is gone. And because Deaf Culture was always a spring-only course, it will never return.
This isn’t a pause. It’s a shutdown.
“It changed the way I communicate.”
For many students, this program wasn’t a side interest — it was the reason they chose Ithaca in the first place.
Cinema & photography major Malaika Menezes ‘26 was one of them. She started learning ASL from a Deaf professor in high school and knew she wanted to keep going. When she saw that Ithaca offered a Deaf Studies minor, she chose it over other schools.
“I wanted to learn more about the community, meet people and find a way to make the film industry more accessible for the Deaf community,” Menezes said. “It was especially meaningful for me because I didn’t have to choose between cinema production and deaf studies.”
That dual opportunity — creative storytelling and accessibility — shaped her college experience.
“Now I can communicate with Deaf people and do what I set out to do — try to make the world a little more accessible,” she said.
Jacquie Chin ‘23, a filmmaker and sound editor, felt similarly. She couldn’t officially declare the minor because demand was so high that even with early registration, she couldn’t take ASL I until her last semester. But the impact stuck.
She’s still studying ASL — now online with a Deaf professor through ASL Pinnacle — and using it on film sets, at social events and in everyday life.
“It’s expanded my view of the world,” Chin said. “I’ve found myself signing across the room to someone on set, or signing with someone at a party or a bar because it was too loud to hear each other speak.”
“I honestly grieved the whole thing.”
The decision felt more personal for student leaders like McKenna Deignan ‘25, president of IC iSign.
IC iSign is Ithaca’s student organization dedicated to ASL and Deaf culture appreciation. The club meets weekly and advertises a casual and safe learning environment for those interested in the subject.
“My reaction at first was shocked and sad,” Deignan said. “I was so dumbfounded knowing this program was so popular. Even though I completed the minor, I still took it as a loss and honestly grieved the whole thing.”
She and others are now working to restructure the club into a more classroom-style environment to keep ASL learning alive on campus. But the energy has shifted and the message has landed.
“Why this program?”
The college cited its shift toward relying more on full-time faculty and pointed out that all three ASL instructors were part-time. The move fits into a broader pattern laid out by the 2021 Academic Program Prioritization (APP) process, which led to faculty reductions, program cuts and a growing emphasis on departmental consolidation. Programs without full-time staffing — especially those serving marginalized communities — have increasingly been treated as expendable.
But that logic doesn’t explain why other small minors have been preserved while Deaf Studies was cut.
Minors like African Diaspora Studies (10 students), Latino/a/x Studies (6), Native American and Indigenous Studies (4) and Asian American Studies (4) are still offered, not because they have higher enrollment, but they’re housed under the Center for the Study of Culture, Race and Ethnicity (CSCRE), which provides structural protection through four dedicated faculty and support from other departments.
These programs are rightfully safeguarded because they serve critical academic, cultural and social functions. Preserving them reflects a commitment to equity and representation that should extend to Deaf Studies as well.
Deaf Studies has no such protection. No major. No center. No full-time faculty. Only classrooms full of students.
It’s not just Ithaca
The decision to eliminate Deaf Studies at Ithaca doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s part of a national trend in higher education — one where programs centered on marginalized communities, especially those not backed by full-time faculty or departmental infrastructure, are quietly being phased out. Across the country in 2025, Deaf Studies, ASL interpreting and Deaf education programs are being cut, often without meaningful consultation with the communities they serve.
At the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), students were blindsided by the elimination of the Deaf Studies minor and associated courses. The interim executive vice chancellor sent out an email vaguely stating that budget realignments were necessary to “minimize the impact on faculty and students.” But for many students, it felt like a betrayal.
UMD students began organizing immediately, launching petitions, contacting the administration at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and demanding transparency. Their outrage mirrored the confusion and grief felt by students at Ithaca: programs with cultural significance, high enrollment and real-world impact were discarded with little to no explanation.
University of New Hampshire (UNH) offered a similar justification. When one campus’s ASL instructor retired, the administration opted simply not to replace them, pointing to the fact that another campus had a larger ASL program. To many students, this consolidation logic feels cold and calculated — a choice that values centralization and efficiency over access and equity.
“Our ASL teacher is retiring and they’re just not replacing her because the Manchester location has a huge ASL program,” explained Bette Kupferberg, a UNH student affected by the change.
At Columbia College Chicago, the ASL interpreting program was cut entirely, although the ASL minor and a few courses were preserved after pushback.
Each offered different reasons: budget constraints, staffing challenges and “strategic realignment.” The pattern is unmistakable — when it comes to academic cuts, Deaf Studies is treated as expendable, even when student demand is strong.
The Bigger Picture — And Why We Won’t Stay Quiet
For a college nationally recognized for its Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) program, the decision to eliminate ASL I altogether is more than ironic — it’s short-sighted. Future SLPs and professionals in healthcare, education and media likely will interact with Deaf or hard-of-hearing clients or collaborators. Yet one of the most foundational tools in preparing for those interactions is now off the table.
This cut doesn’t just limit course offerings — it narrows the future of what accessibility and inclusion look like at Ithaca.
A Change.org petition is now circulating, urging the administration to treat Deaf Studies not as an expendable cost but as an investment in inclusive, real-world education. Over 1,000 alumni, students and community members have signed on — each with stories of how the minor shaped their education and lives.
“I’m currently taking ASL I and was excited to continue learning both the language and the culture,” one student wrote. “Pausing the minor is really disappointing and impacts students like me who were just getting started.”
Another added simply, “BRING IT BACK.”
A parent shared, “My daughter chose Ithaca because it offered both SLPA and Deaf Studies. She turned down other schools. This decision is tremendously disappointing.”
Stephanie, an Occupational Therapy alum, offered a heartfelt reaction:
“My Deaf Studies education not only shaped my academic career, but my professional career as well,” she said. “Knowledge of ASL has helped me connect with many clients. My Deaf Studies minor shaped how I view the world and I am incredibly sad to hear it will no longer be offered.”
Menezes said, “I can communicate with Deaf people and do what I set out to do — try to make the world a little more accessible.”
That’s the kind of education Ithaca College should champion, not quietly cut.