The American Sign Language Club is trying to get at least one sign language course on campus for undergraduates at SDSU.
American Sign Language is a formal language employing a system of hand gestures and their placement relative to the upper body, facial expressions, body postures and finger spelling especially for communication by and with deaf people. According to Listencarefully.org, 21% of South Dakota’s population has some form of hearing loss, which can range from mild to profound and can occur in one or both ears.
Isabella Cosato, a junior and club president, started the ASL course process in January right after winter break. Adding an ASL course to campus is a dream of Cosato’s.
“The end goal is that we would be the first university in South Dakota that offers the full ASL interpreting degree along with the certification,” Cosato said.
Teresa Seefeldt, vice provost for undergraduate education, said the University of South Dakota is the only university in South Dakota to offer any form of ASL courses. USD allows students to go as far as getting a minor in ASL, but going for a higher degree is not offered.
As of now, Cosato would be happy to even get a 101-and 102-level course taught on campus. Christine Garst-Santos, director of the School of American and Global Studies, shares the same thought.
“I think it would be very positive,” Garst-Santos said. “It’s important that we provide access and bring in as many folks as possible and learn how to interact with those cultures.”
But getting a new course on campus isn’t easy.
“It goes through a variety of layers of approval,” Seefeldt said. “The process really starts at a school or department that has faculty to offer that course.”
To teach an ASL course, the faculty member must have the qualifications to properly teach ASL. SDSU campus doesn’t have an ASL-qualified faculty member already on campus. This means to add an ASL course there needs to be a search for a new faculty member.
“If a course is offered by another university, then we can seek authority to offer that course,” Seefeldt said, “American Sign Language is offered by USD, so we can seek approval to offer that existing course.”
When requesting a course, it still takes time to grant that approval by the system level. SDSU would need to contact USD and discuss their ASL courses.
The Board of Regents is the last stop for a course to be added. They get the final say in if a course is going to get approved or not. A lot of that comes down to engagement.
Garst-Santos said, “You look at supply and demand.”
“At the undergraduate level, you need a minimum of 10 students to offer a section of a course,” Seefeldt said.
Both are saying the same thing. A course needs to have a certain number of students who want to take the course and a qualified faculty member to teach it. If one of those isn’t there, then a course won’t be taught and that’s part of what Cosato is working towards.
“There are 42 club members right now.” She said, “I am asking some of the directors in the Psychology, Sociology and Rural Studies school about how we can do a schoolwide survey,” Cosato said.
Cosato is hoping to reach all undergraduate level students and hope they take a survey on their interest in taking an ASL course. When presenting to the Board of Regents, this could help in the case of interest in the course from students.
“This is a long process, so it won’t happen for the fall 2025 year.” Seefeldt said, “More likely, it will happen in the fall 2026.”
It’s still very early in the process of trying to add this course. No matter if the ASL courses get accepted or not, Cosato is going to continue pursuing ASL courses on campus.
“American Sign Language is so important because this is a vital form of communication for the majority of deaf people,” Cosato said. They’re part of our society, allow them to be, and that starts with learning the alphabet.”