One year ago, senior Ellyn Skodack switched her major to communicative sciences and disorders. In making this transition she decided that she wanted to learn American Sign Language, or ASL, a skill she thought would be useful for her future career.
When she looked into classes and clubs, however, there were none to be found at Michigan State University.
“I was kind of surprised by that,” she said. “It’s such a large university and it’s a pretty common thing on campuses, but there wasn’t one (ASL club), so then I just decided in that moment I was going to start it.”
Now, the ASL Club holds weekly meetings and provides a space for ASL learners to come together, practice and build community. Secretary and animal science senior Maddie Mulvahill said that because there are no classes on campus, the club attracts a lot of new learners.
“A lot of students are beginners because there’s no resources here and we wanted to create a safe environment for beginners,” Mulvahill said.
Some of the members of the e-board are beginners themselves and they learn alongside the club members as they go through mini lessons and play games that help them practice.
“Learning a language is very vulnerable,” said treasurer and human biology senior Elena Toomajian. “It’s a really scary thing to learn and especially a very easy thing to mess up… We’re all here to learn together and make mistakes together, so that we can ultimately learn and do ASL, one day, out in the world.”
Despite the club teaching at a beginners level, there is also space provided for those who are fluent to participate in advocacy as well as teach fellow members.
“We’re trying to open (meetings) up to more community and not have us do it every week,” Skodack said. “It’s better for us and it’s better for the club, so people feel like it’s safe to go up and teach a lesson.”
The club primarily uses videos and lessons from the Oklahoma School for the Deaf to learn together, but with a larger club membership this year they have been able to line up guest teachers.
“The people with more experience, it’s great for them to get involved and be able to show off what they’ve learned and they also have their resources they learned from that they can share with us,” Toomajian said.
Members with more experience also come to the club in an effort to advocate for more ASL resources and more visibility for the deaf and hard of hearing community on campus.
English creative writing senior Lily Gabos is a member of the club and sought out ASL classes when she was a freshman, hoping to fulfill her language requirement through ASL courses.
“I didn’t want to take Spanish or French and so, I knew I wanted to take ASL, but they didn’t have the program here, which sucks,” she said.
ASL courses have not been offered at MSU since 2014, so Gabos ended up taking them at Oakland Community College. The courses she took through OCC were good, she said, but it was hard to not be able to study ASL at MSU.
“Unfortunately, I had to go through my four years here taking classes somewhere else, but I hope it’s not the same for people who come after me because that was tough and unnecessary,” Gabos said.
Students are also able to take ASL courses through Lansing Community College, but the e-board members questioned why this wasn’t a possibility for MSU.
“It’s kind of disappointing because it’s a huge school, we have so many classes… it feels like a pretty necessary class to have on campus,” Skodack said. “You can take it at Lansing Community College which is just down the road… but it’s a small community college, like we’re Michigan State we can’t get at least an ASL 1 and 2? It’s unacceptable.”
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In March of 2024, ASMSU passed a bill that advocated for the inclusion of ASL classes at MSU.
Skodack said that while waiting for these classes to come back to MSU, they will continue to advocate and show that there is an interest.
“Creating the club was huge, because we kind of showed the university that we have 150 people in our GroupMe that want to learn this thing,” she said.
Toomajian also said that one of the initiatives they will be doing this year is letter writing, encouraging members who want to take ASL courses at MSU to write letters to administration with the hopes of showing that there is an interest.
“It would be super cool if we had a freshman in (ASL Club) and then by the time they were seniors they had ASL courses,” Skodack said.
In the meantime, the e-board members just hope to create a comfortable environment for learning and develop a community of ASL learners and speakers on campus.
“Even though we do have an e-board it seems like everyone is on the same level,” Gabos said. “I even feel that way and I have a lot more learning than other people in the room, but it’s just an equal learning environment and it’s inclusive and diverse and open to any and all.”
In just three weeks, co-president and genomics and molecular genetics senior Mallory Bergmann said she is already starting to see growth amongst club members.
“The best part is seeing the progression in ASL,” she said. “Some people will start talking to each other in ASL, slowly, small things, but replacing words that you would say with something that you would sign.”
The club does not have any membership requirements and they don’t ask for dues. This low maintenance atmosphere is purposeful.
“Because it’s not a strict club, with membership, they’re coming back because they want to, they want to learn, which is the coolest part,” Toomajian said.
