Deaf Education Program at Columbia University loses tuition support
A five-year contract to provide tuition support for students in the Deaf Education Program at Teachers College at Columbia University was cut as a part of the Trump administration’s cancelling of $400 million worth of grants and contracts with Columbia over concerns about antisemitism on campus stemming from student protests over the war in Gaza.
Maria Hartman, a Senior Lecturer and Program Director, said they typically enroll 10-15 students per year and more than half receive funding through their two federal training grants, which have now been terminated.
[Begin interview]
Maria Hartman: I got a letter that said, “Your program does not coordinate with our values.” What? Helping deaf kids does not coordinate with the U.S. government’s values? I don’t get it.
Elaine Smolen: This will impact people right now. Deaf children will be impacted right now.
Hartman: Deaf education is generally short-staffed, which means there’s not enough teachers to support deaf children in New York and as a whole in the U.S. There is a shortage of teachers so the federal government provided financial assistance to help support students to become teachers. But on Friday, that was cut. We’re stuck. We are already short-staffed and now it will become worse. Who suffers? Deaf children.
Smolen: Our school is really expensive. We need the grants. With the grants, we have Deaf and hard of hearing students who come from New York City who are able to enroll. Now that’s gone.
[End interview clip]
Alex: Thank you. Now I will show you remarks from Julia Silvestri, an adjunct assistant professor, on how the Deaf Ed program supports Deaf culture in New York City.
[Begin interview clip]
Julia Silvestri: For ten years, we started a Deaf Music Project initiative that works with theater organizations, Deaf schools, artists, and others. We’ve done research, collaborated, and shared arts and performance of music from a Deaf perspective. It’s now the 10-year anniversary. There’s also a history project that is now a part of a museum at the St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf in Brooklyn. Many alumni work there. Many staff there come to this program. There’s a lot of relationships with the Deaf community in NYC that is connected to Columbia and the Teachers College. So, these programs has a small amount of financing, which is nice, but without students and without tuition support, it’s hard to see how that can sustain in the future. This program has been here since 1906. That’s over 100 years. I think it’s one of the first, if not the first Deaf Education programs. There’s also Deaf history in Columbia. Its 10th president is actually a deaf person named Frederick Barnard.
[Images of Frederick Barnard and an image of an historical document showing Barnard’s association with the New-York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb]
Silvestri: He’s deaf and he worked at the ASD, Fanwood, was a signer, and wrote about Deaf education. Later on he became the president of Columbia University. He was an advocate of sign language and training for teachers of the deaf. He was a teacher of the deaf. So, Columbia does value that. But there’s this context of things out there impacting something that we really value as people in New York, Connecticut, and in America. At Columbia.
[End interview clip]
Thank you. I also reached out to Youmee Lee, a current student in the Deaf Ed program, for more insights.
[Begin interview clip]
Youmee Lee: I was really shocked to see the Teachers College’s Deaf Education Program being impacted because this issue has to do with Columbia University but the ripple effects has reached us. New York has really strict requirements for teachers of the deaf (TOD). We have to be certified as teachers of the deaf to work at a Deaf school. We are required to have a Masters degree in deaf education. Some programs out there take two years but here it’s condensed in one year. You also can pick courses - specializing in content areas - such as visual arts, English, social studies, math - you can enhance your education because Teachers College is a huge educational institution. You can go into various departments and take various courses such as an art courses. It’s my goal to be an art teacher. So I can add to my deaf education credentials. It’s a nice thing to have in my pocket and TC provides that. Other Deaf ed programs are more limited in their course offerings. There’s flexibility here and that’s why I came here. With the scholarship, it is very helpful. In exchange for the scholarship, we have to commit to teaching deaf and hard of hearing students for two years after we graduate. All of us are committed to that.
[End interview clip]
Alex: Thank you to Youmee. She also explained that from what she’s seen, most of the students in the Deaf Ed program are hearing, but the program tries hard to recruit more deaf students.
Hartman said she’ll try to appeal the cuts.
Hartman: There is an appeal process. We will try very hard but we need support. We need people to know what’s happening. This is about deaf children. It’s not political.
Alex: Those at the Deaf Ed program said the Deaf community could support the program by contacting their state representative and legislators to ask them to fight against the cuts.