Sunday, September 20, 2009 — This year, Lenoir-Rhyne University welcomed its largest class of incoming deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
The university, with a total enrollment of 1,682 students, has 14 new deaf or hard-of-hearing students. The previous record was set in 1996 with 11 incoming DHH students. There are a total of 26 DHH students on campus this year, compared to 28 in 1996.
Lenoir-Rhyne has had support services for DHH students for 32 years, establishing the program long before the Americans with Disabilities Act required such services in 1990.
Shawn Frank has been director of the program for 10 of those years. She first came to Lenoir-Rhyne as a student in 1985 with her twin sister, who is deaf. Frank returned to campus as a staff interpreter in 1991.
One of the first classes she interpreted for was horseback riding. Other interesting classes the department has provided interpreting for include a cadaver lab and ballroom dancing. (She says that yes, deaf people can learn to dance.) Interpreters have also accompanied students on numerous field trips, including trips to a swamp, an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, river rafting, and an intensive care unit for premature infants.
Support services for deaf students include interpreting (using Sign Language), note taking, academic advising and two student organizations. LRU currently has one part-time and four full-time interpreters for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. In addition, there is special equipment on campus, such as doorbell and fire alarm lights in the residence halls, assistive listening devices, and video phones in the students’ rooms.
Sign Troupe is a group of deaf and hard-of-hearing students who perform songs in sign language. HANDS (Hearing and Deaf Signers) is a group that encourages social interaction between hearing and deaf students. Dr. Andrew Weisner, L-R’s campus pastor, knows sign language and often signs his worship services, prayers and Bible classes as he speaks.
Today, LRU’s deaf and hard-of-hearing students come from seven different states and are majoring in 17 different subjects. The students are integrated in all student activities, including sororities, the Playmakers campus theater group and intercollegiate sports. This year, there are DHH students on the football, baseball, tennis and cheerleading teams.
Highlights of the program include a Playmakers production in 2008 of the play “Searching for Eden” in which two sets of actors performed simultaneously. One set used spoken language and the other used sign language. The Spirit of Black Mountain College, a special arts event held last year, also included a deaf performer who had to learn intricate choreography. The hearing actors learned how to cue the actor for her part.
In December 2008, L-R hosted the Miss Deaf North Carolina pageant on campus. Two years ago during spring break, a group of DHH students along with hearing counterparts traveled to Mexico, where they helped build a school for deaf children.
Over the years, LRU has served more than 200 deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Among successful alumni are a professor at Gallaudet University, an athletic trainer, numerous counselors and teachers, accountants and a fashion designer.
Frank said a student once determined that if an interpreter worked at LRU for 20 years, and received credit for each class interpreted, he or she would earn the equivalent of 11 degrees.
“I guess that makes interpreters some of the smartest people at L-R,” she said.
