Priority One

Rationale: While we are a community of visual communicators and learners, we have not yet fully defined what it means for us to work, learn, and live together as a diverse, multilingual and multicultural community committed to our ASL/English bilingual academic mission.

Goal: Establish the foundation for Gallaudet’s bilingual (ASL/English) mission through the vision, values, and practices that will guide how we work, learn, engage, and innovate together.

Objective One: Define the vision, values, and practices for Gallaudet’s bilingual (ASL/English) mission.

Objective Two: Ensure an actionable implementation plan is in place to test and validate our ideas.

Strategies:

1. Complete a framework for Gallaudet’s bilingual (ASL/English) mission based on major university documents that relate to communication, language, and Gallaudet’s Bilingual Mission; interdisciplinary perspectives and research findings related to bilingualism, bilingual education, audism, and especially, deaf and deaf-blind ASL/English bilingualism; theoretical and empirical work from a wide range of disciplines.
2. Complete the community input and feedback process.
3. Engage in critical conversations to understand what is essential for implementation success (structural, academic, cultural, and emotional).
4. Establish a working group and complete development of a multi-year implementation plan that includes, designs, and conceptualizes the systems, processes, and procedures required to capitalize on, and address the unique attributes and needs of our ASL/English bilingual learning community.

Key Performance Indicators:

1. By the start of FY 2019, there will be evidence of community support for implementation guiding principles for the bilingual framework.
2. By the start of FY 2019, we will have denoted leadership and resources needed for implementation of the framework for Gallaudet’s bilingual mission in all divisions of the University.
3. By the end of FY 2020, we will have completed phase one of the multi-year implementation plan.
4. By the end of FY 2020, we will have completed the General Studies program curriculum revision to include a focus on multicultural, bilingual identity development in the context of intersectionality (co-listed for Priority Two).
5. By the end of FY 2020, we will have completed the expansion of the Center for Bilingual Teaching and Learning to include bilingual pedagogy, multicultural curriculum transformation, digital learning, and faculty development (co-listed for Priority Two).