#NYU sophomore pushes back after school slams low-income classmates

NYU sophomore Ron Hall was half-way through the course outline for his American Sign Language class when he came across a sentence that left a bad taste in his mouth: “If you cannot afford the textbook and the DVD, then you cannot afford to take this class.”

The syllabus, Hall came to find, wasn’t just for his Level II class but for all ASL Level I and II classes, which are taught by the applied psychology department in the university’s Steinhardt School.

For Hall’s Level II class, the text and DVD together cost $80 at the university’s bookstore.

“It was unsettling because it was so blatant — and I don’t consider myself low-income,” Hall, a politics major from Dallas, told The Post.

That night, Hall tweeted both a screenshot of the syllabus and a link to a protest letter that fellow students could sign and email to the department leadership.

The letter, written by Hall, described the sentence as “off-putting, insensitive, and tone-deaf,” and requested that department officials not only strike the words but do more to help students who don’t have the money for the class materials. The link received roughly 165 clicks.

Less than 24 hours later, NYU did an about-face.

Academic program administrator Ramy Ebied responded to “all who spoke out,” acknowledging the sentence was “clearly unacceptable” and promising the syllabus would be changed.

“The language included in the Universal ASL syllabi was brought to our attention … and the School immediately took steps to remove it,” NYU Spokesman Jordan Bennett told The Post last week. We also made it clear to students considering enrolling in these courses that if they were concerned about the cost of the required textbook or resources, NYU can provide support to help defray these costs.”

By the first day of classes, the sentence had been rewritten, Hall told The Post.