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Page Harlan Lane reminded President Johns of Stokoe's worldwide reputation:
I am informed that some of the activities in language science for which Gallaudet College has been so rightly renowned are in jeopardy it would be remiss of a friend of the college not to speak up if this were the case. I feel I qualify for that title as I have long been an interested student of developments at Gallaudet, and was honored with the offer of the deanship of the College of Communications a few years ago.
In the unanimous view of scholars of language in general and of sign language in particular who are familiar with the work of your Linguistics Research Laboratory over the past two decades, it has made an extremely valuable contribution to our understanding of the nature of language and its biological basis, to a description of American and other sign languages, and to progress in teaching and translating American Sign Language. It is not an exaggeration to say that the nationwide renaissance of scholarly and lay interest in sign occurred because of the foundations laid by William Stokoe and collaborators such as Charlotte Baker-Shenk and Dennis Cokely. While I served on the Linguistics Panel of the
National Science Foundation, I had several opportunities to study research proposals from this laboratory they were marked by sophistication, circumspection, and cogency. Moreover, virtually every proposal we received concerning sign languageand we received more than in any other single specialty- cited the work of Dr. Stokoe and his collaborators.
If there is indeed a basis for the perception that the work of these and allied scholars is not receiving the full support of your administration, I urge you to seek an independent evaluation by outside scholars and practitioners. There can be few programs at your school, sir, that are more deserving of your support, that of the college, and of the deaf community. President Johns was concerned enough to reply to each letter, stating with bureaucratic finesse "I have not been informed of any plan or program to reduce or eliminate the research area you identify, but I will review the matter."49

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