Religious holidays present conflicts for profs, students

Despite the fact that a large number of religious holidays celebrated by students fall on weekdays, the University does not officially observe school holidays due to its status as a secular institution.

According to the Policy on Secular and Religious Holidays, the University "recognizes that there are several religious holidays that affect large numbers of University community members, including ... Yom Kippur, the first two days of Passover and Good Friday ... [and therefore] no examinations may be given and no assigned work may be required on these days."

Assistant to the Deputy Provost Anita Gelburd said that, though the policy has not been changed, students who wish to alter the regulations can bring their proposals before the Council of Undergraduate Deans and Office of the Provost, which work together to administer and review policy procedures.

"In the time that I've been working with the provost ... such [a] proposal has not been brought forward," Gelburd said.

She noted, however, that though students have not come forward to advocate a change in policy structure, they have sought help from the Provost's Office in regard to conflicts with their class schedules.

"What usually happens is that the student will call and say, "An exam has been scheduled in my class on the day it is not supposed to be ... but I don't want to to be the one to call the professor,' and in general, someone from the Provost's Office calls" the undergraduate dean, who then calls that faculty member, Gelburd said.

She added, "I have certainly seen the policy enforced when faculty were not abiding by it, [and] according to my experience, faculty members will fall in line."

The University provides professors with a list of restricted days on which exams and major work may not be assigned, in addition to a recommended list of days on which other assignments should not be required.

"There's a list of days in which teachers are told they can't give exams or required work to be handed in, and then there's a much broader list of days where [students] can't be required to take a test or hand something in if" they notified the professor at the start of the semester, said David Stern, Classical Hebrew professor and director of the Jewish Studies Program.

Gelburd noted that professors are advised to try to structure their course schedules around the more widely celebrated religious holidays.

In terms of critical examinations, "the faculty member is supposed to keep these days in mind in designing [the] syllabus in [the] first place, but if they didn't, they are required to give the student a chance to take the makeup."

History professor Edward Peters said that, although during certain religious holy days he does lose a fair amount of students, their absences do not affect his schedule or class time.

"I give out an agenda for each week" to allow students to see what we will be covering, Peters said, adding that students may be "missing the class meeting time, but not the classwork time."

He also noted that the different religious backgrounds of his students play a role in how empty or full the class will be.

It "depends on the mix of students of different religions. ... The real trouble is the calendar of the modern university is basically based on the Christian agriculture calendar of traditional Europe and traditional North America. Jewish fall holidays were never calculated into that," Peters said.

Jewish students find the schedule especially inconvenient, as the majority of their holy days fall during weekdays, with travel plans often cutting into class time.

College sophomore and Ritual Chairwoman of the Conservative Jewish Community at Penn Ariela Housman noted that she has been careful to choose her courses and arrange her schedule around the observed religious holidays.

"I've gone out of my way to make sure that I had a schedule where the interruption would be minimized, and the teachers have been as accommodating as I can expect them to be. Obviously, it is incredibly inconvenient, to say the least, to miss this much class so close to the beginning of the school year."

Peters agreed, noting, "It's very tough in the fall for observant Jewish students. ... [It is] more inconvenient for students than for the faculty."

Like other officials, Peters recognizes that if Penn were to designate certain religious holidays for observance, it would complicate the schedule due to the numerous religions represented on campus.

College senior and Muslim Students Association Vice President Iram Ahmad said that, though Muslim holy days usually do not conflict with school, a challenge does arise in trying to predict the appropriate days to take leave from classes.

"You can ask your professor beforehand, [but] it's kind of difficult because we work with the lunar calendar, and we never know when the holiday is. We typically have an idea," but professors prefer to know during the first two weeks of school, Ahmad said.

College senior and Newman Council President Nicole Oddo noted that, though she has not had to miss many classes due to traditional Christian holy days, she does have classmates who in past semesters have been assigned large projects due the day after Easter Sunday.

"I haven't found professors to be difficult, but I know other people have other big assignments due after Easter. I'm surprised we don't have off around Passover and Easter, because it's a holiday for what would be at least 50 percent of the school," so it would make sense to give the time off, Oddo said.

In regard to moving the spring break to the weeks when Passover and Easter do run together, Gelburd replied that "spring break is always determined to be at the same time during the spring semester ... regardless of when Easter and Passover fall."

Students, however, are not the only members of the Penn community to contend with scheduling conflicts.

"I'm an observant Jew, so I can't come to classes myself on holidays this year," said Ruth Meltzer, senior lecturer in Yiddish and Jewish Studies.

Undergraduate Director of the Jewish Studies Program Kathryn Hellerstein* said, "There are three Jewish holidays on Thursday [this year], so I've canceled Thursday classes for all my courses."

"I have scheduled one makeup class for [my freshman] seminar, and I'm going to make up the other time with conference time," she added.

"It's very difficult. Some of my students are Jewish and have the same problem and appreciate the canceling of the time, but ... my other students [who] are not Jewish are sort of relieved to have an extra hour and a half to do something," Hellerstein added.

Though she has not had difficulty working around other religions' holidays, she said that she would be willing to assist any student with conflicts.

"If Good Friday happened to coincide with an important class, I would probably consider not assigning a major piece of work on that day, and if a student asked for help ... I would of course be very accommodating," Hellerstein said.

"No one is ever penalized for any absences because of a religious holiday, [and] it's the [unofficial] policy in the Jewish Studies Program that we don't hold classes on Jewish holidays," Stern said.

"If I were God, I would have done the calendar differently, [but] I think the University policy is an extremely fair policy," he added.

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