Religious Holiday Policy
Per college policy, no student is required to take an examination or fulfill other scheduled course requirements on recognized major religious holidays and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Please make it clear to your students what your policy is about the potential conflicts between course requirements and religious holidays. They should be made aware of any make-up options in your courses. Please note that Jewish holidays require the cessation of work for the entire day, not just during the time the services are being held.
The academic calendar includes some religious holidays which fall during the academic year. The College encourages instructors to avoid scheduling examinations on these days:
2009
Rosh Hashanah--begins at sunset on Fri., Sept. 18 and concludes at sunset on Sun., Sept. 20.
Yom Kippur--begins at sunset on Sun., Sept. 27 and concludes at sunset on Mon., Sept. 28.
2010
Passover--begins at sunset on Tues., March 30 (exams before 5pm are permissible) and concludes at sunset Tues., April 6.
Good Friday--Fri., April 2.
Easter--Sun., April 4.
I ask you to also be aware of the following:
Ramadan begins at first light on Fri., Aug. 21 and ends at last light on Sun., Sept. 20. Diwali is on Sat., Oct 17.
As our student body becomes more diverse, it is increasingly important that we, as a multicultural community, accommodate students from a variety of religious backgrounds who wish to observe religious holidays. While it is not feasible to schedule coursework around all religious holidays for a class as a whole, please try to honor requests from individual students to reschedule assignments and to be absent from classes that conflict with observances of a major religious holiday, and to let students know that this is an option.
Other Holidays:
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day--Mon., Jan. 18
Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving vacation begins at 8:00 a.m. on Wed. November 25. The policy adopted by the faculty includes a provision for rescheduling the "lost" Wednesday classes. Classes will be rescheduled on a class-by-class basis by the course instructor. Reading period may be used to make up this regular class period. For those who teach on Monday and Tuesday, please refrain from canceling classes during Thanksgiving week.