On March 20, 2012 New York’s Stony Brook University announced that it would no longer cancel
classes on religious holidays. This announcement upset many people.
Now, Temple has been that way for as long as I have attended classes here but until I discovered the article on Stony Brook, it was difficult for me to understand why.
With the Yom Kippur holiday recently passed, and being the proud Jewish owl that I am, this issue has taken a very prevalent position in my mind.
In order to observe my religion’s most important holiday I was forced to skip a lab and not attend a lecture, which then resulted in my stress levels reaching their highest point.
As I frantically searched for a makeup lab to attend my mind drifted to Stony Brook and suddenly I came to terms with my situation. Yes, I was still frustrated, and Yes, I was still angry. But I finally understood why Temple handles religious holidays the way that it does.
Why does it operate that way?
Charles Robins, vice provost of education at Stony Brook defended his university’s decision by saying this: “It’s not that we don’t recognize holidays, It’s that we don’t feel that as a secular and a state institution that we are in a position to decide which holidays to cancel classes for.”
Robins stated many important points throughout that quote that put any arguments that I had to bed.
Let’s start with the phrase “secular state institution.” That, in itself, is the entire frustrating, yet extremely
correct reason for choosing not to cancel classes on holidays. Our country is built on the principle of separation of church and state. Think of the university as state and our religious holidays as church. In other words, according to our forefathers these two are simply not permitted to mix. Why would we want them too? If we combine religion in our universities, that opens up the flood gates for mixing in our government and if we mix in our government who knows the problems that could arise. We are the United States of America, and we are a secular country. Therefore our public universities must operate that way as well.
Now let’s attack the second half of his statement. The, “deciding what to cancel and what to not,” part. This section is also pretty fair. Let’s face it—we live in an age where people take particular joy in victimizing themselves. So it is safe to assume that whoever’s holiday was not chosen for an off day, would go crying discrimination and our universities would constantly be under siege. As inconvenient as it is for those of us who have to cut class, ultimately it is the right decision for our schools.
So now what?
Well, my fellow religious collegiates, it looks like we are doomed to eternal frustration. But it’ll be ok. I can promise you that no one has ever died from a skipped class. So shoot your professor an e-mail a few days before your holiday approaches and go spend time with your family. College will still be here when you get back.