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Religious Holidays
When planning ahead it is useful for faculty, staff and students to remember
the rich mixture of religious and ethnic groups that make up our Indiana
University population. The Dean of Faculties office is providing this
list of religious holidays, some of which occur during the academic year
for certain religious and ethnic communities. A multi-year calendar, as
well as links to other religious holiday sites is available on the Five-Year
Religious Holidays Calendar. This list is not exhaustive, nor does
the observance of all the holidays merit or require absence from class.
Please, also review the Schedule
of Classes for academic calendar information.
The Bloomington campus of Indiana University’s academic calendar
is determined by the Calendar Committee. These dates are printed in the
“Schedule of Classes” each semester and can be found at: http://registrar.indiana.edu/reg_schedadj.html.
While the instructional calendar does allow for numerous holidays to be
observed, there remain potential conflicts. To ensure freedom of religious
observance throughout our increasingly diverse population, a set of Calendar
Principles were approved by the Bloomington Faculty Council, including
a Religious Holidays Policy.
The current guidelines are the result of lengthy faculty discourse as
to the just and appropriate way to deal with our increasingly diverse
population, while attempting to strike a reasonable balance between accommodating
religious observance and meeting academic needs and standards. This policy
requires instructors to make reasonable accommodation when a student must
miss an exam or other academic exercise because of a required religious
observance. A procedure is outlined for students requesting an accommodation.
Policy Examples and Exceptions:
- Faculty do not have to consider accommodations for the purpose of
allowing students to travel away from Bloomington for a religious observance.
- Any student who is unable to attend classes or participate in any
examination, study, or work requirement on some particular day(s) because
of their religious beliefs (his/her) must be given the opportunity to
make up the work which was missed, provided that the makeup work does
not create an unreasonable burden upon Indiana University. Upon request
and timely notice, students shall be provided reasonable accommodation.
- The University will not levy fees or charges of any kind when allowing
for the student to make up missed work. In addition, no adverse or prejudicial
effects should result to students because they have made use of these
provisions.
- Attendance policies allowing for a specific number of dates to be
missed without impact on a student’s grade should not count within
that number absences for religious observance. Making accommodations
requires faculty and students to find suitable accommodation to cover
the material from the course and complete all required work, including
exams. It is not an appropriate accommodation to permit a student to
not complete a portion of material from the course, or to miss an exam,
and simply reduce that student’s grade.
- Under IU policy, students are required to request accommodation for
religious observance before, not after, it occurs (the deadline for
such requests suggested by the policy is the end of the second week
of a regular semester, though instructors can extend that deadline if
they wish). Instructors should include information about accommodation
and the deadline for requesting it in their syllabi. But students are
not required to supply evidence of their attendance at the religious
services or events in order to qualify for any accommodation granted
to them.
- Chairs and supervisors of Associate Instructors and all other instructional
personnel have a responsibility to ensure compliance with this policy.
It is an appropriate, indeed a necessary, policy for an increasingly
diverse institution like Indiana University.
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Accommodation Request Form
The Accommodation Request form that students can complete to request
accommodations is on the website, at http://www.indiana.edu/~deanfac/download/rel_obs.html#holreq.
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Recommended Accommodations
To assist instructors and students in their planning, the Dean of Faculties
Office encourages instructors to do the following in the beginning of
the semester:
- announce dates and times for examinations and other major course obligations
as early as possible;
- instruct students to let them know of conflicts very early in the
semester, so that accommodations can be made (syllabus).
- provide students with the address for the Dean of Faculties web page
containing the policy and accommodations request form.
- Violation of this policy by instructors should be construed as an
impediment to effective teaching.
- If after discussion, the instructor and student cannot agree on an
accommodation, either or both should seek the advice of the Dean
of the Faculties Office.
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Bloomington Faculty Council Circular
For further information on accommodating religious observances, see the
Bloomington Faculty
Council Circular B22-2000.
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