Some students find it difficult to miss class for holidays

Joan Friedenberg, a linguistics professor and former leader at the Hillel Foundation, had filed a complaint of religious discrimination act against SIUC with the Affirmative Action Committee in the Fall 2000, but still hasn’t seen any action from the SIUC administration.

“I’ve tried everything I know to do besides sue them,” Friedenberg said.

Over her years at SIUC, Friedenberg has taken action and made her thoughts know to the University about the issue of religious tolerance on the campus.

While some students complain about certain professor’s intolerance of religious holidays, others have found Southern Illinois University-Carbondale to be a very open and religiously acceptable public institution.

Carla Coppi, the associate director of International Students and Scholars says she has not heard a single complaint from the international students she oversees on the issue of religious observances and tolerance.

“I’ve been here for 21 years and I have not heard any complaints or concerns from any of my international students about failure to celebrate diversity, especially religious diversity on campus,” Coppi said. “I think that’s a good indicator to me that at least my constituency group is not displeased.”

Coppi also said that she has always found the University, and especially the community, to be open and accepting place for international students.

But Friedenberg said she hears of at least three complaints a year about students not being able to celebrate their respected holidays. She said there are probably more out there who just decide to not complain and go to class in order to avoid trouble.

The policy states, “students absent from classes because of observations of major religious holidays will be excused,” as long as students notify the instructor within three class periods.

The policy also requests that instructors “not schedule class examinations on dates that would conflict with major religious holidays.”

According to the policy, if a test does fall on the day of a major holiday, then the student is allotted reasonable time to make up the test.

In the instance of admissions and registration, the University states that it’s “admissions process provides ample opportunity for admission and registration activities without conflicting with religious holidays and observances,” and that it allows student to receive another appointment if necessary.

Due to what she calls a lack of enforcement, Friedenberg has become very frustrated with the policy.

“It has gotten worse, in my opinion,” Friedenberg said. “I finally filed a religious discrimination complaint so I could hopefully get something accomplished.”

She filed the complaint with the Affirmative Action Office. Where upon receiving it, the office formed a committee to address the issue. The committee created a booklet outlying certain religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. Under each religion is a brief description of its beliefs, how followers pray, and the diet they adhere to.

But Friedenberg doesn’t believe this is enough.

“It was absolutely useless,” Friedenberg said. “It doesn’t say any of the important things which instigated my complaints in the first place – to be allowed time off for religious holidays.”

Provost John Dunn said that the University is highly sensitive to religious tolerance and has tried to make provisions in order to make sure everyone at the University felt included, regardless of their religious affiliation.

“We are a campus that values the beliefs of many people, even those who choose not to have a particular practice,” Dunn said. “We recognize all this as an inclusive University, and we are respectful in all directions of the many beliefs people have.”

Over the past eight years, Freidenberg has been recruiting Jewish students to SIUC, mainly from the Chicago area. Before heading out to the college fairs, she made a list of “10 Things SIU Promises to Jewish Students and Their Families”.

In return for her efforts, Friedenberg asked the University to serve traditional food on the holidays and inform instructors and faculty of when religious holidays are by a campus-wide email or memo.

Friedenberg said she has not seen any of her requests come to fruition. As a result, she has stopped her recruitment efforts.

Over the 11 years that Friedenberg has worked at SIUC and the Hillel Foundation, she has run into many instances of students not being able to attend synagogue or celebrate their most holy of holidays because of a student’s obligation to class work.

“I have had students come up to me on the high holy days asking me to write a note saying that I have seen them at synagogue,” Friedenberg said.

“Even the most progressive and enlightened faculty need to be told by the administration what the policy is, and when they should apply it.”

Leonard Gross, a law professor and a member of the Jewish Federation, said that the allowance and interpretation of the policy has been very inconsistent.

“The faculty do not know what the policy is, so some faculty will allow the day to be made up and the other faculty don’t really give the student any consideration,” Gross said. “It is very much hit and miss in part because the faculty don’t know what the University policy is and it is not forced uniformly.”

Gross, like Friedenberg, believes that a simple letter sent to the faculty reminding them of the holidays and how they should be enforced could solve the problem.

The students have also had mixed views on how, or if the policy is being enforced.

Penni Jess, a senior studying public relations from Buffalo Grove, Ill., has been affected by the religious observance policy and as a result has petitioned the head of the department

After hearing of the attendance rule in one of her classes, Jess was afraid that she could be penalized for not attending classes during two holy days of the Jewish calendar.

The instructor would not allow excused absences because she did not want to be the judge of what was excusable or inexcusable, and gave three absences for the semester, which the student could take at their own digression.

“I didn’t want to make it into a huge deal and settle it as easily as I could since I still have to be in the professor’s class for the rest of the semester,” Jess said. “But I still wanted to get what I needed to get taken care of.”

Eventually, the professor and Jess worked things out together and the issue was resolved.

Friedenberg says the frequency of these situations happening every year is quite common, but Jess has been the only one she has known to petition.

Friedenberg added that many are afraid of the University possibly “retaliating” against those who speak out.

“Penni is the only one I’ve met that is brave enough to do that,” Friedenberg said.

However Wan Kamal Wan Napi, the president of the International Student Council and a Muslim from Malaysia, said that he has not had problems observing his religious holidays.

“I would just let my professor know that I had to go because today I have celebrate my holiday.”

According to Wan Napi, neither him nor his other friends who practice Islam, Hinduism or Judaism have had problems missing their classes.

Wan Napi believes that the community and SIUC have made many accommodations for the Muslim community, including providing a room and restroom in order to prepare for prayer in the Student Center every Friday.

Dunn said that he believes this university has tried to make every concession to accommodate those of different religions and cultures.

“This is our university.” Dunn said. “Certainly we want to get things right and make sure that people feel comfortable here and when we don’t we need to let them know that we are sorry and correct it.”