ALBANY, NEW YORK, July 21, 2006: Sikh, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, and Christian — each faith has its holy days and schools across the country are asking how to respect them all. Consider the University at Albany, New York, which canceled classes on major Muslim holidays. The faculty wanted the move out of concern for Muslim students after the Sept. 11 attacks. But then came the questions: What about Hindus? Buddhists? University President Kermit Hall last fall decided to return to the original calendar. “Can you operate a university and give each religious group an accommodation? I think the answer is, ‘No,'” he said. Make that “maybe.” School administrators across the country are rethinking their calendars as their student bodies become more diverse.
Some school districts now mark “special observance days” when no exams can be scheduled. Other districts find inspiration in the business world — each student gets a number of “floating” days to celebrate his or her own holidays with an excused absence.'”Choose your own holiday’ has become more popular,” said Kathryn Lohre, assistant director of Harvard University’s Pluralism Project, which studies diversity in religion. “It takes pressure off the school boards.” New Jersey’s board of education now lists 76 excused religious holidays, from Russian Orthodox to Sikh. New York City schools are even more flexible. Students with a letter from parents get an excused absence for a holiday in any religion.