Posted on 03/25/2012 8:25:25 PM PDT by massmike
State University of New York at Stony Brook has decided to no longer cancel classes for major Christian and Jewish holidays in an effort to ensure that some religions are not given special treatment and to "afford equal support and equal respect to students and faculty from all faiths."
Jewish students would be impacted on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover and Holy Week. Christian students would be impacted on Good Friday. The Christmas holiday is protected under a union contract and occurs when classes are traditionally not in session.
"As a secular university, as a state-funded university our priority must be to maximize instructional opportunities for our students," said Charles Robbins, vice provost for undergraduate education
Robbins told FOX News Radio the university's decision to stop canceling classes for Christian and Jewish holidays offers "equal protection under the regulations to everybody and no one is getting quote, unquote, special treatment."
However, Stonybrook University’s 24,100 undergraduate and graduate students are not as religiously diverse as the vice provost said. According to a report in The Jewish Week, 26 percent consider themselves Roman Catholic, 24 percent consider themselves other Christian, eight percent are Muslim, five percent are Jewish, and five percent are Hindu
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Let me guess that Muslims will be able to leave class and fall on their faces several times a day and not be worried about anything.
Funny how they'll challenge religion but won't challenge the unions.......
College is big school....like work....you don’t get off for religious holidays. Suck it up!!
That’s racist! Or something....right? sarc
Step by step... remove faith and replace with big gov’t dependence.
...and summer break!
Most govt offices close or at least work at skeletal crews for Good Friday. In NYC and environs the public schools have closed for Rosh Hoshanah and Yom Kippur for as long as I can remember (and that exceeds 50 years). Wall Street and the rest of the city is empty. The only reason schools are already closed for Christmas is that “Winter Break” was based around, and a way to avoid using the word, “Christmas.” Let’s see how long these traditions last.
...and New Years Day!
More PC insanity.
Do we REALLY need to know any more?
“There are thousands of religions but this country was founded on the Judeo-Christian ethos,” Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League,said. “No one should be apologetic about it. It’s just a matter of giving due tribute to the heritage and the legacy of western civilization. So that argument doesn’t work either.”
Passover has never been a “take a day off to go to shual” holiday. You observe it at dinner time and through what you eat. That’s about it.
“Holy Week”. Never heard of it.
Only Rosh Hashanoh, the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, require one to be in the synagogue for specific services.
SUNY has long been one of the NY state university system’s most leftist schools (CUNY, Stonybrook and a few others follow as key leftist strongholds).
More liberal leftist PC BS, on your dime.
I have no problem with school being held on religious holy days.
It’s fair to all and student who wants to stay home can be considered absent,or in the case of staff they would be taking a personal day.
What on earth is the big deal?
Since Jews are required to observe something like 15 days of holidays where ‘work’ is prohibited, I’d be surprised if any secular institution took all of them off. I believe the practice is to observe a couple of Jewish holidays as a token. Observant Jews are used to dealing with such situations so, no, it isn’t a big deal.
The person that wrote this item obviously is confused or doesn’t know that Holy Week is a Christian, not a Jewish, observance. Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter.
And I am 100 percent sure that if Easter was not on a Sunday, but on a school day, this outfit and others like it would definitely hold classes on it just to stick it to Christians.
It’s quite obvious that their justice for all religions only goes so far. I dare them to deny the unions and hold classes on Christmas. Better yet, include this in their recruiting brochures: “Forced Classes on Christmas” —all in the name of justice. Competing universities should use this in their brochures: “No Classes on Christmas, unlike SUNY”.
Maybe they should go to school seven days a week and twenty four hours a day to not show favoritism to any person or group!!
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