Religious observance policy allows students to reschedule, says administration
Hufsa Tahir
Staff Writer
@excalweb
York students planning on celebrating the Easter weekend may find themselves cramming for an exam instead.
Despite the fact that Easter Monday is recognized as a religious date on the York Registrar’s Office website, exams have been scheduled for April 9.
Haniya Khan, a second-year humanities and concurrent education student, believes York should not schedule exams on those dates.
“It’s unfair for students who celebrate Easter,” she points out. “They can’t really celebrate [with Easter Monday exams].”
She adds that public schools get Easter Monday off, and that certain transit systems run on a holiday schedule on Easter Monday.
“If it’s a public holiday, why should York schedule exams [on that day]?” she questions. “What about people who use buses to get to school?”
But religious concerns, says Joanne Duklas of enrolment management, are exactly why York has a religious observance policy.
This policy states that York is committed to accommodating for religious dates. This means that students may bring forward issues concerning Easter Monday exam attendance with their professors to schedule an alternate date .
However, not many students are aware of this fact, says Duklas.
“We did try to do what we can,” she says. “There are other religious holidays, like Passover, which spans more than one day, and we have to schedule around that.”
The scheduling of exams on Easter Monday, she explains, is a Senate policy. No exams have been scheduled over the Easter weekend.
John Lee, a fourth-year psychology major, holds a more critical view of Easter Monday.
“It’s not really a religious holiday,” he maintains. “If York has a good reason for it, then it’s okay.”
He believes that while professors should let students know about the policy, there is a bigger chance that the policy for religious leniency will be abused by opportunists.
“Not many people are very religious,” says Lee. “I’m sure that people can twist it around for their purposes, pretend they are Christian one day, Jewish later on.”
A full list of religious dates for the year is available on the York website under “Religious Observance Dates 2012.”
