THE JEWISH High Holiday season is underway and many students are still making up work from missed classes. With many Jewish holidays falling on school days, Jewish students are forced to weigh the importance of religious services in lieu of missed class work. The University should not support a particular religion or promote Jewish holidays, but professors should make a concerted effort to accommodate students who must miss class to attend religious services.
Each school at the University has an official attendance policy, but most of them relay the same message. The College's policy states, "Absences traditionally excused are those that occur because of hospitalization, serious illness, death in a student's family, important religious holidays, or authorized University activities." All students are able to declare a religious holiday as an excused absence if they consult their professor in advance. Yet, this is not enough to facilitate student involvement in religious activities. Getting official excuses for absences is useless if work or lecture material missed in class will affect grades.
The College policy statement then delineates professor responsibility: "The instructor is not obligated to allow students to make up missed work; it is the instructor's decision
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