MARCH 28 • 2024 | 23
will keep Passover and have a
delayed celebration.
“We usually break Passover
with pizza, but because it’s
my graduation, I’m hoping
we scale it up a bit when the
holiday is over,” Saulson said.
MSU HILLEL STEPS UP
According to MSU Hillel,
there are about 3,500 Jewish
students on campus, around
9% of the total student body of
over 39,000 students.
MSU Hillel Executive
Director Robyn
Hughey said plans
are under way to
host its traditional
“finals frenzy”
of making Hillel
the place to hang
out, study and
grab a snack for
its Jewish students. But this
year, there will be an added
Passover twist.
Hughey said that Hillel
may be expecting a larger-
than-usual seder attendance
because of finals and
graduation.
“I am disappointed that
the university is scheduling
(finals and graduation) this
way and has not changed
it,” Hughey said. “However,
I was pleased to see the
online form created in the
provost’s office. It lightens
the load of the student, who
may be apprehensive about
approaching their professor
to ask for an arrangement or
accommodation for finals
because they want to observe
Passover.
“While some students
may be comfortable having
this conversation with their
professors, some are not.
So, I am appreciative of the
provost’s office for this.”
MSU Hillel will provide
kosher-for-Passover meals all
week long, all free of charge
for students. But if students
can decide ahead of time and
go home for seders, there may
be fewer people around the
campus seder table. At press
time, Hughey said it was just
too early to tell.
“Lots of times, we will not
hear from our students who
are signing up for meals until
the last minute,” she said. “
And
in the years since COVID,
when we all learned to work,
study and take finals remotely,
things have become a lot more
flexible. There were some
students last semester who left
campus early because they had
gotten their finals out of the
way ahead of time.
“So, in the end, hopefully,
our Jewish students will be
able to take their finals in a
way that does not conflict with
their Passover observance.”
RELIGIOUS HOLIDAY
OBSERVANCE AT MSU
Yael S. Aronoff, director of
Serling, was
invited to par-
ticipate in the
university’s DEI
strategic planning
committee in
December 2019.
In one of the sub-
committees, she, along with
other members, examined the
religious observance policies
of other universities and had
focus groups with students,
faculty and alumni.
Aronoff said a previous
MSU policy allowed for
people to request a religious
accommodation on an
individual basis. Those
requesting accommodation —
such as rescheduling a test or
a presentation or participating
in a group project — just
needed to notify a professor
two weeks in advance, with
the understanding that a
professor could not ask
further questions about why
the student may need the
religious accommodation.
“Nevertheless, we wanted
to have a strengthened
policy, and this was one of
the accomplishments of this
committee,” said Aronoff,
who is now the chair of the
religious observance policy
implementation committee.
“It was a positive sign that
(President Samuel Stanley)
asked me and the director
of the Muslim Studies
program to participate on this
committee.”
Because of the recom-
mendations from the DEI
strategic planning committee
for a more robust religious
observance policy, a draft
of the recommended policy
eventually was passed by 92%
of the votes by the University
Council in March 2022.
Aronoff said the school now
had a stronger policy because
instead of the responsibility
of knowing the timing of
religious holidays resting
solely on the shoulders of
students, faculty also now
had the information at their
fingertips.
The religious holiday
calendar includes 55 holidays
that faculty members, or
anyone visiting the website,
can click on to learn about the
holidays’ religious significance,
observances, greetings and
foods.
“This is all positive
because this religious holiday
observance website also has
an educational value,” Aronoff
said. “
All faculty must check
in on this calendar as they
plan their syllabi. Faculty,
under the new policy, must
make every effort to avoid
scheduling exams or student
presentations on those
holidays in the calendar
designated as major religious
holidays.”
Aronoff said the 2023-
2024 academic calendar was
established before this new
policy was implemented.
“We tried to convince the
administration to rearrange
the schedule for final exams
so they would not conflict
with the first two days of
Passover, but the university
thought it would be too much
to rearrange hundreds of
finals during those first two
days,” Aronoff said. “We know
this violates the new policy,
but ultimately had to respect
the university’s decision. We
are now helping support our
Jewish students and faculty to
help them work out individual
accommodation requests.”
As Passover moves around
the Gregorian calendar, this is
the latest possible time it can
fall, and such a timing will not
happen for many years, the
university assured.
Robyn
Hughey
Yael S.
Aronoff
Michigan State
University Hillel