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

