APRIL 11 • 2024 | 29
minority that must grapple
with juggling exam schedules
and religious observance, from
the notion of rescheduling
exams or for finding non-
Jewish faculty or graduate
students who can step in and
proctor exams so Jewish faculty
could take off.
“
At Oakland University, there
is now a task force made up
of faculty and students and
staff taking a closer look at
the future academic calendar
and how it will work out in
terms of taking off for religious
holidays,” White assured. “They
realize there is an issue here
and they are stepping it up.”
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
At the University of Michigan,
Hillel officials have been
working with the university
on its DEI 2.0 strategic plan
to minimize class instruction
or finals during major Jewish
holidays. This year, the finals
schedule at U-M does not
clash with the first days of
Passover, but there are exams
scheduled for the later part of
the holiday.
Mike Morland, director
of communications and
marketing for U-M’s Office
of Diversity, Equity and
Inclusion, said the Office of
the Provost at the University
of Michigan regularly
disseminates a religious
calendar to all schools and
colleges each academic
term. This is accompanied
by educational messaging
aimed at fostering awareness
surrounding religious holidays
that fall within that term and
advocating for appropriate
accommodations and
flexibility.
“
Although the University
of Michigan does not observe
religious holidays, it has
long been the university’s
policy that every reasonable
effort should be made to
help students avoid negative
academic consequences when
their religious obligations
conflict with academic
requirements,” Morland said.
“This longstanding practice
predates the implementation
of the university’s DEI 2.0
strategic plan. The current plan
is poised to further bolster and
amplify such messaging and
recommended practices across
all university units.”
WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY
Wayne State University has
also scheduled finals during
the week of Passover, noting on
its online academic calendar
that the university is aware of
the timing of finals with the
religious holiday, which it listed
as having “work restrictions.”
Tania Miller, 23, a WSU
senior majoring in nursing,
said there has not been a single
year when finals were not
scheduled sometime around
Passover. Instead of asking
professors for accommodation
or to take finals at a different
time, she has just learned to
consider it the norm and deal
with it. A resident of Detroit,
Miller will be spending one
seder with her family in
Franklin and the other seder
with her boyfriend’s family.
“This is my fifth year at
Wayne State and every year
since I’ve been here, finals
have fallen out on a few of
the days of Pesach,” Miller
said. “The number of classes
I’ve had during holidays,
including Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur, that I’ve had
to navigate, are many. I have
had very few situations where
teachers were not willing to
accommodate, and they are
usually good about it. It’s just
that this year, finals fall across
the entire eight-day span of the
holiday.”
Miller said it bothered her at
first during her first years, but
she just got used to navigating
juggling between classes and
religious observances.
“I am Conservative, but I
understand how this affects
observant, Orthodox students,”
Miller said. “I would hope
that institutions would take
(the religious observances)
of all students into account
when planning their academic
calendars.”
Oakland
University
University of
Michigan