<p>Didn't know about the policy until this year, but UC moves semester and quarter calendars around to accommodate Muslim and Jewish holidays. Kids at campuses on quarter system will start one week later in Fall 2014 (October 2) and have one week cut from the usual 3 week winter break to avoid move-in during Jewish High Holy Days. Do other campuses do this too? I've got nothing against it, but who determines which religions will be recognized in this way?</p>
<p>Hmmm, is it that unusual to minimize conflict with religious holidays that significant numbers of students and staff may be interested in observing?</p>
<p>For example, colleges in the US tend not to have classes or final exams on December 25 due to a significant number of (western) Christians attending (Yeshiva University is a rare exception).</p>
<p>I remember a few years back when UC move-in was right on one of the high holy days. People were furious with the scheduling. There were a lot of late move-ins. </p>
<p>The percentage of Muslim students at UC Irvine is (according to one web source) 8%; the percentage of Jewish students at UCLA is 9%. Those percentages will be lower at many of the other UC campuses, but I’d guess that when around 10% of the population is a specific religion, that’s the tipping point.</p>
<p>Students would never have classes on Easter or Christmas. It’s become longstanding tradition for schools to break in the winter at a time when the Christmas holiday falls. Can you imagine the outburst if schools suddenly changed winter break to run from December 1st to December 20th? </p>
<p>These extremely important religious holy days referenced above sometimes fall on weekdays. I can tell you that Northwestern University outside Chicago has “tweaked” it’s start-up schedule when necessary because of these holy days.</p>
<p>I’m not really a fan of public universities taking time off for religious, non-Federal holidays. </p>
<p>UCB, Christmas is a federal holiday so the university is closed anyway. Most universities are done before December 25th for winter holiday.</p>
<p>Easter is on a Sunday so that’s moot. At my public undergrad, I have had online classes with assignments due on Easter. There is class on Good Friday.</p>
<p>It appears that the UC calendar shift was only done at the quarter system campuses, where the calendar shift was probably cost-free. The semester system campuses do not appear to have any special calendar accommodations during September 24 to October 4, 2014.</p>
<p>They’re not taking time off. They’re adjusting the start date of school. </p>
<p>Many public K-12 schools in our SoCal metro area close on the Jewish High Holidays. Makes sense: they’d lose a ton of money from daily attendance funds because many students would take the day off, and many teachers would be absent. Similarly, several school districts in the area have a 3 week winter break and a 1 week spring break. That’s because there are a significant number of immigrant families who plan for a long home visit over Christmas, and take three weeks even if it means their children miss a week of school. Again, that impacts attendance funds from the state. Easier to tweak the schedule to match family vacation patterns.</p>
<p>I was in high school when the public schools in my state decided to close for the Jewish high holy days.</p>
<p>The reason: too many teachers needed those days off, and it was difficult to find enough qualified substitutes. </p>
<p>I suspect the same situation applies here. The problem is most likely that a large number of faculty and staff need time off on the religious holidays, and this disrupts the operations of the universities. Absent students are not very difficult to accommodate, but absent employees can be a much more serious problem.</p>
<p>Most schools in Louisiana are off for Mardi Gras, which is most assuredly not a federal holiday. I’m not sure why the determining factor should be federal holidays. Aren’t there a fair number of federal holidays during which many students are in school?</p>
<p>I thought they had turned Washington’s Birthday into President’s Day? </p>
<p>Do colleges in other places have a day off for that holiday? Or Columbus or Veteran’s Day? Around here there are not typically school holidays for those days. </p>
<p>And there’s no Federal spring break either. :)</p>
<p>No. Back in the olde days the holiday was always observed on Feb 22nd - Washington’s actual birthday. Some places also observed Lincoln’s birthday which falls 10 days earlier, but that was never a federal holiday. Back in the 70’s there was a move by congress to create as many 3-day weekend holidays as they reasonably could. So all federal holidays came unstuck from their traditional dates to make this happen - with the exception of Independence Day and Christmas Day which were too closely associated with their respective dates to tamper with.</p>
<p>Well, President Nixon took advantage of this change to declare, not by law but by presidential decree, that Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays would be combined into a single holiday called “Presidents Day.” And he sort of scooped in the thought of honoring all presidents on that day, which would of course include himself. But Congress never changed the law to go along with that order, so the legal name of that holiday to this day remains “George Washington’s Birthday.”</p>
<p>Some kids may appreciate the extended summer break if they have jobs. It’s the shortened winter break that may trouble students who are accustomed to 3 weeks off for travel or work.</p>
<p>So all federal holidays came unstuck from their traditional dates to make this happen - with the exception of Independence Day and Christmas Day which were too closely associated with their respective dates to tamper with</p>
<p>Vet. day is always 11/11 too, not necessarily a Monday, and Thanksgiving is always a Thursday, so only 6 of the 10 holidays are Mondays. Some states (and a few cities) have their own holidays where state workers are off. Some have more, some fewer. Maryland had 15 holidays when I worked there, including Maryland day and Defender’s day (don’t even know what that was for).</p>
<p>Time off for religious holidays? Not a fan. I see Christmas as more or less a national holiday ( I think most people do not observe the religious meaning). Easter and Good Friday are religious…if one religion gets days off, so should others (believe it or not, Good Friday is more important than Christmas in the religious sense).</p>
<p>Good Friday is a state holiday in Louisiana. There is a point at which enough people observe the religious holiday that it just makes sense. For most religious holidays that’s going to vary by region. Louisiana is very Christian and in particular very Catholic, so a lot of people would take the day off regardless. </p>
<p>I think Christmas is at least somewhat religious for most people who observe it. But that probably varies by region too.</p>
<p>There are still plenty of private businesses and firms here in SoCal where the office closes early on Good Friday. </p>
<p>It’s a pragmatic issue. Will there be a lot of employees/students taking off for a specific holiday? If yes, then the business or school will close because it’s easier than trying to manage with 10% or more of your staff/customers missing.</p>
<p>As the number of Americans with a heretofore “minority” religious creed rises, were going to see either conflict or accommodation on this issue. New York City has been struggling with requests from Muslim parents and teachers for years, trying to strike a balance between requests for new holidays and the already crowded NYC School Holiday calendar.</p>
<p>As for the feds, keep in mind folks that in fact federal holidays are essentially just “suggestions” for state and local authorities to emulate. Our federal government cannot force anyone to observe a holiday. Remember, for years Arizona was a holdout when it came to MLK Day. Thus, if any public institution wants to operate on Christmas Day etc., they are free to do so. Not a popular decision, undoubtedly.</p>