UC cuts 2014 winter break by one week to accommodate High Holy Days in September

[mom2collegekids]

<p>Do Asian people in the US typically take off school or miss work for a week for that?</p>

[ucbalumnus]

<p>Re: #80</p>

<p>Not all Asian cultures have the same [lunar</a> new year](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_New_Year]lunar”>Lunar New Year - Wikipedia). Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese lunar new year fall on the same day (at least this year), but that is not the case for many others.</p>

<p>That is aside from the fact that people in the US with such cultural associations usually do not ask for days off then.</p>

[momsquad]

<p>^^ I agree Coolweather! If it’s just a numbers issue then the calendar should be planned around the cultural customs of the largest demographic at UC. As pointed out earlier, the percentage of students benefitting from the later start date is very small- less than 5%- as the timing is only a problem for kids moving into dorms. Yet EVERYONE is affected by the loss of one week of winter break- all undergraduate & graduate students, staff and faculty. </p>

<p>I spent many holidays in my dorm because I didn’t have time to fly home or in foreign countries where the day was not acknowledged. It was survivable because it was a one or two year inconvenience, not an annual event. That’s how most kids from foreign countries with myriad cultural practices cope, they adapt to the academic calendar knowing that it is only a temporary interruption in their lives. </p>

<p>Sally305 you are making your points very clearly-thank you.</p>

[Pizzagirl]

<p>Thanksgiving shifts around every year depending on when that Thursday falls and it doesn’t seem to be a problem.</p>

[SlitheyTove]

<p>I just checked the dates and I see that I’ve gotten the issue wrong. This isn’t a move-in day conflict. It’s a first-day-of-classes problem.</p>

<p>The revised schedule has start of the quarter as Monday Sept 29, and start of instruction on Thursday Oct 2. If the previous schedule moved everything exactly a week earlier, then the start of the quarter would be on Sept 22 and start of instruction would be Sept 25. Sept 25 is the first day of Rosh Hashana. </p>

<p>That’s the problem. It’s an especially difficult day for students and professors (those who are Jewish and who will be going to services) to miss. Even if you’re not Jewish, you probably don’t want to show up for the very first day of class and not have your actual professor there on the very first day of class.</p>

[sally305]

<p>

If it’s just a numbers issue then the calendar should be planned around the cultural customs of the largest demographic at UC. As pointed out earlier, the percentage of students benefitting from the later start date is very small- less than 5%- as the timing is only a problem for kids moving into dorms. Yet EVERYONE is affected by the loss of one week of winter break- all undergraduate & graduate students, staff and faculty.

</p>

<p>Exactly! (And thanks, momsquad.) My son has a summer/winter break warehouse job that he can pick up any time he is back in town. It’s great for a college kid–pays well, nice people, good and substantial hours. This year and last he got home around December 11-13. If he were at one of the UCs during the year they shifted the schedule to get out December 19 to accommodate the Jewish HHDs, he would miss AN ENTIRE WEEK of income that he depends on to get through the school year. HE can’t ask to take his finals early so he can come back home to work. But his work is as important to him as someone else’s services are to them.</p>

<p>Bay, I think your schools have it right. It bugs me to no end that our public schools always have spring break around Easter. Many years, it’s in mid-April, meaning that we have to suffer through all of March without a break and by April it is getting nice and also close to the end of the school year. Some districts around ours have a fixed schedule (i.e., always the last week of March) and I wish we would adopt that too.</p>

<p>Most colleges seem to have their spring breaks in March no matter when Easter is. All the observant Christian college kids who attend services on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter somehow manage. I don’t see the difference.</p>

[sally305]

<p>Pizzagirl, in our school district it is understood that a lot of Jewish kids will be off for the HHDs (more often YK than RH). As far as I know it has not been the policy to close the schools for them, but many sporting and other events are rescheduled each year to accommodate them.</p>

<p>I would also like to add that I think the number of Jews who are actually observant and whose beliefs require them to not work or attend class so they can attend services is far lower than the number who advocate for having the HHDs off. At least among my friends, even those who are only “culturally” Jewish still want to be able to acknowledge the occasions. (So really, they’re not different in that regard from non-practicing Christians wanting Christmas off.)</p>

[Pizzagirl]

<p>But Sally, my D’s school - on the semester system and starts in August so this issue is moot - went that late this year because that’s how the calendar worked out. There’s no right to having a certain length of winter break or a certain start date to the winter break. I have twins who have different schedules because they go to different schools, which impacts our ability to plan for holidays and so forth - but that’s just life.</p>

[Pizzagirl]

<p>The fact that Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are on, well, Sunday means that classes won’t be held on those days. And why don’t we as a society generally hold classes on Sundays? Could it be “accommodating” widespread religious traditions?</p>

<p>FWIW, Good Friday seems to me, at least on the work world, sort of a quasi holiday that enough people take off that I wouldn’t plan anything “big” for it. Likewise, I would think it kind of jerky for a prof to plan something “big” on GF, knowing that it is important to a lot of people.</p>

[Bay]

<p>I just read the article in #81 about the desire for a public school holiday for Lunar New Year, and I don’t get it. If they are simply assigning a date for the holiday (Jan. 31), why not assign a weekend day instead, like the last Saturday in January? Then no one needs to miss school to celebrate with their families.</p>

[sally305]

<p>^I agree that there is no “right” to an exact schedule. But predictability is something people want and expect. If Northwestern suddenly went to semesters rather than quarters (or do they call them trimesters now?), or they alternated semesters and quarters from one year to another, probably everyone but you would be in an uproar. :)</p>

<p>Put another way, I don’t see why my modern-day agnostic kids’ schedule should be subject to the whims of some ancient religious calendar. </p>

<p>

And why don’t we as a society generally hold classes on Sundays? Could it be “accommodating” widespread religious traditions?

</p>

<p>We have many vestiges of earlier times. Where I live cars cannot be sold on Sunday. In some places you can’t buy liquor then either. Our entire school calendar is the outmoded remnant of agrarian society, from when kids had to help on the farm in the summer. Many other countries (Australia is a good example) have school calendars that are entirely different from ours. I would love to blow ours up and start over, and so would a lot of teachers who lament how much kids lose over the three months they are out of school every year.</p>

[Bay]

<p>

The fact that Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are on, well, Sunday means that classes won’t be held on those days. And why don’t we as a society generally hold classes on Sundays? Could it be “accommodating” widespread religious traditions?

</p>

<p>I’m not religious, and my ignorance in that area is going to show here, but my guess is that the original “Easter” and “Palm :)” didn’t actually fall on a Sunday (or perhaps no one knows), but rather were assigned to be celebrated on Sundays. </p>

<p>I’m going to guess that there must be reasons why HHDs cannot be re-calendared to Saturdays and Sundays, or after 5pm on weekdays. Otherwise, it would make sense to do that, imo, like putting Easter on a Sunday.</p>

[Pizzagirl]

<p>To some extent, the very fact that you take a late Dec break - of several weeks’ duration - for granted is due to the whims of an ancient religious calendar! (Yes, we all know Jesus wasn’t born on Dec 25 yada yada) </p>

<p>They still call them quarters!</p>

[stradmom]

<p>

But his work is as important to him as someone else’s services are to them.

</p>

<p>That’s too bad.</p>

[ucbalumnus]

<p>

@sally305

If Northwestern suddenly went to semesters rather than quarters (or do they call them trimesters now?)

</p>

<p>Schools have switched calendars. The Ohio State University switched from quarters to semesters recently.</p>

<p>However, that is a much better change than shifting the calendar by a few days, with notification well in advance.</p>

[sally305]

<p>^Yes, but the difference is that Christmas is the same day every year–it doesn’t randomly move around, and it’s conveniently exactly a week before Jan. 1. Also, our entire economy would likely come crashing to a halt if not for the Q4 sales that lead up to that day. There would be a lot of non-Christian business owners who would freak if we just did away with Christmas.</p>

[mom2collegekids]

<p>There would be a lot of non-Christian business owners who would freak if we just did away with Christmas.</p>

<p>lol…so true. :)</p>

[sally305]

<p>

But his work is as important to him as someone else’s services are to them.</p>

<p>That’s too bad.

</p>

<p>No, it’s not, stradmom. (And anyway, I was referring to the impact on his time/availability to be in school, not suggesting that working in a warehouse is some kind of spiritual experience!)</p>

[momsquad]

<p>SlitheyTove, this is how the issue has been presented by most news outlets:</p>

<p>

Officials said the schedule change was in line with a policy that was issued in 2007 in response to complaints from Jewish families that “move in” days at UC dorms had been held on the Jewish High Holidays. The rules call for shifts in the academic calendar to avoid pressuring Jewish students to possibly violate religious bans against working on those days.

</p>

<p>[Most</a> UC campuses change fall calendar, avoiding Jewish holidays - latimes.com](<a href=“http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uc-calendar-20140114,0,3436601.story#ixzz2qhqiHrpG]Most”>Most UC campuses change fall calendar, avoiding Jewish holidays)</p>

<p>I guess the previous overlap had more to do with move-in days than the 2014 conflict. An older article (1991) has a more in depth discussion of the UC policy on excusing students from exams on days of religious importance:
[No-Exam</a> Policy for Holy Days Raises Ruckus : Religion: New ruling at Cal State Long Beach draws strong praise and strong criticism. - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://articles.latimes.com/1991-04-26/local/me-622_1_cal-state-long-beach]No-Exam”>http://articles.latimes.com/1991-04-26/local/me-622_1_cal-state-long-beach)</p>

<p>

Hayden’s bill, voted into law with little opposition, requires professors at California’s 20 state university campuses, nine University of California campuses and dozens of community colleges to allow a student to take exams at a time that “would not violate the student’s religious creed.”

</p>

<p>And one professor’s reaction, which I think makes some valid points:</p>

<p>

But the policy has been criticized by professors and others at the university.</p>

<p>“I will absolutely not adhere to it,” said Barry Dank, a sociology professor who recently fired off a three-page memo arguing that excusing religious students violates the constitutional separation of church and state by discriminating against those who are not religious. Dank, who says he hopes that his resistance will result in a legal challenge to the law, sent copies of his memo to educators and legislators throughout the state.</p>

<p>“If we excuse them for religious holidays,” he said, “why not Cinco de Mayo or Israeli Independence Day? We should have a single standard. There’s never been a requirement that we respond to the religiosity of students.”

</p>

<p>One more article:
<a href=“http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/14/6070015/university-of-california-calendar.html[/url]”>http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/14/6070015/university-of-california-calendar.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

About 3 percent of UC students systemwide identify themselves as Jewish, though not all of them are observant, according to the University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey from 2010.

</p>

[Pizzagirl]

<p>It is unfortunate the break is shorter. Why couldn’t they have simply started a week earlier? Or start in the middle of the week.</p>