Growing up as children there was a pattern to the holidays from New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Each holiday came with its decor and traditions and as kids, it was another day off, depending on the holiday, a chance to decorate or do fun activities, a wealth of different candy and foods, the opportunity for gifts and spending time with family.
While this would be typical for someone growing up in the United States, there would be different holidays in other areas, such as Bastille Day for the French, Boxing Day for the British Commonwealth and others. In addition, you have other occasions that are viewed as high religious observances such as the examples of Good Friday, Eid al-Fitr and Yom Kippur, among others.
With so many different holidays and observances, it can be confusing to understand the different nuances of each. This confusion raises the question of how the university responds to the needs of students, faculty and staff awho observe such religious holidays.
The university does provide flexibility to the faculty, but the responsibility lies with the student to seek out the necessary accommodation. The critical aspect is planning ahead so that things can be done in advance i.e., the student needs to be aware of the dates up front and speak with his faculty about it. Each religious observance will have a different meaning for the student and he needs to articulate that to his faculty. We as faculty need to be open and accommodating to the different requests. The same can be said for supervisors who also need to be mindful of the needs of their faculty and staff.
This has been a challenge in the past as different students, faculty and staff have faced difficulties when exams, projects or major campus events take place on religious holidays. Some have faced unnecessary obstacles because of the lack of information and understanding. A lot of this happens as a result of the lack of knowledge that the holiday is taking place.
While the University Registrar does an excellent job in providing guidance at the start of the academic year as a reminder to faculty, it is something that needs to be stressed throughout the year.
While the university is accommodating to the needs of the community as it observes certain religious holidays, what happens with other holiday observances?
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The University does a decent job of including the major holidays it's refreshing to be somewhere that honors Lee Jackson Day and MLK day. 4 day weekend FTW!
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Mr. Plaza is right about one thing: It is that time of year where people of all religions come together to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
In all seriousness though, are you getting paid to write these articles Mr. Plaza? As someone who works as the "Special Projects Coordinator for Diversity and Academic Support Services" do your articles represent the official university position or are they your personal opinion?
You first started your position in April of 2009, which coincidentally is when your first article was published.
Your job title isn't mentioned anywhere in this article. There is no need for you or the newspaper to conceal that this is a propaganda piece. It is quite obvious.
All the previous articles you have written have the same theme. I don't blame you for doing your job and writing these propaganda pieces Mr. Plaza, that is what you get paid for after all.
The real malfeasance is with the newspaper for allowing you to pose university propaganda as legitimate articles. If I were the editor I would address this issue before I lost every more credibility.
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For what it is worth his title is in the printed version of the article with Mr Plaza's picture. Not sure why they dont' put it online too.
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http://www.actforamerica.org/index.php/learn/multimedia/video
PC is killing America or hadn't you noticed?
Mass murderers are not a group I wish to include!
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