Stony Brook Calendar Changes Trample On Religious Privilege

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

Stony Brook University (SBU), in an effort to “maximum instruction for students in the most efficient and effective manner,” will no longer cancel classes on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and will not include Good Friday and Passover in their spring break. The American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) has sent a letter to Dr. Samuel L. Stanley, Jr., President of SBU, threatening noting that ACLJ attorneys have argued before the Supreme Court.

Many others are saying SBU’s new calendar strongly signals a hostility toward religious privilege.

The new spring break will fall at the more logical seven-week point in the semester instead of the twelve-week point, giving students more time to finish regular classes and study for finals.

Although finals are scheduled on weekdays, some Jewish students, out of the eight percent student population of 25,000, may choose to miss classes on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The administration found it hard to justify canceling classes for the religious holidays of only one religion.

Rush Limbaugh is about to explode.

SBU can find ways to accommodate those students who choose to skip classes on religious holidays other than canceling classes for everyone. In an environment of diverse religious holidays, all clamoring for equal cancellation of classes, SBU has taken the only rational path. It is understandable that those religions, that have lost the prestige of being favored by the cancellation of classes, would feel slighted.

H/T: Howard Friedman, Christian Post, WaPo, Stony Brook Press, NY Patch.