Missing work due to religious reasons

[Hibush]

I confess I too would be most interested to learn what kind of school has three dozen chaplains, and what, ahem, is the scope of religious affiliation held by this assemblage?

A big, historically secular school. So there is room for a lot of things to happen on campus.

The majority of chaplains are various Christian denominations, in addition to the usual Roman Catholic and many Protestant groups, there are Orthodox, Mormon, Christian Science, Korean.

Also major world faiths like Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Bhuddist, Sikh.

On the spiritual-but-not-religious edge there are secular and multifaith chaplains.

In the non-mainstream religious sphere, there is a pagan student group, but they appear to have no chaplain. None for pastafarians (or even rastafarians) and none from the Satanic Temple. I expect there could be, but there just isn't enough demand for their spiritual counsel among the undergraduates.

I don't have a good sense of how interest is spread among students. Obviously the Jewish and Muslim faith groups have been busy the last few weeks, providing comfort for their community members who are feeling under pressure from world and campus events. 

[apl68]

It's not at all hard to see how a large institution could have a need for chaplains and associations to serve many different faith groups.  And yes, the Jewish and Muslim groups have no doubt had a lot to do lately.  As long as they're taking care of their people and not getting in each others' face.

[Hibush]

It's not at all hard to see how a large institution could have a need for chaplains and associations to serve many different faith groups.  And yes, the Jewish and Muslim groups have no doubt had a lot to do lately.  As long as they're taking care of their people and not getting in each others' face.

I hope the chaplains are counseling against that sort of behavior!

As far as I know, protesting students who miss class are not claiming religious reasons. Glad the chaplains are not charged with writing such notes!

[Myword]

Which holiday?  Passover?  Only the most devout, I think, need this excuse.
Sounds like a weak reason. Students should plan around it as their own responsibility.
They have no proof?

Take points off.

[kaysixteen]

Who pays for all these chaplains, and who decides which groups would warrant having a chaplain of theirs hired?

[Ruralguy]

Federal law essentially says you have to accommodate religion. It doesn't say how. My school says it does this, but then gives no direction, so its up to the student to arrange something reasonable with the professor. After the fact declaration doesn't seem reasonable. You could, as a prof, ask for "proof", but what would that mean?  So few students have ever asked for this kind of accommodation here, but those that do so usually do it in a timely manner and without hassle, so I don't give them any guff.

[apl68]

I suppose that the occasional student tries to use alleged "religious reasons" as an excuse for missing work or class.  Wouldn't think this sort of abuse would be very common.  Religion in any form probably isn't even on most of their radars.

[spork]

This is a non-issue:

"All assignments are available from Day 1 of the semester. Plan ahead."

"There are five exams. Lowest exam score is dropped from the calculation of the course grade. There are no make-up exams."

[onthefringe]

This is a non-issue:

"All assignments are available from Day 1 of the semester. Plan ahead."

"There are five exams. Lowest exam score is dropped from the calculation of the course grade. There are no make-up exams."

My state university's religious accommodation policy does not allow us to force students to use a dropped score if they are missing an exam/major assignment due date/ etc for a religious observance. We have to find a way for them to earn the points through some generally equal mechanism that accommodates their religious observance. To be fair, this can include taking an exam a bit early (I have accommodated a student who didn't want to take an early evening exam while fasting during Ramadan by allowing her to take it at 7:00 am the next day right after eating).
 

They get up to three religious observances per semester, and we can't even ask what they are for. The only useful part of the policy is they have to inform us of all requested observances by the end of the second week of class.

The policy was created in response to state level legislation.

[spork]

Welcome to the world of theocratic government.

[Ruralguy]

Spork,

I think you might be jumping to conclusions.

Honestly, I think many schools do this to avoid law suits and trouble with the feds (Title VI?). However, I can see a coalition of the left and right pushing this sort of thing on a local or state level for totally different reasons (from each other that is), in a way that might be somewhat in line with what you are suggesting.