Policy not made known

Thanks to a new University policy, religion and IU can now peacefully coexist. Too bad many students didn't know about the new religious observation requirements.\nIU recently implemented a policy requiring students to turn in a form to professors to document that they will miss class for a religious holiday.\nThe University should be applauded for the policy. Students now have a way to document their religious absences from class, professors can now be more prepared for the holidays students will miss.\nStudents had to pick up forms from the Dean of Faculties Office, Dean of Students Office, the Hillel Center or some department offices.\nBut the good efforts of the administration were bogged down by two problems.\nFirst, word didn't spread far or fast enough. Many professors did not mention the policy and many students didn't know about it.\nWithout enough notice to students, the policy didn't work to the its full potential.\nSecond, there wasn't enough time to fill in forms once the word got out.\nThe policy set a University-wide deadline for the forms to be handed in to professors. That deadline hit students, two weeks after the start of classes.\nTwo weeks into school, many students are still trying to remember their class schedule and adjust to student life. Even if the majority of students had known about the policy, that doesn't give students nearly enough time to plan ahead to get the form, fill one form out for each class and hand them in.\nThe University should have better publicized the new policy, ensuring students would hear about it from both professors and from administration. There was no e-mail. There were very few announcements. And there wasn't enough time. \nHopefully, the University can work out the kinks in the new religious holiday policy by next semester, giving students enough time to pick up and fill out the forms now that they know about it.