On Eid al-Adha, which took place Sept. 12, senior Fariha Hossain sat in class and took notes while her family members from various states gathered in her home and celebrated the holiday.
With holidays like Hanukkah and Eid falling outside normal breaks in the semester, students may find themselves spending their religious holidays on campus or in class.
They can choose to fill out a Religious Observances Request for Accommodation form, but the material missed and guilt of skipping class often keeps students in the classroom instead of at home celebrating with family.
“There’s a lot of work that you have to make up,” Hossain said. “There’s a lot of material you can miss in one day if you don’t go.”
Hossain said these reasons often stop students from requesting the day off. The feeling of guilt is inevitable, she said.
“It’s a lose-lose situation.” Hossain said. “You feel guilty if you’re going to class on a day where you’re supposed to celebrate, but you also feel guilty if you’re skipping class.”
To observe a three-day holiday like Eid fully, a lot of classes would be missed, which would make it nearly impossible to celebrate for the full three days.
“You only get the option of treating one day like your holiday,” Hossain said.
If students wish to be excused from class for multiple-day holidays, accommodations can be made for holidays listed on the IU Religious Observances Calendar, said Eliza Pavalko, vice provost for faculty and academic affairs.
The Religious Observances Request for Accommodation form can be inconvenient to fill out, Hossain said.
She said she finds the fact that the form must be submitted within the first two weeks of the semester inconvenient as well.
Pavalko said this two week deadline is to ensure there is enough time for planning how to provide an accommodation for an assignment or exam.
These plans may be affected by different factors, such as how many students from the class are requesting an accommodation.
“For example, in some cases, the professor might decide to change the due date of the assignment for all students, but it would be important for students to know that as early as possible in the semester,” Pavalko said.
This year, Hossain said she had four classes the Monday that Eid began and decided to skip the first two. Her professor allowed her to make up her physics lab by doing it Tuesday instead.
“They’re usually accommodating,” Hossain said. “It’s also about how you tell them, when you tell them and stuff like that.”
Pavalko said she sees very few cases where the professor and the student are unable to resolve the reasonable accommodation request.
Students can request these dates off and go to see their family, but Pavalko said travel time for those going out of town for a religious observance is not covered under the policy.
Hossain said she has seen students travel eight hours round trip just to see their family on the holiday.
Currently, the IU calendar coincides with the Christian calendar and allows students to have the days leading up to and after Christmas off.
This allows for travel time and time with family that other religious minorities do not always get.
“I have relatives coming in from out of state, and they’re all in my house,” Hossain said. “I’m sitting here having to go to class.”
For the past four years, she has been unable to spend Eid with her family.
At home she would typically go to morning prayer and then visit friends and family throughout the holiday.
Hossain said a variety of similar activities are available on campus for students.
This year, the Muslim Student Association, Pakistani Student Association and other groups set up places and events for students to come get food throughout the day or participate in a game night to celebrate the holiday, Hossain said.
While she said she wishes she could go back home to her family, she said she enjoys getting to spend the holiday doing a variety of activities with friends.
“People are always willing to celebrate,” Hossain said.
