University calendars have deep ties to the history of Christianity in the United States, as well as its presence as a majority religious demographic. It’s difficult to imagine a college winter break that didn’t coincide with Christmas, or a spring break that didn’t include Easter.
According to the Pew Research Center, 70.6% of Americans belong to a subset of Christianity. In San Luis Obispo, the population is also majority Christian, with the largest religious groups being Catholics at 20% and Evangelical Protestants at 11% of the total population, as of 2020.
Steph Sussman is the president of Chabad — a local Jewish organization that serves Cal Poly and the surrounding community — and has seen firsthand how students of minority religious backgrounds are impacted by our university calendar.
“I can email a professor as many times as I want, but they might not get the memo that I’m not going to come to class because it’s the holiest day of the year,” Sussman said.
As college students of different religious backgrounds around the country have begun to ask for more recognition of significant holidays, the discussion has arisen at universities like Cal Poly of how every student, of any religious background, can receive the same respect for their holy days.
Rabbi Chaim Hilel is director of SLO Chabad, and has worked to support Cal Poly’s Jewish student community since 2009. Right now, his focus has been working with the university to make the calendar more flexible and inclusive to specifically Jewish students.
“The biggest challenge is the beginning of the school year and then sometimes spring break,” Hilel said. “The Jewish New Year and High Holidays are always the same time as school starts, in September and October.”
With Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur falling ten days apart around the first week of school, students are faced with the choice between going to class or observing a holiday significant to their faith.
“We can’t have Jewish students missing this much class, especially when there are professors who have an add and drop policy where they can drop students if they don’t show up on the first day,” Sussman said.
For other students belonging to minority religious faiths on campus, there is a similar longing for acknowledgement of their holy days.
Iyad Jamaly is the president of the Muslim Student Association, and shared that growing up, he would always miss school on Eid al-Fitr, a significant Muslim holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
“Growing up as a Muslim, the only days that my parents called me out of school were religious holidays such as Eid al-Fitr,” Jamaly said. “My parents made it their goal to ensure that I was familiar with and enjoyed Muslim holidays as they acknowledge it can be difficult seeing my friends celebrating Christmas and other holidays that we didn’t participate in. In a way, it was as if they were saying that we have holidays too, even if they aren’t formally recognized by educational institutions.”
In college, this holiday remains un-accommodated by Cal Poly’s schedule, causing the potential for Muslim students to miss school on one of their most significant holy days.
According to religious studies professor Stephen Lloyd-Moffett, the last couple years have brought a push for recognition of different religious holidays, and to do so, the university has published a multicultural religious calendar.
“The goal there is to disseminate it among faculty, so that if some student comes in and says ‘Hey, I’m going to be gone because my family celebrates Navarati (A Hindu festival celebrating the goddess Durga), then they can know that Cal Poly recognizes the day,” Lloyd-Moffett said.
Although the President’s Office informs professors of these holidays, Hilel said there still have been issues with professors dropping students who have missed the first day of school due to observing the holidays. This is especially difficult for freshmen, who may not know how to advocate for themselves.
“Especially if you are a freshman and you don’t really know the system yet and you don’t know you can reach out to professors,” Hilel said. “As a freshman you don’t want to make waves.”
Harvir Kalkat is the president of the Sikh Student Association, and said many holidays in the Sikh faith don’t align with the university calendar. Additionally, many holidays hold different importance to different Sikh individuals within the same tradition.
“For the most part, the holidays that are most significant to us don’t perfectly align with a lot of school holidays,” Kalkat said. “We do have things in November when we get Thanksgiving break which helps out a bit, and is quickly followed by December. With winter breaks you do get some time to be around your community and go to our temples.”
For Sikh students, existence in San Luis Obispo poses an additional challenge. According to Kalkat, the nearest Gurdwaras — or Sikh temples — are located in Ventura and Bakersfield. So when Sikh holidays fall during quarters of school, students don’t have the ability to travel home to celebrate these holidays with family or a larger Sikh community.
According to Sussman, Jewish calendars follow a lunar calendar, as opposed to a solar one, which makes the dates of holidays variable. Similarly, the holy month of Ramadan is based on a lunar calendar, and its dates switch every year. In terms of scheduling, this means researching and accommodating the dates on which they will fall.
To make things additionally challenging, the way university calendars are established makes them slightly inflexible. Many universities like Cal Poly also establish their yearly calendars three to five years in advance. The Cal Poly Office of Registrar has already published its calendars through the spring of 2026, for reference.
To work around this, Hilel has worked to actively reach out to administration when there is a major conflict. In 2021, the first day back to school was set to fall on Yom Kippur.
After reaching out to the administration, Hilel was able to make a case to push back the first day of school.
“I had a Zoom meeting with the provost, and they let me know they would do everything in their power to accommodate and move the first day of school,” Hilel said.
This resulted in the school modifying its calendar to not fall on Yom Kippur.
Still, when considering the sheer range of religious diversity present in a university population of over 20,000 students, the issue of religious holiday observances is pertinent to many communities of minority faiths outside of Judaism.
For Jamaly, he expressed a desire for more recognition, even if the schedules cannot be changed. This could mean hosting events for students during the holy month of Ramadan to acknowledge the presence of Muslim students on campus.
“I acknowledge that it wouldn’t be easy for the admin to cancel classes or adjust exam schedules, but I think if they supported in other ways it would show that they do recognize and acknowledge the Muslim presence on Cal Poly’s campus,” Jamaly said. “This would go a long way with the Muslim students on campus as we aren’t necessarily looking for attention, from a campus-wide perspective, but rather small things that would help cultivate a strong sense of community and belonging for Muslim students on campus.”
In Hilel’s view, solutions could range from mandated days off to simply fostering an environment of “more understanding, accommodation, and creating more awareness” around the specific needs of students of different faiths.
In a recent meeting with President Armstrong and Vice President of Student Affairs Keith Humphrey, Hilel received assurance that the needs of the Jewish student population will be taken into consideration.
According to Vice President of University Communications Matt Lazier, campus administrative policies recommend that when the first Monday of classes fall on a major cultural or religious holiday, the calendar should be shifted to start on a Tuesday.
In light of the recent discussion, the next calendar years will be approached with an increased sensitivity to the Jewish holidays that fall at the beginning of school.
“For the years when Yom Kippur falls on another day, whether it’s before the first day of term or after, we indicate as such in the draft calendar that is sent out as an informational item. For 2024, 2025, and 2026, fall terms are starting after Yom Kippur takes place,” Lazier wrote.