A friend wrote "Happy Rosh Hashanah, Julie" on the whiteboard in her dorm at Buffalo State College. Another student approached Julie and said accusingly, "So, you don't believe in Jesus."
As a freshman adjusting to life at a university that did not recognize Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Julie Rockmaker, now a social worker in the School of Dental Medicine, felt unwelcome to not only practice her faith but also be at the school.
"That was enough to intimidate me for four years never to ask a professor if I could have off for Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur," she said.
More than 10 years later, Rockmaker remembers the incident every holiday season. On Tuesday, she told her story at the Faculty Senate meeting where UB community members debated the university's recognition of Jewish holidays and Labor Day.
Fewer than half of the Faculty Senate members attended the meeting, forcing the organization to adjourn without voting on the issue.
"Discrimination is out there," Rockmaker said adamantly.
William Baumer, a professor of philosophy and member of the Calendar Committee and Faculty Senate Executive Board, argued that having Jewish holidays off from university activities is discrimination, as well.
In 2002, Baumer motioned to approve the proposed academic calendar that included the Jewish holidays, according to Faculty Senate minutes.
"I think in retrospect that was an error and I point out that we are in the unhappy position of discriminating in favor of one particular religious group and we do not do that for any other religious group or belief at all," Baumer said.
He suggested the Faculty Senate practice "non-discrimination" by removing all religious holidays from the academic calendar.
However, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashannah are exceptions because Jewish faith prohibits attending work or school, whereas Christian faith requires attending Mass, said Michael Ryan, former vice provost for Undergraduate Education, to The Spectrum in March 2010.
Some students suggest the issue is larger than Rosh Hoshanah and Yom Kippur. Ilana Saffeir, a sophomore occupational therapy major, believes Saturday exams should no longer be scheduled as they conflict with Shabbat.
Saffeir said she chose UB over a private school because of the university's observance of the holidays and the larger Jewish community. However, last year, one of Saffeir's professors refused to honor the tradition of not using electronics or modern transportation during the holy days. Saffeir was unable to get from North to South Campus and missed her class. Her grades were docked even though she told the professor in advance, she said.
"What is the difference between a tenured professor and a terrorist?" joked Elias Kaufman, an associate professor emeritus in the School of Dental Medicine. "The answer is you can sometimes negotiate with a terrorist," he said.
Kaufman believes although the university may observe the holidays in question, not all professors will follow suit. Since joining UB's faculty in 1966, Kaufman said he has witnessed several "overt as well as covert violations" of the policies. Departments decided to stay open if the adversely affected population was small. Professors still gave exams on holidays. Faculty went unpunished, he said.
"The university did nothing," Kaufman said.
Kaufman wonders how the policy and failure to adhere to it would be handled after the change.
Cindy Konovitz, assistant dean of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, attended the meeting as a trained mediator and hoped to create a compromise that fulfilled the state's education requirements and appeased the debaters.
"I understand the idea of a religious-neutral calendar, but the only way this would ever come about is to offer classes on Sundays as well as other days of the week, in addition to offering classes on Christmas Day, Easter and Jan. 1," she said.
The outcome will never please all the believers of all religions. However, UB must continue to celebrate diversity in order to maintain recruitment, Konovitz said.
"What we're discussing here today is an issue of tradition versus pragmatism," said Bob Sawyer, a United University Professions member. "There is a cultural issue here and that is the encroachment of our work on our family time. What we fought for was tradition and that is recognizing the unions, recognizing Jewish people, recognizing all of these things and spending time with your family. That's what it's about and nothing else."
The proposals will go back to the Faculty Senate Executive Board to be discussed further. The members will vote on it in the near future, although a set date has yet to be determined, according to Faculty Senate Chair Ezra Zubrow.
Email: news@ubspectrum.com
