UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State recognizes the right of its students, faculty and staff to participate in religious observances as a fundamental element of living, learning and working in a diverse community. As such, the University has several policies and protocols to offer guidance to students, faculty and staff on how requests for absences due to a religious observance should be handled.
Calendar resources
In consultation with campus and community religious leaders, Penn State’s Center for Spiritual and Ethical Development on the University Park campus maintains a listing, available on the center's website, of holy days of the major world religions for which observance may require a student, faculty or staff member to depart from their normal routine at the University.
This calendar, while not an exhaustive list of all holy days in each religious tradition, also can serve as a resource to help the University community avoid scheduling conflicts with major religious holidays when planning meetings, events, conferences and similar gatherings.
Requests made by students to be absent from class for the purpose of religious observances
It is Penn State’s policy that instructors should provide, within reason, the opportunity to make up work for students who are obliged to miss classes for legitimate, unavoidable reasons, such as religious observance, illness, injury, military service or family emergency.
Students anticipating such absences are asked to make plans with their instructors at the beginning of each semester.
Students who miss class are still responsible for all work covered in the courses taken, and it is the student’s responsibility to complete work early, or make alternate arrangements with the course instructor, if due dates or required work will be missed because of a University-approved absence, as described by Penn State’s class attendance policy.
Policy E-11: Class Attendance, administered by the Office of Undergraduate Education, states that “Students may need to miss a class meeting to participate in a regularly scheduled university-approved curricular or extracurricular activity or due to unavoidable or other legitimate circumstances (including participation in local, state, and federal governmental elections and religious observances) as defined by University Faculty Senate Policy 42-27 on class attendance.”
In addition, the Academic Administrative Policy on Religious Holidays (R-4) states that, while the University makes every effort to avoid conflicts with religious holidays, when conflicts are unavoidable, faculty and staff should make reasonable accommodations for affected students.
Questions from faculty and students about class absences for religious observances should be directed to the Office of Undergraduate Education at 814-863-1864 or undergrad@psu.edu.
Requests made by employees to be absent from work for the purpose of religious observances
For staff employees who earn vacation time, scheduling time off for a religious holiday follows the same process used for requesting any vacation time. In addition, staff employees earn one personal holiday annually, which also is scheduled like a vacation day and can be used to take time off for a religious observance. However, there is nothing specific in University policy or in its collective bargaining agreements that require an employee to identify the reason for the use of vacation time or a personal holiday.
For questions about submitting time off in Workday, employees can speak directly with their manager or timekeeper, or call HR Services at 814-865-1473 to speak with a human resources professional.
Except in some limited circumstances, faculty do not earn time off in the same way that staff employees do, so faculty members teaching a class on a religious holiday should follow their department/program, college or campus policy for notifying the appropriate administrator that they will not be teaching on that day. Faculty members should contact their academic unit head, dean or chancellor, as appropriate, with specific questions about absences and class cancellations for religious holidays. Faculty are encouraged to inform students about any changes to the class meeting schedule as early as possible.
More information
Additional details about religious and spiritual programs, services, organizations and meetings can be found on the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Development’s website.