DeKALB | When midterms and religious observances fall on the same day, students can find themselves in a tough situation.

Last year, Cary Wolovick, a junior history and political science major and president of Hillel Jewish Student Association, was faced with a Spanish midterm falling on Yom Kippur. Another member of Hillel, who wishes not to be named for fear of reprisal, has the same situation this year, and brought his concern to Wolovick. After examining the syllabus, both found that rescheduling the exam due to a religious conflict was up to the professor’s discretion and would count against the free absences provided.

If Wolovick had taken the exam on the scheduled date, he and other Jewish students celebrating the holiday would have tested after having fasted for more than 24 hours.

Many course syllabi state that missing exams is absolutely unacceptable, except under the most dire circumstances, such as a death in the family. In addition, many courses also observe strict attendance policies, where all absences — excused or not — count against a student’s “free absences.” Such strict policies can make students feel uncomfortable speaking to an instructor about religious accommodations.

David Sinason, advisor to Hillel, said that every semester he hears of at least one student having a problem with a professor not willing to provide religious accommodations.

Wolovick said he interprets the policy as an implication that the foreign language department sees religious observances as “not important” compared to an exam. He took his concerns to Karen Baker, assistant vice president of human resources, who addressed the issue.

“The department of foreign languages and literatures was aware of this unintentional conflict prior to Affirmative Action and Diversity Resources being notified of this concern,” said Baker. “Thereafter, the department resorted to its existing practice of allowing students to take the exam before or after the scheduled exam as long as students made arrangements to do so before the exam date.”

In order to ensure that accommodations are met, a memo went out from Anne Birberick, chair of Foreign Languages and Literatures, making it clear to faculty, instructors and teaching assistants that university policy requires them to make accommodations, said Michael Morris, coordinator of foreign language.

Students in the department whose instructors are unresponsive can see Morris with any problems.

While the problem has been temporarily satisfied, Sinason and Wolovick would like to see the policy re-examined because it continues to present a problem to students trying to celebrate religious holidays.

“The religious observation policy is disseminated every academic year. Our practice is to review all policies for changes and/or modifications as they relate to current laws, trends or university initiatives,” Baker said.

According to the Academic Policies and Procedures Manual, the policy was last changed in 1994.

“This particular policy is being reviewed through the applicable academic process,” Baker said.

Stephanie Kohl is a diversity beat reporter for the Northern Star.