Due to student housing move-in times falling on Jewish holy days throughout the University of California, UC officials are implementing new policies to avoid such conflicts and provide alternatives for Jewish students.
Robert Dynes, UC president, adopted these new policies after complaints from State Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, and Jewish community representatives that move-in dates often fall the same time as the two days of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and the one day of observance of Yom Kippur, a day of fasting and prayer.
Four out of the next five academic schedules have move-in periods that fall during these sacred holy days for Jewish students. Levine, who is Jewish himself, received many complaints about this from his constituency, and he decided to write Dynes a letter addressing his concerns, said Alex Traverso, Levine’s spokesman.
“Almost 60 community groups supported this ““ hundreds and hundreds of people,” Traverso said.
In response, Dynes has issued a list of policies that will be in effect this coming fall. Since the calendar for the next five years has been set, Traverso said the UC system is not going to change the move-in dates completely, but will provide alternatives for students.
However, if a UC campus has only one move-in day, the university must chose a weekend day that does not conflict with a one-day religious holiday or the first day of a two-day holiday.
For campuses such as UCLA with more than one move-in day, students will be given the opportunity to move in on any of those days, or choose an earlier move-in day with no financial penalty.
In the future, UC officials will try to set the academic calendar in such a way that it will not conflict with the Jewish holy days.
Suzanne Seplow, director of the Office of Residential Life, said these policies do not change much for UCLA students, as the university already allowed students who had religious conflicts to move in early in the past.
For example, in the fall of 2006, the move-in period fell on both days of Rosh Hashanah. Because of this, Jewish students were able to move in the Thursday before.
“We are in compliance with everything that has been recommended,” Seplow said.
Though UCLA students will not directly see changes regarding this policy, other UC campuses will also now be required to provide alternatives for Jewish students.
“(The university and the president) want to be sensitive to all students … and if there are conflicts, especially religious conflicts, we want to minimize them,” said Ricardo Vazquez, a UC spokesman. “The policy addresses these kinds of conflicts.”
The importance of the new policies, Traverso said, is to prevent Jewish students from having to choose between moving in or observing their religious holidays.
Addar Weintraub, the Undergraduate Students Association Council Academic Affairs commissioner, said she is pleased with the new policy because it shows that all the campuses are in favor of diversity.
“I think it’s hard because I don’t want to condone giving special preferences to one group, but because UCLA is such a diverse campus and because it doesn’t affect anyone negatively, it shows that we support diversity,” Weintraub said.