Response from Donald Lehman Regarding Yom Kippur Break

After joining a Facebook group, blogging on GWBlogspot, and emailing Executive Vice President Donald Lehman about having a Yom Kippur Break on September 28th, 2009, Donald Lehman has responded to our concerns:

11 May 2009

TO: Concerned Students

FR: Donald R. Lehman, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

RE: Yom Kippur Break 2009

Thank you for your April 27 e-mail, in which you suggest that The George Washington University include in its annual calendar a one-day break for Yom Kippur, starting in the 2009-2010 academic year.

While I understand your perspective, GW has chosen instead to adopt a secular policy regarding all religious holidays. To ensure that all religious beliefs are respected, professors receive, twice a year, at the start of each semester, a memo from me outlining the university’s policy relative to the observation of religious holidays of any faith.

Briefly, the policy requires students to notify their professors at the start of each semester of any classes they will miss due to religious observances. In turn, professors are required to “…extend to these students the courtesy of absence without penalty on such occasions, including permission to make up examinations.”

I have attached a copy of the most recent memo sent to faculty concerning the University Policy Regarding Religious Holidays.

I wish you a successful exam period and a relaxing summer.

The memorandum reminds professors that "student members of all religious groups are entitled to courteous accommodation of religious holidays. The memorandum is distributed twice each year to assist faculty with planning for the fall and spring semesters." Included in the memorandum is a Religious Holiday Calendar, which included the holiday name, which day it is celebrated, and which religion observes the holiday.

I need more time to buy my books online!

You're sitting in your first class of the semester and your Professor hands out her book list. It includes over $100 worth of reading if you purchase the books at the GW bookstore. You go online and find a book listed in the bookstore as $120 for $45 on Amazon. If you purchase the book on Amazon, you'll have to skip the first few readings while you wait for it to come in the mail and risk looking stupid in your first discussion or flunking a pop-quiz.

How many of you have have lived this experience? I thought so. So what's the solution? Teachers should be required to make their book lists available to students AT LEAST two weeks before the first week of classes.

In order to force such a change, I've started a Facebook group to rally support. If you want to receive your book list before classes start, please sign the petition to let your Professors know!

With access to resources like Blackboard, Wordpress, and hello, email, there's not excuse for the lack of preview. In addition, it would be nice for students who wish to know what they're in for to view the syllabus ahead of time. This way students could drop and pick-up classes without running the risk of missing their first meetings.

So, help make it happen! Join the Facebook group today.

Moving forward with decreasing internship credit costs

Our campaign to decrease the cost of GW internship credits was just covered in the Hatchet!

Our first discussion with CCAS Dean Paul Duff was promising, so we need to keep moving foward. Once we get more signatures from both students and parents on our petition, we will return to CCAS to discuss how we can realistically and proactively go about decreasing these unfair costs.

Thank you for your support on both our Facebook group and on the petition. Keep passing the links on to your friends and parents!

Want Yom Kippur Break 2009? Email Executive Vice President Donald Lehman!

Hi Friends!

First of all, in order to get a one day break on Monday, September 28th, 2009, you should join the Facebook group and sign the online petition. Then,the next step to trying to get Yom Kippur Break on September 28th, 2009 is to personally email the Board of Trustees. The Committee on Academic Affairs will be meeting on Thursday, May 14th, and they should bring up this issue during their discussion. Please paste the letter below, and send it to the Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs, Donald Lehman, at vpaa@gwu.edu. Please Bcc me in the email as well, esterkin@gwmail.gwu.edu.

Dear Executive Vice President Donald Lehman,

We, the students of the George Washington University, believe that there should be a one day break from classes for Yom Kippur on Monday, September 28th, 2009. Roughly 2,800 Jews attend The George Washington University. Yeshiva University, Tulane University, Syracuse University, and Brandeis University are all private universities that have roughly 2,000-2,800 Jewish students and all have Yom Kippur breaks, where classes will not be held on September 28th, 2009. It is simply unfair to hold classes on Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. Approximately 2,800 Jewish students attend GWU, and they should be able to observe this high holiday--which requires fasting for 24 hours--without worrying about being penalized for missing classwork. Students, in the past, have even penalized for missing class on Yom Kippur when professors have quizzes and tests on this holiday. Jewish students, which is over a third of GW's student population, should have the chance to observe this holiday. Some Jewish professors already cancel classes for Yom Kippur, but it might as well be made official and uniform across campus. Please discuss this important issue when the Committee of Academic Affairs meets on Thursday, May 14th. This break is something GW students feel strongly about and should be discussed further.

Thank you,

(insert name here)

Please remember to keep discussing on GWblogspot.com and the wall of our Facebook group (and invite your friends, too!)
Let's keep working to try to get a break for Yom Kippur in the fall! If we all participate and send this email, GW Administration will feel obligated to explore this issue further!

Thanks,
Paige Esterkin

80 Million Strong

As GWU students we’re well aware of the cost young adults have to face while attending college. While GWU may be generous with its financial aid packages, the reality is that many students graduate with debt.

Last week I had the chance to attend the launch of the 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs Coalition, a group of organizations that are looking to tackle issues that affect the millennial generation. The group takes its name from the statistic that the millennial generation, also known as Generation Y, is comprised of approximately 80 million Americans.

Their first goal? Making progress on issues related to college students including unemployment, student loans, health care, and credit card debt.

Not worried about the economy? Consider facts that coalition members continued to mention:

• Unemployment among people ages 16-24 is nine points higher than the national average
• Recent graduates average $27,00 in undergraduate student loan debt, $70,000 for law school students, and over $100,000 for medical school students
• Young Americans have been targeted for “easy credit” scams, and average over $2000 in credit card debt by the age of 24. That debts more than doubles among young adults ages 25-34
• Thirty percent of young people are uninsured, the highest of any age groups

Matthew Segal, the executive director of Student Association for Voter Empowerment, summarized the situation by saying:

The millennial generations is in a precarious state.

Times are certainly tough, and jobs are certainly on the minds of numerous students as well approach commencement weekend. The coalition is seeing to unite young people and empower them to join the debate in tackling these issues.

Interested in joining in the conversation about young people and the economy? Head to the 88 Million Strong website. If you’re really interested in these issues you want to make note of their National Summit and Lobby Days on July 17th and 18th.

In Gelman? Come Get Free Coffee and Snacks NOW!

For the next hour, you can come get free coffee and snacks in Cafe G on the first floor of the Gelman Library!

This is part of the ongoing campaign to get Gelman to offer these services, like the Univeristy does on the Vern, to students studying on Foggy Bottom in this and future finals weeks.

If you can't come, but would like to send Gelman a message, click here.

Tell the SA to update its website

The 2008-2009 Student Association senate term is over. It has been over for more than a week at this point. Yet the website, which isn't very user friendly to begin with, has yet to be updated. If the newly elected SA is really committed to changing its image in the upcoming year and being "transparent" they should start with something as simple, as allowing students to see who their representatives are. 

According to the SA Constitution, Senators

"shall serve a regular term commencing on the day preceding the first day of the spring semester reading week in the Columbian School of Arts and Sciences."

The first day of reading week this semester was May 1st. 

In addition, the JEC website does not give a list of election results. The site instructs users to go to the "candidate info" page, which then links you to the "certified election results" which then links you to a page that has no information. 

It isn't hard to do and as student representatives, it is their duty. Why can't the SA get its act together??