Multifaith Calendar and Religious Holiday Observance Policy

With only minor exceptions, Oberlin follows the Multifaith Calendar shared by Harvard Divinity School, which also can be found on the websites for the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and the Multifaith Chaplaincy.

Religious Holiday Observance Policy

The policy language below is excerpted from the Oberlin College Faculty Guide (2021):

The General Faculty has approved the following regulations:

i) Students wishing to observe recognized religious holidays are excused automatically from classes that occur on these dates.
ii) Faculty are to make it possible for students observing recognized holidays to make up any work they miss, provided arrangements have been made in advance.

Guidance for Students

The Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and the Multifaith Chaplaincy ask all students to be timely in their requests for accommodations and to make arrangements directly with the appropriate office: contacting professors, residential life, or dining services whenever possible.

For additional support in securing accommodations, please reach out to Office of Religious and Spiritual Life at ORSL@oberlin.edu.

Guidance for Faculty and Staff

Most holidays require few if any accommodations, while others require fasting, abstaining daily from food or drink from dawn until dusk, and may cause students to request changes to their assignment deadlines, testing schedules, or programming obligations during this time. 

We ask that faculty and staff be as generous as possible in honoring these requests and that programming decisions be made with these important dates in mind. If additional support is needed, please reach out to Multifaith Chaplaincy Director David Dorsey at ddorsey@oberlin.edu.