Another person in the news has insisted on a “reasonable accommodation” to her religious beliefs. Will we see such requests now come to colleges and universities? I am not talking about food. That’s easy. But what should schools say when a parent demands that his/her child not be assigned to a dorm room with a non-believer, for example? What happens when a female inter-collegiate athlete refuses to undress in the female lockeroom because it injures her religious sense of modesty? What if a fundamentalist athlete won’t play in an arena if men are in the crowd, because she is wearing shorts or a sports bra?
I saw an article about a company making athletic uniforms to accommodate religious women. Some of the uniforms included leggings, tunics and velcroed head scarfs that would detach if pulled (to avoid a strangulation hazard) for sports that typically involve shorts and t shirts. I personally think that most religious requests should be accommodated if at all possible, but I wonder if polite requests would be as likely to be accommodated as those made under threat of violence.
If someone doesn’t want to change in front of others, they can go into a bathroom stall to change. I have done that sometimes when there are too many people in the locker room.
When I travel in Europe, a lot of bathrooms are gender neutral. No one has any issue with that.
As far as dorm rooms, schools are not obligated in having to provide rooms for students. Students are opting out of dorm rooms now for medical and other reasons.
Religion has been around forever. People have managed to eat, sleep, going to school, work and live. Not sure why it would be so different now.
The school should say no. In fact, the school should say NO WAY, and slam down the phone. If the student does not want to be in a school with unbelievers, they should pick a strict religious school.
She can suit up in a stall, or some other private area.
She should get clothing modifications such as zoosermom mentions above. Her teammates shouldn’t be deprived of the support of their friends just because of her religious sensibilities.
We’re talking about sharing a dorm room, not sharing a university. It can be difficult for a student in a shared room to meet some types of religious obligations. For example, very observant Jewish students cannot turn lights or anything else operated by electricity on or off on the Sabbath. That can create awkward situations in a dorm room shared by an observant Jewish student and one who doesn’t follow the same rules.
I keep Shabbat and I’d say the onus for this one is on me, not the university. I’m the one with the religious restriction. There’s really nothing my roommate would have to do other than keep the bathroom light on overnight, which I think is a pretty reasonable roommate request that I’d discuss at the beginning of the year and expect her to try to accommodate. But if it was a very big deal to me, I think it’d be my responsibility to either get a single or find an observant roommate on my own, since I’m choosing to not go to Yeshiva University
Re #4
But would such students object to those of some other or no religion turning lights on and off (for the other student’s purposes) during that student’s Sabbath?
I agree that’s the kind of reasonable minor accommodation that a roommate ought to agree with.
If Student A keeps the sabbath and Student B doesn’t, student B can do whatever s/he likes with the lights or electronics. Student A wouldn’t mind. Student A is just not allowed to ask student B to turn lights on or off for her.
I see a new trend - Shabbes dorm goy.
“But would such students object to those of some other or no religion turning lights on and off (for the other student’s purposes) during that student’s Sabbath?”
The prohibition is on the observant student, not on other people.
As a non-believer, the idea of public institutions making accommodations for religious preferences by and large just makes me scratch my head.
I understand religious holidays and food because we value our holidays, religious or not, and students on campus are often forced to buy campus meal plans. Beyond that though… it’s mostly unreasonable IMO.
Now, I do think students should allow their religious roommates to practice more or less whatever they need to as long as it’s not too cumbersome. One of my good friends is Muslim and she would have to rise really early for prayers- and thus an alarm went off very early. She told her roommate this on day one and asked if it was OK. It was because she always woke up as soon as the alarm went off so the roommate was never bothered. Bathroom light? Same kinda thing. Where roommates draw their line at “reasonable” is mostly up to them.
As an athlete, IMO, dress requests should be honored until it becomes a health hazard. Hell, I’d have loved to have worn longer shorts when I played volleyball. Those shorts are ridiculously short and there would’ve been nothing wrong with wearing longer shorts. On the other hand, if having something around one’s neck is a choking hazard then it shouldn’t be allowed.
But what if the roomie was a die hard environmentalist and could not sleep knowing that s/he was wasting energy by keeping a light on while everyone slept?
Back when I was in grad school, the Dean hosted several formal receptions that included alcohol (which was free, thank God). I’m asking myself if a religious member of the wait staff refused to work such an event, should that employee be penalized, whether or not the host is a public or a private university?
Here you go, die hard environmentalist:
http://www.amazon.com/GE-Motion-Activated-Night-Light-Chrome/dp/B002HEMWZ8
Very religious Jews would be very happy to have gentiles as roommates to turn on lights, TV, stove, push elevator buttons on Sabbath.
@oldfort:
Yeah, I was surprised that someone said that non observant people couldn’t turn on the lights/off the lights, etc. There was a longstanding tradition of the Shabbes Goy, where non observant neighbors would do things for observant Jews, like turn off lights, turn off the stove, etc. My mom grew up in one of the old fashioned apartment buildings in NYC back in the 1930’s, that had a league of nations in people in it, and the kids would often make pocket change helping observant neighbors, worked for everyone.
As far as making religious accommodation, schools are kind of like employers, they can try to make accommodation, but if for example the person is the only orthodox Jew in the building, and they don’t have single rooms available, then the person would have to decide if they could deal with the situation. The law on religious accommodation is pretty clear, it says that institutions are supposed to make realistic adjustments in terms of someone’s faith, but that expecting it when it would impose a significant burden or would fundamentally change the nature of the institution is wrong. It, for example, is why that clerk in Kentucky is out to lunch, like many of her fellow religiously misguided folks, they can claim individual accommodation in the form of not doing something they find objectionable, but that doesn’t extent to the entire institution. If a muslim female player wanted to where a headscarf, that is fine, but demanding that other players wear it would be wrong; likewise, arguing that they couldn’t play for a team that had a male coach or referees because it was immodest is their problem. There is a line between reasonable and obnoxious, and it isn’t all that hard to find, long precedent in courts with reasonable man have worked pretty well.
We’re talking about sharing a dorm room, not sharing a university. It can be difficult for a student in a shared room to meet some types of religious obligations. For example, very observant Jewish students cannot turn lights or anything else operated by electricity on or off on the Sabbath. That can create awkward situations in a dorm room shared by an observant Jewish student and one who doesn’t follow the same rules.>>>>>>>>>>>>
Request a private room.
A friend of mine went to Penn in the early 80’s and there were enough observant Jews there at the time that they were generally given the lower floors in the high rise dorms so that they wouldn’t have to walk up too many flights of stairs on days when they couldn’t use the elevator.
I wonder whether there still are Shabbes goys or whether people rely entirely on timing devices (preprogrammed before the Sabbath to turn things on and off at appropriate times during the Sabbath).