Celebrating our diverse religious community

Guided by our Catholic and Vincentian mission and our commitment to the integral development of students, we remain deeply committed at DePaul to supporting and nurturing students, faculty, and staff as they engage in the important rituals and holidays of their faith or spiritual traditions. Providing an environment that supports members of the university’s diverse, multi-faith community is critical to our mission, and we ask all university stakeholders to work diligently to offer the flexibility and care needed to create such an environment.

As we begin this new academic year, please make appropriate accommodations to allow students, faculty, and staff to fully express their faith, particularly for religious holidays. For example, if a student needs to turn in an assignment late or even reschedule an exam that falls during a religious holiday, please do everything you can to allow such flexibility. If you are a manager, please make reasonable accommodations for the requests of your staff or faculty.

DePaul Mission and Ministry provides a religious holiday calendar with suggested accommodations that can help you plan classes and programs. While DePaul is closed on major Christian holidays such as Christmas and Good Friday, not all Christians celebrate those observances on the same dates, and there are many other significant observances for students, faculty, and staff from numerous traditions that need to be considered. This fall quarter, for example, is the time of Jewish High Holidays and for our growing Hindu population to celebrate Diwali.

We encourage you to maintain flexibility and understanding throughout the academic year and when planning your syllabus or choosing a date for an event, consider reviewing whether the dates you select may affect observant religious populations who may have restrictions around certain holidays.

For your convenience, details on Mission and Ministry’s support for religious communities and plans for upcoming Jewish, Hindu, and Muslim celebrations and activities are shared here.

Thank you for your respect as our diverse religious communities celebrate upcoming holidays and others throughout the year.

Sincerely,

Robert L. Manuel

Salma Ghanem

Mark Laboe