Whose holidays?

A proposal submitted by the National Service Board of Greece asked that no conferences be scheduled three days before or three days after major religious holidays. Their recent experience was that the start of the conference overlapped Easter Monday for those following the Christian Orthodox religion, and they need more time to get here than those in the US.

The debate boiled down to two poles: You were for it, in the name of inclusiveness. The need is felt more deeply by those the furthest away from Albuquerque, so in an allegorical way, at least, it was pitting those from overseas versus those from the Americas. (More on this in another post.)

Another element in the proposal enumerated holidays that should be considered, and included two that I had to look up. Hanuman Jayanti is a significant festival in the Hindu religion, and Vesak is the most important Buddhist festival, according to Wikipedia. One commenter said scheduling on one of these (and others listed) would be like scheduling a conference on Christmas or Thanksgiving. We’re already considering Western holidays, in a largely unquestioned manner.

The other side of the debate flowed from the outlook that religion is an outside issue.

It was easily one of the most controversial measures the conference addressed. In fact, the chair originally determined that the measure failed, based on a standing vote. A trustee asked for another vote moments later, in which each voter would count off, instead of relying on appearances, and the measure passed. I didn’t get the exact vote, but 94 votes were recorded in favor, and no more than 85 were recorded against.