Dickinson College is fully committed to understanding and support of the diverse faith traditions to which members of our community adhere. A piece of this education, is sharing with each other the history and celebrations related to religious holidays celebrated by members of the Dickinson community. As our community becomes increasingly diverse, so to must our efforts of education and support of people from all faith traditions.
Religious Holidays College Policy
To help build an inclusive and aware community, Dickinson College has designated specific religious holidays for no college or campus-wide events sponsored by offices and departments. To review the holidays, please read the entire Religious Holidays College Policy.
The calendar already recognizes many major Christian holidays, Easter and Christmas. In addition, the College calendar will also include Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, the first evening of Passover, Eid-al-Fitr, and Eid-al-Adha. All large venue college spaces will not be available for reservation on the evenings of these holidays. College wide events are those that invite all members of any part of Dickinson community, and due to religious observance, someone within that group might be excluded. If a college sponsored event is scheduled on these holidays, it must be rescheduled as soon as the conflict is realized.
Using the Gateway, faculty and staff can add the major holidays with college observance easily onto one’s Outlook calendars.
Selected Religious Holidays
Each April a calendar is offered by the Center for Spirituality and Social Justice as a resource for holidays celebrated by Dickinson community. As we hope to increase our understanding of the shifting religious landscape of our campus and wider culture, this calendar aims to increase familiarity with religious traditions and facilitate thoughtful planning of schedules and activities. The holidays offered are based on our records of the religious traditions represented in the student body.
To assist in future planning, religious holidays for the academic years 2023-2026 are also available.
College Employees: Adding Religious Holidays to Your Calendars
College employees can access a Campus Religious Holidays public calendar that has all the dates noted to ease in scheduling when using Outlook Calendars. This can be overlayed with your personal calendar to automatically show holidays recognized by campus.
Accessing the Campus Religious Community calendar in Outlook for Windows:
- In Outlook, click the icon to open the Folder List (This should be at the bottom of the left hand navigation pane and looks like a small folder)
- Scroll down until you see Public Folders and click the small arrow to expand the list
- Find Public Calendars and expand the folder
- Click on the Campus Religious Holidays calendar to view it
- Right click on Campus Religious Holidays and select Add to Favorites
- Click Add in the window to add the calendar to your favorites
- When you view your calendar the Campus Religious Holidays calendar should now appear under "Other Calendars"
- LIS has prepared more detailed instructions (including screen shots) for subscribing to a Public Calendar
Accessing the Campus Religious Holidays calendar in Outlook for MacOS:
- When viewing your Calendar in Outlook, click the Tools menu then Public Folders
- The Folder Browser window should open showing a list of Public Folders
- Click Public Calendars
- Select the Campus Religious Holidays calendar
- Click the green Subscribe button
- You may not close the Folder Browser window
- In your list of calendars in the left side there should be an item titled "Subscribed Public Folders"
- Click the arrow next to "Subscribed Public Folders", then Dickinson and a list of your subscribed folders will be shown
- The Campus Religious Holidays calendar should be checked and the events should now appear on your calendar.
Accessing the Campus Religious Holidays calendar through Outlook Web Access (Email tab in Gateway):
- In Outlook Web Access, click the Public Folders icon located at the bottom of the left navigation panel
- Browse to Public Calendars and click on the Campus Religious Holidays calendar
- Note that in Outlook Web Access you cannot view your calendar and a public calendar at the same time
Religious Holiday Questions?
For information about specific holidays or celebrations, please contact Jessica Chapman Lape, Director of the Center of Spirituality and Social Justice or Rabbi Marley Weiner, Director of the Asbell Center.
For information about scheduling conflicts, please contact George Stroud, Vice President of Student Life