Although I do not make it a practice to write letters to the editor, I must respond to John Boot's letter, "Academic Calendar and the Jewish Holidays," published in the September 7, 1995 issue of The Reporter. I will respond to Dr. Boot's points in order.

Dr. Boot said that "a few years from now classes will be held on religious holidays, whatever that religion, and whatever that holiday (holy day) may be." That is not correct. The proposed calendar calls for no classes on Sundays, the Christian Sabbath, nor on Christmas, a Christian holy day.

Dr. Boot said, "The calendar will recognize only national holidays. In chronological order, these are Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas." This list, of course, omits all Sundays of the academic year, which are not classless because they are national holidays, but because they are religious (Christian) holy days. Also, this comment ignores the fact that there are national holidays which the calendar does not recognize, including Columbus Day and Presidents' Day. Why is Christmas never one of those national holidays on which classes are held? I suspect because it is a major Christian holy day!

Dr. Boot said, "Most troublesome of all is that the education law, which dictates minimum numbers of contact hours, forces us to begin classes before Labor Day." This is simply not true. Classes must begin before Labor Day only because it is taken as so important that it does not even merit mention that the Fall semester must end by Christmas! Why is that? Even if Christmas is taken as a holiday, why not treat it like other holidays and resume classes on the next day? The semester could begin before Labor Day and still end before New Year's Day.

Dr. Boot said, "Many adherents of other faiths are puzzled about the asymmetric treatment their holiest of religious observance receive." Here I agree! Why are only Christian holidays to be observed? When the Calendar Commission started, I suggested to the Provost's Office that a survey be taken of all the religious councilors, to find out on what holidays their adherents are required to abstain from normal activities, so that the Commission could consider observing all of them. I don't know if this was done, but the forthcoming calendar is certainly asymmetric.

Dr. Boot said, "Christmas, when, according to its status as a national holiday, the whole university closes." As I said above, this is not due to Christmas' status as a national holiday, since classes are held on national holidays.

Dr. Boot said, "For many Jews, the new calendar poses a difficult choice between the dictates of religion and education....The damage is mitigated by policies prohibiting required attendance, or penalties, for late homework, or tests, on religious days of observance." Only slightly mitigated, however, since, unless lectures are worthless, there is no way to miss a class without missing something important, and as Dr. Boot said, "a number of laboratory courses are designed such that you miss the whole week if you miss a day."

Dr. Boot said, "The dilemma can be avoided altogether by students attending another center in the SUNY system. UB had a substantially larger Jewish student population before the mid-seventies than it has today. This change might further reduce their number." This is the most outrageous statement in a typically outrageous letter! Does Dr. Boot actually want UB to advertise: "No observant Jews are wanted at the University at Buffalo-go elsewhere?

Dr. Boot said, "Binghamton has a 13 MTWThF rather than a 14 MTWThF calendar, but longer class periods-a construction not feasible here." Why not? He doesn't say.

Dr. Boot said, "Just as one's religion sometimes requires sacrifices, so do principles-in this case to treat all religious holidays the same," but as I have already pointed out, the new calendar does not treat "all religious holidays the same" it observes the Christian Sabbath and Christmas, but no others. For example, there are some classes, laboratories and final exams on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, and there are many classes on Fridays, the Moslem Sabbath. (Of course, the current calendar does not treat "all religious holidays the same" either, but no one ever said that it did.)

Dr. Boot said, "we are a multicultural, educational, public institution, and...it serves our varied constituencies, our teaching mission, and the religion-neutral stance appropriate for a state institution, to make the change" [italics in the original], but I hope I have now convinced you that the new calendar is not "religion-neutral."

True religion-neutrality would treat the Sabbaths and other holy days of all religions the same. The current calendar does not do this. Neither does the new one. Tell us that Christians are the majority, and regardless of the Constitution and the fact that we are a multicultural state institution, we are going to observe Christian, but not other, holidays, but to hide this under the guise of "religion-neutrality" is either ignorance or hypocrisy.

STUART C. SHAPIRO

Professor of Computer Science

and Member, Center for Cognitive Science