Religious Holidays & Observances

Students may request an excused absence to participate in any of the listed events. If any observances are not listed, please contact Lorena Blanco-Silva at lblanco@unm.edu. 

The reasonable requests of students, faculty and staff related their observance of holidays must be accommodated.  Please take these holidays and observances into consideration when planning meetings and events.  It is important to understand that reasonable requests can also include observances that are not listed on calendar on this web page.  For example, some Tribal observances are dependent on natural occurrences which cannot be predicted far in advance. In those cases, accommodations would have to be requested by the individual when religious or holiday observances are arranged.  Some of these ceremonies can last for several days.

UNM policy 2720: Equal Opportunity, Non-Discrimination, and Affirmative Action, prohibits religious discrimination and requires reasonable accommodation of employees and students sincerely held religious beliefs, observances, and practices when requested, unless accommodation would impose an undue hardship on business operations.

Please contact the Office of Equal Opportunity at http://oeo.unm.edu or 277-5251 to receive guidance regarding requests for, or responses to, religious accommodation requests. Failure to provide reasonable accommodations for religious holidays, observances and practices may be regarded as a policy violation.