Religious Discrimination
No University student, staff or faculty member shall, on the basis of religion, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any University program or activity.
"Religion," at least for the purposes of employment, includes traditional organized religions as well as 'new age', non-affiliated, or those with seemingly illogical belief systems. Religious beliefs may be theistic or non-theistic but generally involve sincerely held convictions about life, purpose, death, morality and ethics.
Whether a practice, such as adhering to certain dietary rules, is religious must be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Religious Harassment
Harassment can take many forms; however, there are two general categories of religious harassment:
- coercion of participation or non-participation in religious activities, and
- hostile environment
Coercion of Religious Participation or Non-Participation
No one with the authority to affect a student’s or employee’s status at the University may, explicitly or implicitly, insist that the student or employee participate in religious activities or hold particular religious views.
Hostile Environment Religious Harassment
The University will not tolerate the creation or existence of an environment that is hostile on the basis of religion. Such a hostile environment is defined as harassing conduct (e.g., physical, verbal, graphic or written) related to religion that is sufficiently severe, pervasive or persistent so as to
- interfere with or limit the ability of an individual to participate in or benefit from the University’s programs and activities or
- unreasonably interfere with an individual’s work or academic performance by creating an objectively intimidating, hostile, or offensive work or learning environment.
For example, the repeated use of derogatory religious terms in an abusive manner can constitute a hostile learning and/or working environment.
Religious Accommodation
Upon notice, the University must attempt to provide a reasonable accommodation for work requirements that conflict with a person’s sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance. What is "reasonable" is case-specific and in making this determination, the University reviews a variety of factors, including whether the accommodation would create an undue hardship or financial burden.
The accommodation request imposes responsibilities and obligations on both the individual requesting the accommodation and the University. The person requesting the accommodation is obligated to make the University aware of the need for a religious accommodation due to a conflict between religion and work.
Once a request is made, the University will explore reasonable accommodations to address the person’s religious belief or practice, unless, again, the request creates an undue hardship. The person requesting the accommodation is obligated to cooperate with the University’s attempts to accommodate the request. When more than one accommodation is possible, the University may select any of the accommodations, provided the accommodation will effectively eliminate the religious conflict.