Today is the last day for students to notify their instructors in writing of any classes they will miss for religious observances if they expect to make up missed assignments, according to a newly amended system-wide policy.

The new notification requirement permits instructors to refuse to grant excused absences, allow make-up tests or accept late assignments when students do not hand in written notification, in person, within two weeks of the start of the semester, said entomology professor Amy Brown, chair of the University System of Maryland committee that established the new rule.

“The instructor does not have an obligation at that point to provide alternate ways to manage the student missing that date,” Brown said, adding further action would be at the professor’s discretion.

The change has left many students in the dark about whether the policy will be enforced in their classes because many professors did not mention the new requirement in class or on their syllabi. The policy encourages instructors to include a paragraph about the policy.

“Attention wasn’t brought to it being a new policy, which it should,” said Andrew Friedson, a junior government and politics major who said he didn’t remember hearing anything about the change. “I think it should be required, not just encouraged, to be on a syllabus.”

According to former university policy, it was the student’s responsibility to inform instructors before the end of the schedule adjustment period, but did not require notification in writing. The policy continues to state that students “should not be penalized in any way” for religious observances and encourages faculty to “make every feasible effort to accommodate students’ requests.”

Other changes to the university’s policy include a statement that the student’s request “should not include travel time” and a requirement that instructors “should take the validity of those requests at face value.”

Brown said the changes were made because the policy was outdated, unclear and hadn’t given specific guidelines for how professors should handle absences.

“It puts the responsibility on people to plan ahead,” Brown said. “When people plan ahead it’s far better for everyone’s sake.”

However, some students said the changes created unrealistic expectations.

“I understand that professors can have a lot of difficulty with religious holidays,” Friedson said. “But I don’t feel that putting a hard deadline like a two-week requirement is the most equitable approach.”

“It’s not necessarily attainable information for the student to know within the first two weeks of school given the fact that they may not know if they will need to miss school to go home,” agreed senior journalism major Amanda Swartz.

Brown said although students may want to go home for holidays, it is not the university’s responsibility to provide travel time because there is no way to assess how far or long they will need to travel.

“You have to draw the line between missing class for traveling and missing class for a religious holiday,” Brown said.

Rabbi Elli Backman of the university’s Chabad Jewish Student Center said although he saw the committee’s point, there should be more leeway in the policy to include travel time.

“Nobody would ever have school go up until the Thursday afternoon of Thanksgiving, Dec. 24 or Dec. 31,” Backman said.

Backman said he has always advised students to talk to professors at the beginning of the semester about religious conflicts.

Contact reporter Caren Oppenheim at oppenheimdbk@gmail.com.