Ramadan Mubarak 2018
Cascadia Faculty, Staff & Students:
Ramadan is scheduled to begin the evening of Tuesday, May 15thand end the evening of Thursday, June 14th(dates may change by 1-2 days due to sighting of the moon). Ramadan is the holy month where Muslims follow the 5 pillars of Islam: Fasting (abstaining from eating and drinking from dawn around 5:15am to sunset around 9pm in Seattle), confession of faith, five daily prayers, Zakah (almsgiving) and Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).
Members of our campus community will be fasting during this time. Since our final projects and exams are occurring during this period, we wanted to ask faculty and staff to encourage all students to get plenty of sleep, prepare for exams in advance, and understand that students who have been fasting may be more sleepy or weak during this time.
Cascadia will offer proctored classrooms that will be made available for students to take alternate exams. We will have two early morning and two evening proctored test times available between June 4 - 7. These will be scheduled once we know how many students are requesting the alternative test times. Should a student want to utilize an alternate test time, they should talk with their faculty and then contact Erin Blakeney, Dean for Student Success Services at eblakeney@cascadia.edu at least 2 weeks prior to the final week of classes – no later than May 21st. If you are interested in helping proctor one of these alternate test times, please let me know.
Please also note that all colleges in Washington state, pursuant to RCW 28B.10.039, will accommodate student absences for up to two days per academic year to take holidays for reasons of faith or conscience or for organized activities conducted under the auspices of a religious denomination, church, or religious organization. Cascadia’s administrative procedure is attached.
Additional Resources:
“Exams and Muslims: How Can You Make the Best of Both”
https://www.diversitybestpractices.com/2018-diversity-holidays
Erin Blakeney
Dean for Student Success Services
Pronouns: she/her
eblakeney@cascadia.edu | 425.352.8534 | www.cascadia.edu