Thursday, January 16, 2014

The real problem in the York University religious accommodation case

I first heard about the York University religious accommodation story through Twitter, so I got all the outrage before I got a straightforward reporting of facts.  It wasn't until I read Friday's Toronto Star editorial that I saw the missing piece that pointed to the real problem, which has gotten buried in all the debate and outrage and sensationalism.  But, I'm pleased to report, the real problem is much simpler, less fraught, and more easily resolved.

The real problem is that this is an online course, but it includes a group project that apparently needs to be done in person, and this in-person component is not mentioned in the course calendar.

When this story first made the news, my first thought was "Well, what did the student expect?"  The answer is he expected an online course. So he was actually conducting himself perfectly reasonably, given his limitations and the information available to him at the time, by enrolling in a course listed as online. 

There are plenty of other situations where it might be disproportionately inconvenient to have an in-person requirement sprung on you.  Maybe you have medical issues that preclude going to campus and are trying to keep chipping away at your degree while you convalesce. Maybe you're pregnant and on bedrest.  Maybe you're a caregiver and can't get away for long periods of time but can occasionally find a moment to go online.  Maybe you live somewhere car-dependent but recently lost the ability to drive and haven't yet been able to reorganize your life accordingly.  I'm sure you can think of a few examples that you'd find perfectly reasonable.

So the solution is simply to accurately represent the course location in the course calendar.  I'm not saying they have to pinpoint the specific room number way back when the course calendar is published, I'm thinking more in general terms.  If it's on campus, say so.  If it's on campus but not in a fully accessible location, say so.  If it's on a different campus, say so. If it's an online course with an in-person requirement, say so.  If it mostly takes place on campus but students will occasionally have to travel to other locations, say so.  Are these locations in the city or outside of it? Accessible by transit or not?  Whatever it is, say so.

This will allow students to make informed decisions about the courses they take. Students who would find a particular course unduly inconvenient can opt out ahead of time, without having to lose money by dropping the course or involving the administration in an attempt to get an exception.  And only a very small number of professors and instructors would be inconvenienced by the need to edit the course calendar entries, because the vast majority of courses do in fact take place in the stated location and only the stated location.

1 comment:

laura k said...

You're right, that's the root of the problem. But I'm assuming some people are angry at what appears to be misogyny, no matter what the reason or root cause.