Students will have until March 31 to arrange any "religious accommodations" to settle conflicts between religious holidays and final exam dates.
An e-mail sent yesterday to all University students defines a strict policy for students to inform their instructors of potential conflicts, said University Registrar Tom McElvain.
McElvain said the policy will give students time to make accommodations and set up alternate exam times.
"The policy makes the University's view of obligation clearer as to what the accommodations are," McElvain said. "Many campus groups were involved in getting a clearly stated and workable policy."
Hillel also is making efforts to inform the student body of the new policy. There is special interest in the Jewish community in the approaching deadline because Passover overlaps with final exams this year.
"Hillel will be passing out flyers and sending e-mail reminding students of the changes," said Rabbi Rich Kirschen. "There are quite a few days this year which are problematic (with Passover)."
The previous University policy on religious conflicts, which appeared in time schedules this year, was never widely published. McElvain said many problems persisted in settling the scheduling difficulties caused by the finals schedule.
"There was no way to resolve them (religious conflicts) when they occurred, other than through individual efforts," said McElvain.
LSA senior Anthony Scaglione, a member of the Hillel governing board, said he encouraged the University to state the policy more clearly.
"I spent the summer in Ann Arbor and had the opportunity to work with the administration, especially the Provost's office, to get a clear policy for conflicts with holidays," Scaglione said.
Despite the recent improvements to the policy, Scaglione said the policy could evolve and improve over time.
"It's a good first step - it's much better than no policy," Scaglione said. "It articulates what student rights and faculty responsibilities are. A lot of students didn't know they had rights. The policy empowers them to seek alternative arrangements with professors."
Scaglione said that religious conflicts are a fairly common occurrence for religiously observant students.