Academic Calendar

*Dates updated as a result to a change in spring recess scheduling parameters, per Faculty Senate document 3132 (February 2024)

January 10, 2025

TO:          Deans, Directors, Faculty, and Instructional Academic Staff
CC:          Facilities and Administrative Unit Directors, Teaching Assistants
FROM:
Charles Isbell, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Lori Reesor, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Faculty
RE:       Religious and Election Day Observances Policy and Guidelines

We write to remind you of UW–Madison’s religious observances policy and to highlight faculty legislation regarding Election Day observances. As you finalize your syllabi for the upcoming term and head into the semester, please review the following. Our policy is meant to be sensitive to the needs of individual students.

I.          Religious Observances
State law mandates that any student with a conflict between an academic requirement and any religious observance (which may include travel time) must be given an alternative for meeting the academic requirement. There are a variety of valid claims, and there is no practical, dignified or legal means to assess individual claims.

With this in mind, please follow these guidelines:

• Proactively plan ahead to avoid conflicts between examinations or major course activities and religious observances, when possible. You can use this calendar (scroll to the end of the message on the page) to assist in your planning. You can also add religious observances to your Outlook calendar.
• Communicate with your students early (e.g., mention in your course syllabi and class announcements), and highlight the shared responsibility – students are responsible for notifying instructors within the first two weeks of classes of the date(s) on which they request relief due to a religious observance.
• Accept students’ requests at face value.
• Be prepared to offer students alternative pathways to fulfill course requirements (including class attendance) in cases where conflicts can’t be avoided.

Putting policy into practice – The attachment has further explanation and guidance on putting these policy requirements into practice.

II.          Election Day Observances
Similarly (while not legally required), we ask that instructors please follow these guidelines regarding election day observances:

• Proactively plan ahead to avoid conflicts between examinations or other major course activities and election days when possible.
• Communicate with your students early (e.g., mention in your course syllabi and class announcements) and highlight the shared responsibility – students are responsible for notifying instructors at least two weeks prior to an election day about their commitment to work as an election official and thus their need to miss class.
• Be prepared to offer students alternative pathways to fulfill course requirements (including class attendance) in cases where conflicts can’t be avoided.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact:

Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Faculty, 608-262-3958, sof@secfac.wisc.edu
John Zumbrunnen, Sr Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, 608-262-5701, vptl@provost.wisc.edu
Christina Olstad, Dean of Students, 608-262-1451, dean@studentlife.wisc.edu
Center for Interfaith Dialogue, 608-890-1665, interfaith@studentaffairs.wisc.edu

CALENDAR FOR SPRING SEMESTER 2025
The list does not include all possible religious observances and cultural observances that may be requested by students, but rather should be used as a guide for understanding potential scheduling conflicts for major religious observances that may be observed by a number of students in your class.

Spring 2025 Key Deadlines:
registrar.wisc.edu/dates/
Please contact the Office of the Registrar for the Apply to Graduate deadline.

*         Observances of Jewish and Baha’i holidays begin at sunset on the day preceding that which is listed as the holiday.
**       Observances of Islamic holidays begin at sunset on the day preceding that which is listed as the holiday. Due to variations in how moonsighting is calculated in the Islamic lunar calendar, some practitioners’ observance may begin and end one day later than what is listed here.
***     New Year’s celebrations take place in many countries during these periods; exact days of observance may vary. These dates are of religious and cultural significance to many Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, and others.
****      The official date of degree conferral on the diploma will be 11 May 2025.

2023-2028 academic calendar (PDF)

2024-2029 academic calendar (PDF)

Julie Scharm
Deputy Secretary of the Faculty
University of Wisconsin-Madison
129 Bascom Hall
500 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI  53706-1380

julie.scharm@wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-3958

For questions about commencement, see: commencement.wisc.edu/
or email your questions to: commence@chancellor.wisc.edu

Final grades are due to the Office of the Registrar 72 hours after the last final exam day, regardless of whether or not a two-hour summary block exam was held. This is the deadline approved by the Faculty Senate. For questions about final exams or submitting grades, please see the Office of the Registrar’s pages.