I'm at the University of Washington now, but I used to be at the Texas
Department of Health (TDH) and the University of Texas (UT).
At TDH we got off every major holiday, plus some weird ones like
"Confederate Soldiers Day." At UT, we "officially" had Martin Luther
King Day off, but in my department non-African-Americans were
"encouraged" to work anyway. :)
There's a great variety in holidays from state to state. There are very
few truly national holidays. The state legislature decides which holidays
state employees will get (this includes state university systems) and when
these holidays will fall. Then (on top of this), individual agencies or
universities usually have the option of adding more holidays. This is why
I got more days off from TDH than I did from UT, even though they were
both state institutions in the same town.
--
************************************
Michelle Garrison
University of Washington
Corris P.A. Davis wrote in message ...
>On 28 Oct 1997, Megan Brown wrote:
>>>>> Can it be that Oregon Health Sciences University really does not give
>> people a holiday for Veterans' Day? Isn't it a public institution? Here
in
>> Seattle, both the University of Washington (a public institution) and
Fred
>> Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (a private
>> institution) give Veterans' Day off. Although many scientists work on
>> those "funny" holidays, they certainly are not required to by their
>> institutions. It bothers me that many scientific events go on "as
>> usual" on these official days off. Seminars are given, lab meetings
>> continue, etc. I remember one time the comment of the PI in charge of our
>> weekly Signal Transduction meeting on whether to cancel the meeting due
to
>> a holiday or not. He said "Oh, no one takes that day off. We'll all be
>> here." That statement totally dismisses all the scientists who won't be
>> there because they'll be home with their kids. I guess in his mind,
>> scientist-parents don't really count. You know, they're not serious about
>> Science, they contributions won't be missed, etc.
>>>>>Here at UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) and teh rest of
>the University system of Maryland, all of the Holidays are lumped
>together. From around December 20, to January 3 Memorial Day, Veterans
>Day, Columbus Day, etc. all occur. Its great to have the block of time
>off, but horrible if you have children who are out of school on the
>official observances of the days.
>>***************************************************************************
****
>Christians the world over are so different, Corris P.A. Davis
>Yet have so much in common, UMBC
>One Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ cdavis4 at gl.umbc>"If I am here by God's Grace,
>then by God's Grace, I am here."
>***************************************************************************
****
>
