Daniel Kaufman, a philosophy professor, said he didn’t have a complaint about the tree but has had issues with the university scheduling major events during important Jewish holidays when Jews can’t participate.
A Christmas tree that had been removed from the atrium of Strong Hall at Missouri State University will return, along with other religious holiday symbols in that building, school president Michael T. Nietzel said in a news release Thursday morning.
A meeting that had been scheduled Friday to discuss appropriate MSU holiday decorations has been canceled, he said.
“We decided this is the right thing to do, and I am glad there was widespread agreement about it,” Nietzel said in the release. “Missouri State is an institution at which many different religions are represented, and we try to be sensitive to the many views people hold.”
“After having had a chance to air this out a bit more and consider the various perspectives of our campus community, I am happy that the Christmas tree will be back up along with the many others that were already on campus. I hope we can have it on display before the end of the day.”
The 20-foot artificial tree had been taken down Monday after Lorene Stone, dean of the College of Humanities and Public Affairs, was told by the co-chair of the president’s diversity commission that a Jewish faculty member said the tree showed “a lack of sensitivity” to those of other religions.