Much to my parents', but certainly not to my, dismay, I have never really been a devout Catholic.

I have completed all of those sacramental requirements up to this point, and I figure one day I will probably hit up marriage.

But in terms of weekly church attendance and other similar factors that are important to the church, I am a self-proclaimed disappointment in the eyes of my parents and other hard-core Catholics.

Disappointments considered, I still think we should have off for Easter's holy days.

Even with scheduled classes on both days, I have decided to go home and spend Easter weekend with the 'rents and treking all the way back here on Easter evening. Although I am not uber-religious, the choice to go home was mainly my own.

They tell me Easter is not just a regular Sunday, or even your average holiday; Easter is a pretty important observance.

I have begun to believe this, and now, for the life of me, I cannot figure out why Penn State has never given its students, faculty and staff time off on either the Friday before (Good Friday) or the Monday after (Easter Monday).

Now I don't like class as much as the next slacker, but I have never really been one to gripe about the days we don't have off. Most students would probably spend the eve of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day boozing it up, or lounging at home anyway.

Even so, it still would be nice to have off that Monday after Easter so I didn't have to travel back here on Easter Sunday.

I understand separation of church and state, and I would fully support this, if in fact there were not inherent contradictions with this ideal.

Take for example Christmas; virtually the entire country shuts down for this Christian holiday. Colleges "conveniently" choose to end their semesters around this time so that students can have off to celebrate, and school districts allow their students time off to do the same.

If church and state were really separate, would the government, schools, and private businesses go as far as to rearrange their schedules to close on Christmas? No, they would not.

I have concluded that there is no way I could ever change this practice; therefore, I pose the question why Easter would not warrant the same consideration.

Then I look at the facts: most school districts choose to schedule their spring break so that students are off for both Good Friday and Easter Monday; many colleges give their students off for at least one of these days, and the government recognizes Easter Monday as an official federal holiday.

Now it seems that this holiday is given the same consideration as Christmas. So why then, does Penn State choose to go against the grain and hold classes on these days?

I suppose we are behind the times here; next year is the first time the university will recognize MLK Day with the cancellation of classes since the holiday became a federal observance in 1986.

Logically, one would think the days around Easter would be the next the university observes.

Now that we've gotten MLK Day off, I think something should be done to the university calendar for Easter.

But why stop there? Let's further modify it to include all other religious, federal and recognized holidays.

Let's have all the damned days off!

Once the university acknowledges Good Friday and Easter Monday, then what about the Jewish holidays Roshashana and Yom Kippur?

Certainly they must also give the Muslim holidays Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha the same treatment.

And what about other historical observances such as Columbus Day and President's Day?

Certainly these days do have merit in this country; they are federal holidays as well.

Don't forget about the local holidays Groundhog Day. Everything shuts down in Punxsutawney when Phil comes out, and because of our close proximity, we should get that one off too.

I'm sure cases can be made to have virtually every day off from classes, so why don't we just have them all off: Arbor Day, Flag Day, Valentine's Day, and even all of those Canadian and Australian bank holidays that I see on my calendar.

Certainly students, faculty and staff need time off to celebrate these days.

But then I guess the administration could see this as an opening of the floodgates for innumerable days without classes each year. Groundhog Day is an extreme, but some of the legitimate federal holidays aren't quite as absurd.

There are a lot of gray areas when deciding just which holidays a university observes.

But if Christmas is on that list, shouldn't Easter be as well?

Since it took so long for Penn State to finally recognize MLK Day, then Easter will most likely never make the short list of days we have off from classes.

I'm not too worried about it though; even if we did have those days off, it's not like a faux Catholic like me would actually spend that time in church.

But it would be nice. Wouldn't it?