Last week, officials of the Hillel/Jewish Student Organization group — a Jewish student organization — were rejected from posting a note on the CMU listserv advising staff and faculty some students may be absent because of the Jewish High Holiday Yom Kippur.

“If I were a member of the university community I would wonder,” said Rich Morrison, public relations and marketing senior officer. “The bottom line is I think we made a mistake.”

CMU officials said the message was rejected on the basis of separation of church and state.

The message submitted by the Christian group announced an event on campus to discuss the differences between creation and evolution.

The message was submitted by a faculty member, which is a requirement for posting, Morrision said.

“Christ the King Lutheran Church is hosting the seminar and to me that raises a flag because the event is being hosted by an outside group,” he said.

Morrison said the timing is unfortunate because the Hillel/Jewish Student Organization was unable to send out its information.

Hillel/Jewish Student Organization adviser Bob Bankirer said he just wanted the opportunity to inform faculty and staff that some students may not be here because of Yom Kippur.

“I’m not upset with fact (the Christian organization) was allowed to and I was not because you learn to live with these types of situations,” he said. “I would just like to have the same opportunity, that’s all.”

Morrison did not see the message regarding the evolution seminar before it was sent out, and said it is questionable whether it should have been sent out at all.

“The reason we shouldn’t have sent out the message is because it’s not a CMU sponsored event and that was our reasoning in saying we made a mistake,” said Barbara Chovanec, editor of Inside CMU and Central Light.

Chovanec said the request from the Hillel /Jewish Student Organization was recommended for the facility listserv, while the Christian organization put their information on the all staff list.

Morrison said a new staff member sent the message through after hours Monday night.

“She made a judgment call and I don’t want to hang her out to dry — if a mistake was made the mistake was mine,” Morrison said. “I don’t think she was aware of some of the feedback regarding other messages.”

Morrison said there are two to three staff members in the office that can authorize messages.

“I trust their judgment,” he said. “I haven’t reviewed the (messages) before they go out and I don’t plan on changing that. I think folks involved are more sensitive and aware of the issues.”

Morrison said he will form a group — made up of representatives from students, academic and administrative areas — to review guidelines in general and specifically about announcements that have religious information.

The group will be formed within the next few weeks, he said.

Another possibility is the creation of a permanent Web site that will list all religious holidays or Holy Days.

“I think there is merit in looking at listing the major religious holidays,” Morrison said. “But then, of course, where do you stop.”

Morrison said there are two different types of campus wide e-mail messages sent out to faculty and staff.

“Listserv messages go to every computer with a CMU e-mail address and they go out from the Human Resources Office,” he said. “They don’t go out all the time, just occasionally with special messages that relate to all employees.”

Staff messages go out daily from the Public Relations and Marketing Office and faculty and staff have the option of ending their subscription to the service.

Morrison said the Office of Human Resources used their best judgment with the decisions regarding the Hillel/Jewish Student Organization.

“I don’t hold anyone at fault, but I think it’s important enough to get the word out about these kinds of messages and how they can best be handled in the future,” he said.

The office of general council said the same issue of posting religious-oriented messages on the listserv was addressed last year.

General Council officials said they developed a policy that would not run specific notices to participate in religious activities for a particular denomination.