University of Pittsburgh, Student Dispute Sage Burning in Dormitory
Story-Date: 12:21 p.m. PST Sunday   , October 5, 1997

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University of Pittsburgh, Student Dispute Sage Burning in Dormitory


By K. Marie Porterfield, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D.
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News

PITTSBURGH, Pa.--Oct. 6--When University of Pittsburgh student Fred
Sinkevich burned sage in his dorm room during his freshman year, two
resident advisors pounded on his door, demanding the history major put it
out.

"They said it was a violation of dorm policy," Mr. Sinkevich said, who is
part Lakota. "Smudging with sage and sweet grass is part of my heritage,
and I do it as a spiritual ceremony."

Now a senior at the University of Pittsburgh, he is still battling
university officials over his right to pray.

Last April, Robert Gallagher, interim vice chancellor for student affairs,
reaffirmed the school policy on sage burning. "The University cannot permit
you to burn anything within your residence hall room even as a religious
rite," he said, citing the student code of conduct.

Although the school bans the burning of incense, candles and "like
materials" because of fire danger, Mr. Gallagher offered to find an
alternative place for Mr. Sinkevich to pray.

"He preferred to do it in his room and we can understand that," Mr.
Gallagher said. "We have a no smoking policy in the dorm rooms and we
decided that it took priority."

Mr. Sinkevich is the president and founder of University of Pittsburgh's
Native American Student Association and has been working with school
officials to create a Native American studies certificate.

"Basically they were just wasting my time," he said of his talks with
school officials. "In the places where there was privacy, burning sage
would violate the smoking rules. It came down to them telling me that I
could burn sage in the chemistry lab under the hood."

Although Mr. Gallagher described the situation as "pretty much resolved,"
Mr. Sinkevich said he will continue to try to change university policy. A
lawyer from London, England has volunteered to help him fight the
university.

According to Bob Peregoy and Keith Harper of Washington, D.C., attorneys
for the Native American Rights Fund, although private schools can dictate
students' religious practices, public institutions, such as the University
of Pittsburgh cannot.

"The chances of winning a case like this depend on whether or not the state
has it's own American Indian Religious Freedom Act in place," Mr. Peregoy
said.

A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court two months ago, overturned the Religious
Freedom Restoration Act, removing the obligation of the state to prove
that its laws and policies were the least restrictive possible on the right
to free exercise of religion.

"Based on that decision, the courts can hold that a neutral law, like one
that bans smoking, doesn't impermissibly burden religious freedom," Mr.
Peregoy said.

Mr. Sinkevich said that he is motivated by the same concern that led him to
start the Native American Student Association. "I'm not doing this for me
-I'm doing it for the next American Indian students who come to the
University of Pittsburgh," he said.

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(c) 1997, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Distributed by
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News.



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