New York’s largest Catholic university has decided not to recognise today’s US holiday as “Christopher Columbus Day’’, despite the day traditionally observing and being held in honour of the explorer who discovered the New World.
The academic calendar of St. John’s University instead now describes the holiday, which occurs on the second Monday of each October, as a “fall mini-break" , which sees the "university closed" and "no classes”, reports the New York Post.
“It’s outrageous not acknowledging Columbus, it’s just ludicrous,” said former Brooklyn state Assemblyman Peter Abbate, a St. John’s alumnus who earned a bachelor’s degree in history and political science at the university.
