When George Fain visits a grave today to mark a pagan holiday, she won't have to worry about the work she's missing in her classes at Marshall University in Huntington.

That's because her absence on the Samhain holiday has been approved by the school, which for the first time is recognizing pagan students' desire to be excused from class for religious holidays and festivals.

The university with an enrollment of about 14,000 may be the only school in the country to formally protect pagan students from being penalized by missing work that falls on religious holidays, although other schools have catchall policies they say protect students from every religious faith.