The Tufts University branch of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA lost school recognition as a student group due to the group’s leadership requirements.

The evangelical Christian group requires leaders to adhere to “basic biblical truths.” The university said the leadership requirements laid out in the group’s constitution violate the university’s nondiscriminatory policies because they prevent those of other beliefs from getting involved, The Weekly Standard reported on Oct. 22.

The university’s Community Union Judiciary recommended the group to revise their Constitution in September, but Tufts Christian Fellowship failed to sufficiently change the document. As a result, the group will no longer be able to bear the Tufts name for future meetings, request university space or apply for funding from the TU Treasury, The Weekly Standard reported.

The article stated that members of TCF plan to appeal the decision.

Elaine Kim, a member of the vision and planning team at TCF, in an email to The Daily Orange, said that leaders are currently seeking an “acceptable resolution to (TCF’s) de-recognition by the student government.”

Group members are busy with the 10-day appeal process on top of academic studies, and no one in TCF is available for interviews at the time, she said.

There are eight moral requirements to become a leader in TCF. These tenets range from believing in a God that exists “in three persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” to believing salvation only comes through accepting Jesus Christ’s teachings. In addition, the role of a leader sometimes entails encouraging others to look into their faith, according to an Oct. 22 Action Institute PowerBlog post.

The Judiciary board said these legally binding requirements should not be demanded of student leaders and should only be conveyed in the group’s mission statement, according to the blog.

The administration’s decision to revoke TCF’s affiliation with the university sparked a variety of opinions from students, faculty and the media.

Kim said in an Oct. 22 Tufts Daily article, the school’s independent student newspaper, that TCF should have the right to appoint leaders based on religious ideology.

“We feel like we have the right to be selective on the basis of belief for our leaders since we’re a student group that is trying to encourage understanding about a faith-based set of beliefs,” Kim said in the article.

A post published in the Action Institute blog said it was peculiar that TU would derecognize a religious group on campus for holding high standards for church leaders. The post accused the administration of not accepting “people or groups whose views do not align with those of the administrators.”

“According to Tufts, an Evangelical Christian group is being discriminatory by expecting its leaders to adhere to beliefs held by… Evangelical Christians,” according to the blog.

The Judiciary, however, rebutted these criticisms, claiming that the group was given a month to revise its constitution and resubmit it. Judiciary Chair Adam Sax, a senior, said in the Tufts Daily article that the deadline for resubmission was Oct. 18, which was enough time to convince the Judiciary that “this is something that needs to start getting done.”

Kim said in an email that the group doesn’t want to cause controversy on campus or in the media.

“We are concerned that this situation has the potential to stoke the flames of anger by outside observers against this or that community,” Kim said. “We ask for respect, love and civility to guide all reporting and commenting about the situation. God bless.”

Published on October 25, 2012 at 12:46 am

Contact Andrew: asmuckel@syr.edu