The University of Florida faced a discrimination lawsuit this past Tuesday after an all male Christian group was denied participation as an official student organization.
According to the Associated Press, Beta Upsilon Chi was not allowed to be a student organization because the group allows only men to join.
The organization was not recognized in the off-campus Greek system because it requires members to be of a specific faith.
Not being recognized by the University of Florida meant the organization would not receive access to provided meeting space, student funds or be allowed to recruit new members on campus.
BUC’s Web site said the organization was started “by a handful of Christian men who desired an alternative to the present fraternal lifestyle.”
BUC has 21 chapters on campuses across the southern United States. The organization was started in Texas where it hosts 10 different university locations.
“The only two requirements are that you are a male and that you agree with our doctrinal statement,” said Chris Hurst, BUC Alumni Coordinator.
Hurst said the organization does require members to be Christians, although he pointed out not all Christians would agree with the organization’s doctrinal statement.
Angela Guillory, director of Greek Affairs, said via e-mail the University’s Office of Greek Affairs mostly deals with social fraternities. Because BUC is a non-social fraternity it would be considered an organization under the Center for Student Leadership and Involvement, she said.
Michelle Lowery, assistant director of the Center for Student Leadership and Involvement, said the organization would have to make changes to its policies if it sought student organization status at the University.
According to the CSLIWeb site, organizations may not “deny membership on any basis prohibited by applicable law, including but not limited to sex, race, color, national origin, religion, age, veteran status, disability, marital status, or sexual preference.”
Lowery said these regulations reflect state and federal anti-discrimination laws.
“You have to be open to all students, but your officers may be more restricted,” she said.
Lowery mentioned a Muslim student organization that allows all sexes to join but has only men in officer positions.
While numerous student organizations at LSU are religion-based, none have been denied recognition by the CSLI based on requiring members to be of a certain sex or creed.
Many University fraternities and sororities have roots in religion without such stringent membership requirements as Beta Upsilon Chi.
BUC’s Web site sets forth a series of statements about their religious beliefs, including the Trinity and the Bible as “God’s written revelation to man … without error in the original manuscripts.”
The advocacy groups that filed the lawsuit, the Christian Legal Society and the Alliance Defense Fund, also sued the University of Georgia in 2006 under similar circumstances. The case was settled when the University of Georgia agreed to recognize BUC and amended its nondiscrimination requirement to allow BUC an exemption to discriminate based on religion.
The only other opposition the organization has faced in becoming recognized was at the University of Missouri. BUC was eventually recognized after the situation was resolved through correspondence from the organization’s legal team. According to Tim Tracy, litigation counsel for BUC, the University of Florida not only denied BUC’s recognition because of its gender requirement but also said the university would be kicking out Kappa Upsilon Chi and Sigma Phi Lambda, two Christian Greek organizations that have already established chapters.
“[The suit] has been filed, but we have not been served with it yet,” said Steve Orlando, University of Florida spokesperson.
Orlando said he could not comment further on pending litigation.
The Title IX Education Amendments of 1972 set forth guidelines to ensure universities do not discriminate against students. The landmark legislation made a big splash in collegiate athletics, mandating that universities provide equal opportunity to both men and women.
Social fraternities and sororities have exemptions to Title IX that allow them to restrict members by sex.
Because BUC is not considered a social fraternity, it would not get exemption from Title IX.
Tracy said almost all of BUC’s chapters are recognized as student organizations, not as social fraternities. None of BUC’s chapters are recognized by the inner-fraternity councils at their respective institutions.
“[BUC] applied with a Christian sorority with them … if there were any title IX concern, that should have satisfied it. It doesn’t appear to me that this is Title IX driven,” Tracy said.
Tracy also believes Title IX only applies to educational programs. The fraternity and sorority clauses of Title IX are present in case a university believes an organization may fall under the statute, he said.
Tracy contended the real issue at stake was the First Amendment.
“There is no federal or state law that prohibits a student organization from discriminating,” Tracy said. “There is a disconnect between the student organization and the university. If it were otherwise, then they couldn’t recognize religious student organizations at all because it violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment.”
The disconnect, he said, is with regard to the funding of student organizations.
“What the case is about is a university singling out a religious fraternity, which we would say the First Amendment precludes,” Tracy said.
—-Contact Mark Macmurdo at [email protected]