Atlanta, USA - The University of Georgia will recognize the Christian fraternity Beta Upsilon Chi as a student organization and plans to review its nondiscrimination policy to consider allowing groups to select members based on religion, UGA officials said Thursday.
The fraternity filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in Athens Wednesday claiming the university refused to recognize them because they required all of their members to pledge their belief in Jesus Christ. The group, which was founded by six students in 2005 and now has more than 30 members, has 16 other chapters all over the nation. UGA recognized the group as a student organization last year but denied them continued recognition this November.
To register as a student group, a student organization had to fill out a form stating "membership and all privileges, including voting and officer positions, must be extended to all students, without regard to age, ethnicity, gender, disability, color, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status," according to the suit.
UGA spokesman Tom Jackson said Thursday the university will remove the religion clause from the policy for the Christian fraternity to settle this particular situation and is discussing "an exception to religious discrimination (that) could be put into place much like an exception to gender discrimination is in place for same-sex social fraternities and sororities."
Timothy Tracey, a lawyer with the Christian Legal Society, which was representing the fraternity, said he was encouraged by the news.
"We're concerned that there is a long term solution," he said. "If they amend their policy, we hope that will solve the problem."