The Undergraduate Council’s decision last month to postpone its grant to the Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship (HRCF) has led College administrators to scrutinize the student group’s bylaws and constitution.

At a council meeting last month, representative Jason L. Lurie ’05 charged that the Harvard Asian Baptist Student Koinonia (ABSK) and HRCF discriminate on the basis of religion, and said that supporting these organizations would violate the council’s constitution.

According to excerpts from their constitutions that Lurie read at the meeting, members of both organizations have to subscribe to the groups’ faiths in order to be eligible for leadership positions.

HRCF’s constitution states: “Officers of this organization must subscribe without reserve to...principles of faith” that include belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the existence of the Holy Spirit.

While the grant for ABSK was approved the following week, council Finance Committee Chair Jessica P. Lau ’04 said the HRCF funding remains tabled because administrators are scrutinizing the fellowship’s policies.

Associate Dean of the College David P. Illingworth ’71 wrote in an e-mail that he examined HCRF’s constitution and met with the organization’s executive board after learning of the events at the council meeting.

Illingworth also wrote that he and Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 have “raised the issue of possible discrimination with the Committee on College Life.”

Illingworth indicated that HRCF failed to comply with the Faculty of Arts and Science’s (FAS) non-discrimination policy. According to the FAS Student Handbook, no official undergraduate organization may have a constitution that discriminates on the basis of creed or several other characteristics.

“The sense of the [Committee on College Life] on this matter was quite clear: student groups should not discriminate for membership or in the choice of officers,” Illingworth wrote. “I have let the HRCF know of this opinion. I have offered to work with them to develop constitutional changes which would bring them into compliance.”

Lewis also wrote in an e-mail that the administration gets involved with student groups’ criteria for choosing leadership “only with great reluctance.”

When the council decided to table the bill, Deborah C. Morton ’03, a member of the organization’s executive board, noted that membership in HRCF is open to all.

Lewis cited the open membership as reason to drop any faith requirements for becoming a leader in the group.

“The simple principle that [all] members of student organizations should be eligible to be officers seems hard to oppose,” he wrote.

Morton, for her part, questioned the ability of a non-Christian to lead the group and said the council’s tabling of HRCF’s grant amounted to “discriminating against religious organizations.”

But according to Lewis, even without the restrictive clause in HRCF’s constitution, the group’s leadership is unlikely to be compromised.