As Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship (HRCF) leaders negotiate with administrators about bringing the student group’s constitution into accordance with College non-discrimination guidelines, similar situations on other campuses have drawn the attention of civil liberties advocates.

The uproar on Harvard’s campus arose because HRCF’s constitution requires officers to “subscribe without reserve to...principles of faith” that include belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the existence of the Holy Spirit.

Membership in HRCF is open to students of all faiths, however.

HRCF’s executive board will meet today with Associate Dean of the College David P. Illingworth ’71 to discuss what changes would bring them into compliance with the College’s guidelines, said Deborah C. Morton ’03, a member of HRCF’s executive board.

Illingworth wrote in an e-mail last month that the Committee on College Life believes that student groups should not discriminate when choosing officers.

According to the Faculty of Arts and Science Student Handbook, no official undergraduate organization may have a constitution that discriminates on the basis of creed or several other characteristics.

Illingworth did not rule out taking measures against HRCF for failure to revise its constitution.

“The College will not take any action until the HRCF has an opportunity to consider all of this and decide among themselves the best course to follow,” he wrote last month.

Since the Undergraduate Council first questioned HRCF’s doctrinal requirements for its leaders in November, the religious student group has not received funding from the council or the College.

The ongoing campus debate parallels situations that have recently arisen at two public universities—Rutgers University in New Jersey, and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Not Just at Harvard

Last month, an administrator from UNC-Chapel Hill wrote to the university’s branch of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship that the organization’s charter violates the university’s nondiscrimination policy.

InterVarsity is a national, interdenominational organization with chapters on over 500 campuses. Like HRCF, it requires its officers to adhere to Christian doctrines.

The letter to InterVarsity, written by Jonathan E. Curtis, the Student Union assistant director for student activities and organizations, said the organization would lose university recognition and funding if it did not eliminate the faith requirement for its leaders by the end of this month.

The UNC-Chapel Hill administration’s demands drew criticism from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a Philadelphia-based group that focuses on free-speech issues at colleges and universities throughout the country.