University officials are denying the claims made in a lawsuit filed by an evangelical Christian group against Penn State President Graham Spanier and Vice President for Student Affairs Vicky Triponey.

DiscipleMakers Christian Fellowship filed the suit Oct. 8, alleging the university's nondiscrimination policy for student organizations interferes with the requirement that officers "adhere to orthodox Christian beliefs, including the Bible's prohibition of sexual conduct between persons of the same sex."

Triponey denied the claim, and said the policy applies to membership and not to officer selection. She said the university had no intention of becoming involved in the selection of officers for any student group.

"What they were doing was perfectly in line with our policies," she said. "We were not going after DiscipleMakers for anything."

Triponey said she was frustrated the group did not contact the Office of Student Affairs before pursuing legal action.

"We literally got a letter from these attorneys saying they had an issue we needed to address," she said.

In response to that letter, the university wrote to DiscipleMakers to confirm it had no intention of interfering with officer selection, Triponey said.

"I am confirming that the qualifications your group utilizes for selection of its officers do not implicate the nondiscrimination clause," she wrote in a Sept. 29 letter to DiscipleMakers President Michelle Dripps.

In an Oct. 7 letter to Dripps, Triponey addressed the university's willingness to review and clarify the policy's wording.

"The university is undertaking a review to determine what policy revisions are appropriate to clarify that student organizations may select officers in accordance with the standards developed and implemented by those organizations," she wrote. "In the interim, of course, you have the University's continuing assurance that DiscipleMakers' criteria for selection of officers will not result in any adverse action affecting your status as a recognized student organization."

Tim Tracey, a Center for Law and Religious Freedom attorney representing DiscipleMakers, said the university's offer was not enough of a guarantee.

"Our experience with other universities has taught us that it's better to act now instead of waiting a year in the hopes that the university will address the problem," he said. "If they could have given us something more definite, I think we would have been a lot more comfortable with that."

Triponey's letter said the policy review would be completed "well before" the fall 2005 deadline for DiscipleMakers to renew its registered status.

Tracey said the organization would have liked a more specific time frame than was stated in Triponey's letter.

Mark Taticchi, an Undergraduate Student Government Supreme Court associate justice, said the fact that the university has never attempted to interfere with officer selection implies groups have the ability to determine their own policies for officers.

"The voting members can vote based on whatever criteria they want," he said. "It's a personal choice."

Taticchi said his conclusion is based on past Penn State actions, since the policy itself is not very clear.

"I think the way the clause is written, it's intended to guarantee students' right to pursue the office but obviously doesn't guarantee who would win it," he said. "It's not something that's clearly spelled out."