A lawsuit filed Oct. 8 by the DiscipleMakers Christian Fellowship against Penn State was suspended yesterday when the university agreed to clarify its nondiscrimination policy concerning the election of student group leaders.

The suit alleged that Penn State's nondiscrimination policy, which states that the university prohibits discrimination because of religion, interfered with the group's ability to elect its officers because they are required to adhere to a statement of faith.

"DiscipleMakers requires that its students have sincerely held moral beliefs and adhere to a statement of faith," said Tim Tracey, the group's attorney and a member of Center for Law and Religious Freedom. "We wanted to make sure that the group would be able to select its officers based on that statement without interfering with Penn State's nondiscrimination policy."

Penn State spokesman Tysen Kendig said the university has always stood firmly behind its policy of nondiscrimination in student group membership based on gender, race, religion and sexual orientation, but added that the policy will be edited to specifically address the issue of electing student leaders.

"Basically, we are putting into words that our nondiscrimination policy does not interfere with how student groups choose their leaders," Kendig said. "This means that DiscipleMakers or any other student group can police themselves and discriminate in their leadership selection if they want to."

The lawsuit will remain suspended until those changes are made.

Vicky Triponey, vice president for student affairs, said Penn State has never infringed upon a group's right to elect its leaders, and it never would, even without the policy clarification.

"It always has and always will be our stance that student groups have the right to elect leaders based on their own criteria," she said.

Kendig said the written policy would be reviewed by the Office of Student Affairs as part of its annual student policy review before Aug. 1, although the exact date has not yet been set.

Triponey said the policy review this summer is especially important because the Office of Student Affairs took over student group registration at the beginning of this year.

She added that the review process would not be moved up because of the pending litigation.

"As part of the settlement, we insisted that these changes be made a part of our routine evaluation of our policies regarding student groups," Triponey said.

Tracey said the group is pleased with Penn State's decision, but said DiscipleMakers will wait to see if the university actually makes the proposed amendment to the policy.

"We are hopeful that they will follow through on what they have promised," he said. "We've both agreed that if they adhere, the suit will be dropped, but if they do not adhere, we will continue with the litigation."

He added that the next step in the legal process would be holding interviews with DiscipleMakers members and those named in the suit, including Triponey and Penn State President Graham Spanier, but he did not know when those interviews would occur.

DiscipleMakers secretary Lindsay Kawtoski said the group will not comment on the suit and all comments are being deferred to Tracey.

Tracey said he advised group members not to comment on the suit until the policy regarding selection of student leaders has been implemented.

"We've advised them that we'll be the ones to comment on the matter at this time," he said. "This is usually the course of action taken when litigation has been suspended."