Students debated the legality of Iowa State’s non-discrimination statement Tuesday.

Cody Leclaire, senior in landscape architecture and president of the Interfaith Council of Iowa State University, explained the gathering.

“There was an issue last year that caught our attention and we feel that students need to have an idea of what non-discrimination means,” Leclaire said.

Members of the Interfaith Council and interested participants discussed different aspects of discrimination.

The Interfaith Council started a little over a year ago on the basis of the Christian Legal Society v. Martinez Supreme Court case to challenge the legality of the UC Hastings College of the Law non-discrimination statement. Currently there has been no Supreme Court case testing the legality of the ISU non-discrimination statement, which is why Leclaire believed this discussion was necessary.

Before the discussion started, Leclaire stressed the importance of respect and understanding, to all of the participants, during a conversation such as this.

Two main questions were discussed:

• To be a leader of a group, should you have to agree with the written belief statement of the group?
• If someone would like to do charity work for an organization with a specific religious affiliation, should the organization be required to accept that person into the organization?

These questions inspired conversation and debate about how people would deal with each issue personally.

“The leadership is the only place I can see the potential need for more strict standards,” said Jordan Adams, junior in child, adult and family services and member of Salt Company. “It seems like more of an issue than if a member doesn’t agree exactly with a group’s statement.”

Emily Martin, junior in religious studies, addressed the second question.

“I don’t feel that someone’s faith affects their ability to park cars [at a charity event],” Martin said.

Anastasia Bodnar, graduate in agronomy and president of the Atheist and Agnostic Society, proposed different issues that might arise in certain situations.

“Personally, I hope that students walk away just having thought about it,” Bodnar said, feeling that most students haven’t looked at the statement before and don’t know what it is.