The ISU Athletics Council voted 7 to 1 in favor of a job description for a proposed position that would give a volunteer access to the ISU football team to provide religious counseling.

If the position is approved by President Gregory Geoffroy, the council said it would not be known as a chaplain, but rather as a “volunteer life skills assistant.”

The creation of the position would come only with an understanding of the guidelines for a life skills assistant, which were provided by both Athletic Director Jamie Pollard and the athletics council.

Guidelines for the position were created to curtail the worries of the 133 faculty members who signed a petition opposing the position of a team chaplain for the ISU football team.

“The life skills assistant should be explicitly prohibited from any team activity or religious content including prayer or religious studies which are mandatory,” said Tim Day, chairman of the athletics council and associate professor of biomedical sciences. “The life skills assistant should be available to meet the faith needs of student athletes, not only to those of their particular denomination of faith and may engage in religious activities with those seeking such engagement outside of team functions.”

The guidelines made it clear the position would not be supported by any state, university, athletic or foundation funds. The position, however, may be funded by an outside agency. Day said in an interview after the meeting the council was not charged in determining where the funds for the position would come from. He also said the Fellowship of Christian Athletes funding the position remains a possibility.

“What I understand to be the final recommendations that we are going to make, [a person] would not be precluded from working as a volunteer with ISU student athletes if they are from the FCA,” Day said.

Hector Avalos, associate professor of religious studies and co-author of the petition, was not satisfied with the proposal.

“We’re not going to have a chaplain, we’re going to have a life skills volunteer,” he said. “The problem is he’s still going to be doing the same things as a chaplain.”

Avalos said the problem stems from the idea of “one-size-fits-all religious counseling.”

“There’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all religious counseling,” he said. “They think there’s just one sort of religious counseling that everyone is going to want, and that’s just not the case.”

William David, university professor of music and co-author of the petition, said he was “troubled” by the idea that there had been a chaplain for the last 10 years and was not satisfied by all the guidelines the council spelled out.

“It’s been an unconstitutional idea for 10 years,” he said. “This window dressing and semantic distinctions about what you call the person doesn’t change the reality of what this person is going to do.”

As for the next step, Avalos said it depends on what Geoffroy does, but said the American Civil Liberties Union, Freedom from Religion Foundation, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State are all interested in challenging the case legally and they would see what they have to say.

Last April, football coach Gene Chizik reportedly told a crowd at a Central and Western Iowa FCA banquet that he was interested in hiring a full-time chaplain that would be funded privately for the football team.

A group of faculty members started a petition which voiced opposition to the position, saying it would violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment.