ISU President Gregory Geoffroy has announced he will not support a Faculty Senate resolution, passed Tuesday, to discontinue its support of the United Way of Story County because of the organization’s funding of the Boy Scouts of America.

The decision to cut ties came because of the United Way’s support of the Scouts, which has what the senate called a discriminatory policy against homosexuals.

Geoffroy told the Daily he would not accept the resolution.

According to a statement released by the university, Geoffroy said he believes “ending the university’s participation in the Story County United Way would cause a great deal of harm to programs and services that many people in the community depend upon.”

Carla Fehr, assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies, said at the Faculty Senate’s meeting Tuesday the university’s support of United Way “directly conflicts with [Iowa State’s] nondiscriminatory policy.”

Max Wortman, president of the Faculty Senate, said Geoffroy’s recommendation would be presented to the 17-member senate executive board at its April 1 meeting. He said the executive board would then decide what course of action to take. Wortman said he could not recall the senate having any decisions rejected by the president in recent times.

He noted that ten people had abstained from voting on the issue, which was passed 34 to 27. “You only needed four people to change their mind … that’s how close that vote was,” he said.

Wortman said the United Way’s involvement with Iowa State includes being allowed to use the university’s mailing list to collect anonymous donations from ISU employers. If separated from the university, the United Way would be responsible for individually mailing donation envelopes to each employer and “administrative costs for the United Way would go up,” Wortman said.