Georgetown University decided last week to disaffiliate itself from various outside Protestant groups, including Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship and Crossroads Campus Christian Fellowship.
The barring of these groups comes as part of a reconstruction effort within the Georgetown Protestant community, according to the university's Director of Communication Erik Smulson.
"During the course of the last year, Campus Ministry has undergone a restructuring of its chaplaincies, including the Protestant Chaplaincy," Smulson said. "As part of this restructuring, Georgetown Campus Ministry decided not to renew the annual covenant agreements with the outside organizations that served as affiliated ministries in the 2005-'06 academic year."
Smulson said the university hopes its disaffiliation with these groups will help strengthen the Georgetown Protestant community by making them less dependent on outside ministry groups.
"With this restructuring has come a desire in the Protestant Chaplaincy to build the ministry from within Georgetown and its Protestant student leaders rather than rely on outside groups or fellowships," he said.
Smulson said the new Protestant Chaplaincy will continue to work for the needs of all students despite the reduction in the number of ministries.
"Hopefully this restructuring of the Chaplaincy will provide a more consistent and focused effort to work with the Protestant students to ensure that their spiritual needs are being met," he said.
Reverend Shawn Gaylen, who served as director of Chi Alpha at Georgetown prior to university action, said students felt "angry and hurt, feeling a bit betrayed."
Gaylen said Chi Alpha was not consulted prior to the university's disaffiliation and was not given sufficient information on the action.
"We did press for a clearer explanation and were told that they were concerned about outside groups because they could not control what [affiliate ministries] do or said," Gaylen said.
According to both The Washington Post and the Chronicle for Higher Education, the university's decision may have been based upon alleged evangelizing and pushing students to convert to their respective religions. However, Smulson said this was not a motivating reason.
Elaina Houser, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs and an active member of AU's Chi Alpha chapter, said she feels the decision unfairly targets Protestants.
"I was very shocked because they didn't get rid of any other groups of any other religions," Houser said. "It seemed like a direct attack on Protestant Christians or even the more evangelical Christians."
According to United Methodist Chaplain Mark Shaefer, AU experienced a similar situation when the University Chaplain barred the D.C. Church of Christ "because of practices that were deemed to be destructive."
"AU has a policy that prohibits 'aggressive proselytizing' that is harrassing, intimidating conduct," Shaefer explained in reference to AU's disaffiliation with the D.C. Church of Christ. "That however, was an extreme situation, and while not having all the information about the situation at Georgetown, it doesn't sound like that was the circumstance on that campus."
Gaylen said Georgetown students, parents and Chi Alpha supporters will write to the administration asking it to reverse its decision.
"Georgetown has stated in many statements and publications that they are open to all religious faiths and traditions," Gaylen said. "We do not feel their decision is in line with their stated mission."
Alexandra Salzman, a sophomore in the School of International Service and a member of Chi Alpha at AU, said that from what she has heard, some of the members at Georgetown have resolved to continue meeting internally.
"Just because they were kicked off campus won't change what they believe or how they practice what they believe," Salzman said.
Some students from the disbanded Georgetown Chi Alpha Group have expressed interest in attending AU's services and may attend services this coming Thursday, Houser said.
