A dean at Rider University in New Jersey has resigned in opposition to the school’s decision to not allow an on-campus Chick-fil-A because of the company’s associated views on homosexuality.
Cynthia Newman, former dean of Rider University’s College of Business Administration, confirmed to The Associated Press that she stepped down last month and will return to her faculty position. Her resignation was first reported by conservative college news site Campus Reform.
Citing her Christian values, Newman said she took the university’s opposition to Chick-fil-A “very personally.”
{mosads}“I felt like I had been punched in the stomach when I read that statement because I am a very committed Christian,” she said of the school’s announcement that they would not consider the restaurant due to its associated values.
Last year, university officials backtracked on the possibility of bringing a Chick-fil-A to campus over the company’s stance on LGBTQ rights, despite the student body overwhelmingly indicating in a survey that they wanted the chain at Rider.
University administrators then removed Chick-fil-A as an option in a second version of the survey, telling students that they sought to be “faithful to our values of inclusion.”
Chick-fil-A has been criticized for years over 2012 comments by the company’s president that Chick-fil-A supports “the biblical definition of the family unit.” The restaurant’s charitable arm has also reportedly donated to a number of anti-LGBTQ groups.
Newman, who resigned as dean on Feb. 14, told the AP that she could not abide by the school’s suggested “talking points” for faculty about how they should respond to criticism of the decision.
“I am not willing to compromise my faith and Christian values, and I will not be viewed as being in any way complicit when an affront is made to those values,” she said.