University Dean Resigns After Chick-fil-A Isn't Allowed On Campus

An official at New Jersey's Rider University has resigned from their position after the school's decision to not allow popular chicken-based, fast-food restaurant Chick-fil-A on its campus.

According to NBC News, Cynthia Newman stepped down from her post as the dean of Rider's College of Business Administration last month. Her decision came on the heels of the university taking a stand against possibly allowing Chick-fil-A to open a branch on its campus.

Last November, Rider surveryed students about which fast-food brands they would like to see be offered on site, and Chick-fil-A—a company with a well-documented, anti-LGBTQ stance who donated millions to antigay groups—topped the list. But university officials then decided to remove the chicken chain from the survey.

"Chick-fil-A was removed as one of the options based on the company's record widely perceived to be in opposition to the LGBTQ+ community," Rider president Gregory G. Dell’Omo and vice president of student affairs Leanna Fenneberg wrote in a letter to students. "We understand that some may view the decision as being just another form of exclusion. We want to be clear that this was not the spirit in which the decision was made. We fully acknowledge an organization’s right to hold these beliefs, just as we acknowledge the right for individuals in our community and elsewhere to also personally hold the same beliefs."

Apparently, Newman took the school's decision personally, citing her religious beliefs in a statement about her resignation.

"I felt like I had been punched in the stomach when I read that statement because I am a very committed Christian," Newman told conservative college news site Campus Reform, according to NBC News. "I really felt it very personally."

She continued: 

"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."

NBC also reports that Newman still plans to return to Rider as a faculty member.