New Jersey University Scraps Chick-fil-A from Menu Over Christian Values

Chick-fil-A is defending itself against a private New Jersey university that believes the company's Christian values disqualify it from the student menu. 

Earlier this year, Rider University asked students to fill out a survey about what restaurants they want on campus. When a number of students voted to bring Chick-fil-A to Rider, the university pulled the restaurant as an option, "based on this company's record widely perceived to be in opposition to the LGBTQ community."

The popular restaurant fired back, arguing that serving sandwiches has nothing to do with the LGBTQ community. 

"Chick-fil-A is a restaurant company focused on food, service and hospitality, and our restaurants and licensed locations on college campuses welcome everyone. We have no policy of discrimination against any group, and we do not have a political or social agenda," a company spokesperson told CBS News.

Chick-fil-A came under fire after Ceo Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press in 2012 he is very "supportive of the family – the biblical definition of the family unit."

Many activists saw Cathy's religious convictions as anti-LGBT and vowed to boycott the restaurant. 

Rider University said it understands that some may view its decision to ax Chick-fil-A from the survey "as being just another form for 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," the university said in a statement, adding that it seeks to be "faithful to our values of inclusion."

The university has asked the Rider's Center for Diversity and Inclusion to hold a campus forum so "the voices of students, faculty, staff and others can continue to be heard."