Where do legitimate limits of “sameness” end? In campus life—or public life, for that matter—what makes for healthy diversity? If universities are one of our foremost training grounds for citizenship, and if their purpose is not only to prepare students to earn a living but also to live well amidst a diverse democracy, how should we view a mandate toward a more sanitized, monolithic brand of student club leadership?

“We engage in education, not discrimination.”

That’s how an attorney for the California State University system put it, in explaining to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship why 23 of its student clubs on 19 California campuses this fall have been formally “derecognized” by the state’s public university system.

For the first time this semester, all California State University campuses, serving 391,000 undergrads and 55,000 grad students, have formally embraced what the Supreme Court in 2010 called an “all-comers policy.” The state’s rule requires that every student club be open to every student, in both membership and leadership.

That’s hard news for Christian student clubs, which require of their leaders “personal faith in Jesus Christ” and a commitment to abstain from sex until marriage.

Yet California’s decision joins a growing chorus of others: In recent years, Christian fellowship groups on campus have been stripped of official university standing at Tufts University, Bowdoin College,Rollins College, State University of New York, and Vanderbilt. In practice, this means faith-based student-led clubs have lost access to campus rooms for meetings, the opportunity to participate in student activity fairs, and the overall campus legitimacy enjoyed by other student clubs—including the ability to apply for student activity funds.

At odds on these campuses, as a banner New York Times story describes, is a fundamental question about where bias begins and ends.

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