In shielding students from military recruiters, universities disserve both their students and the military whose policies they hope to liberalize. They fail to treat students as mature adults who can weigh the evidence and make their own choices among employers without the universities' thumb on the scales. They supposedly cherish diversity, but then reduce students' exposure to a world view - opposition to gays in the military - that is the law of the land and is preached by some of the great religions to which many of the students subscribe.

Universities exhibit little intellectual or moral subtlety when they treat all who hold that view as a single species of invidious homophobes - regardless of whether their view proceeds from the kind of blind hatred that murdered Matthew Shepard or from ethical traditions or prudential concerns shared by many thoughtful, morally scrupulous people.

Universities should allow equal, unfettered access to their students by any employer whose policy with regard to sexual orientation is legal, so long as that policy is disclosed. The issue is not what the universities think about "don't ask, don't tell" - they have made that clear - but how their students view it.