Peter Berkowitz writes at Real Clear Politics about the Marxist undercurrent of the recent campus protests.

Marxist Spirit Underpins Campus Protests

The latest rounds of student rage over alleged racial discrimination—and the subsequent administrative acquiescence to student demands—at American universities should come as no surprise. For decades U.S. institutions of higher education have cultivated an obsession with supposedly hidden-but-ubiquitous oppression.

This is especially typical of the nation’s elite schools, which train the faculty and set the tone for campuses throughout the country. Now they are losing control.

In late October, a group of Yale undergraduates demanded a university-mandated Halloween dress code. When a residential college associate master invited them to consider alternatives—ignoring costumes they found offensive or explaining their concerns to the wearer—the educator (and her husband, the master of the college) were denounced. In response to the ensuing uproar, and on top of $50 million he had already announced in early November to increase faculty diversity, Yale President Peter Salovey launched several other costly initiatives to promote understanding of race, identity, and inclusion.

In mid-November, at a “Blackout” rally at Brown University, Candice Ellis, class of 2016, declared, “We are here because of systemic and insidious problems of structural and institutional racism that prevail at Brown University, at Yale University, at Mizzou and at countless other institutions across the nation.” A week later, Brown President Christina Paxson unveiled a $100 million plan to make Brown a “just and inclusive campus.”