The funny thing is that colleges 'back then' spread radical ideas like liberty... Harvard College was THE hotbed of revolution in 1776 and its students were all about the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Without the early colleges, the Northeast would not have seen a Revolution.
But since ideas take root there... Communism found fertile ground. Especially in the post-Vietnam era. Remember who stayed in college and got PhD's while everyone went off to fight in Vietnam? That's right... hippies, leftists, rich 'fortunate sons'... and now guess who is of a generation that they RUN the colleges and universities? Hire the professors. Approve the research. Appoint the department chairs. Approve the Curriculums....
Don't forget, too, that college tuitions are now all government-funded/guaranteed. Meaning... guess who gets to decide what get taught, studied, how money flows. And research... don't forget research dollars. You don't get a grant for studying Trickle-down Economics or that climate-change is not real.
College towns used to be great places to live. Lots of ideas, good food, events, etc. Now, they are just hotbeds of sedition and, frankly, shitholes, most of them.
If government would get out of the student loan business... and/or if loans were only given for subjects that we 'need' as a nation (ie STEM), then things might be different. But a High-school-indoctrinated idiot (indoctrinated by a teacher indoctrinated at a college), now gets a degree in Gender Studies, comes out with $100,000 in debt and the only place to get a job is... in the Government. Being an activist, bureaucrat and building a power base over manufactured 'gender crises' and BS like that.
Follow the money... Even communism takes money to spread.
Cheers,
Sirhr