Trey Curtis and J. Quinton Johnson are performing in “Hamilton.” Their friend Vincent Jamal Hooper is Simba in “The Lion King.”

The protests against Israel’s war in Gaza are merely the latest in a tradition of student-led, left-leaning activism dating back at least to the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s.

Getting into a selective college has always been a source of anxiety and stress for students, but this year seemed like academic Hunger Games.