Ah, Yale. Prestigious Ivy League University. In addition to five American presidents and many foreign heads of state, its storied halls have been trod by authors and artists such as Sinclair Lewis, Tom Wolfe, William F. Buckley, Paul Newman, Meryl Streep, Cole Porter, and many others whose lives embodied free expression.

But now at Yale, free expression just might be on its way out, courtesy of twenty-something students who experienced profound emotional trauma due to Halloween costumes. Yes, Halloween costumes — frivolous things that when I was younger were pretty much limited to children. Except in this case these Yale students are acting just like children. Oh, the irony.

Just prior to Halloween, a dean from Yale’s Intercultural Affairs Council sent an email to Yale’s undergraduate student body, requesting that students be “thoughtful” (read, politically correct) about the type of costumes they chose to celebrate Halloween. Responding to what she felt were demands rather than mere recommendations, Associate Master of Yale’s Silliman College, Erika Christakis, did the unthinkable: she stood up for free expression. Part of her emailed response read:

Is there no room anymore for a child or young person to be a little bit obnoxious… a little bit inappropriate or provocative or, yes, offensive? American universities were once a safe space not only for maturation but also for a certain regressive, or even transgressive, experience; increasingly, it seems, they have become places of censure and prohibition.

All hell broke loose.

Over 700 undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and alumni signed on to an open letter, claiming that Christakis’s “offensive” email invalidated minority students. An open forum was held to discuss “institutional racism” that allegedly exists at Yale. While Erika Christakis and her husband Nicholas Christakis — who serves as Master of Silliman College — invited angry students to a lunch scheduled for Sunday, the invitation was condemned, with one student contending that Christakis “needs to stop instigating debate.”

How’s that for free speech on campus?

Then there were the protests. Watch how unhinged students tear into Nicholas Christakis — remember now, this was about Halloween costumes.