What passes for an appropriate paper topic in Professor Clifton Snider’s English 100 course at California State University, Long Beach? Mr. Snider offers his students 56 suggestions on his university Web site (www.csulb.edu/%7Ecsnider/argument.html). Our favorite is No. 52: “What evidence do we have that Bush and his cronies lied to the American people and the world in promoting the war with Iraq?” A close second is No. 41: “George W. Bush’s time in the National Guard presents important questions about the character of a man who has sent hundreds of Americans to their deaths in war and killed and maimed untold thousands of others.” Discuss.
Would it have been beyond Mr. Snider to simply suggest a paper on the Iraq war or the constitutional provision of electing a civilian to be commander in chief? In an e-mail to editors at The Washington Times, Mr. Snider emphasizes that his topics list offers mere suggestions, and none are required. Nevertheless, when you frame a “suggestion” in such blatantly partisan terms, what grade-conscious student would argue otherwise?
On his Web site, Mr. Snider also stipulates topics he deems off-limits, because “there is … no other side apart from chauvinistic, religious, or bigoted opinions and pseudo-science.” Among these he includes prayer in public schools, same-sex marriage, the “so-called” faith-based initiative and abortion. In his e-mail Mr. Snider explains that he doesn’t “want to be tempted, even unconsciously, to not be fair” to those students who write “contrary to [his] personal views.” If Mr. Snider, as a professor, can’t vouch for his fairness on topics that dominate the American social landscape, then why in the world would a student dare risk writing contrary to his views on any other topic?
Fortunately for his students, one of them filed a complaint with Students for Academic Freedom, an organization that monitors ideology on campuses. The complaint reads, in part: “[Mr. Snider] then proceeded for the next hour and a half of this ENGLISH class to talk strictly about his hate of the ’president’ (he kept doing the quote signs with his fingers) … There were no more attempts made by Dr. Snider to talk about the true subject matter of the class, ENGLISH.” (Emphasis in original).
As we’ve said before, such unbridled leftist cant as Mr. Snider’s has gone unchecked in academia for too long. It is enough to ask college students to learn how to write well; they shouldn’t have to supervise their teachers.
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