Another Poet For Peace

When English professor Clifton Snider assigns his class an argument paper, he already knows the side of the question that he wants to hear.

Snider teaches at California State University at Long Beach. Off limits arguments for Snider include “Topics on which there is, in my opinion, no other side apart from chauvinistic, religious or bigoted opinions and pseudo-science (for example, female circumcision, prayer in public schools, same-sex marriage, the so-called faith-based initiative, abortion, hate crime laws, the existence of the Holocaust, and so-called creationism.”

What the good doctor will allow are any dissections of the Bush Administration and its policies. A host of topics fall under this rubric, especially his suggested theses on the war in Iraq including

–“Is it right for the Bush Administration to use the War on Terrorism for political or commercial purposes?

–“What evidence do we have that Mr. Bush and his cronies lied to the American people and the world in promoting the war with Iraq?

–“Do you agree that America has lost its “moral authority” in the world because of this immoral war?

Snider himself is a proud member of Poets Against The War (PAW). On his corner of the PAW page he gets to declaim on two of his favorite subjects?

“As if fighting, becoming maimed, and dying in such a war aren’t enough,” Snider writes, “gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals in military service also suffer the discrimination of the military’s sinister ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy.” At least Dr. Snider makes no secret of his biases.

But how do Dr. Snider’s extracurricular interests affect his classroom. Some of his students give us an idea of the overlap on ratemyprofessor.com.

“Oh, and in his comparative literature class basically all you read is **** world lit,” one reviewer wrote.

“OK, if you read his books, it will be an advantage,” wrote another reviewer. “If you don’t, try to mention that you have read his books.”

Dr. Snider has written extensively. He is passionately interested in Oscar Wilde’s “homoerotic imagery” and has published some gay fiction of his own, with titles like Bare Roots.

Another of Dr. Snider’s students gave a snapshot of the professor’s classroom on the www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org website:

“I am taking this English composition class to fulfill my general education (GE) requirements. On the first night of this class, Sep. 1, 2004, Dr. Snider went over the class syllabus for the semester. This syllabus includes 5 essays that are to be turned in over the semester. One of these essays is to be written on a film that he will show in class, as he so stated will most likely be Fahrenheit 9/11. (Because Michael Moore is a genius and his film exposes how our so called “President Bush” is an idiot.) He then proceeded for the next hour and a half of this ENGLISH class to talk strictly about his hate of “president” (he kept doing the quote signs with his fingers) Bush and the Iraqi War. There were no more attempts made by Dr. Snider to talk about the true subject matter of the class, ENGLISH.

” I have been in this class for almost 2 weeks now and politics seems to be the main issue lectured on, however he makes lame attempts to tie his own liberal propaganda into an English example, (i.e.; Newspaper articles, Presidential Speeches, etc. )

“Furthermore, a second essay that we are to write must be written on a book we have read that appears on his “approved reading list”. The list of books in his syllabus has a dominant theme: Sexual perversion and anti Bush rhetoric. (A copy of this list can be found on his website at www.csulb.edu/~csnider) This website which indicated in his syllabus “contains important class material” is a website dedicated primarily to his own gay literature and anti Bush poetry. I, and many other students, had a very difficult time navigating our way through his site to find some obscure hidden link to our school documents that must be printed off of this website.

“Also, Dr. Snider has taken it upon himself to give us a moral/ ethical and spiritual lesson before each class begins. The university offers ethics classes, and I obviously have no problem with ethics. I just do not believe that Dr. Snider is trained to lecture on such topics.

(And from what I do know of his ethics and morals, I feel slightly offended that he somehow believes that his morals are superior to mine- I do not draw an ethical comparison between President Bush and Saddam Hussein as does Dr. Snider).”