Last week Marie posted a
diary about the troubling case of Clifton Snider at Cal State-Long Beach. Because the student complaint appeared on several right wing sites, including
Horowitz's and NewsMax, Professor Snider has personally received more than 600 mostly hateful messages, and everyone in his school's administration did, too. So far, his school has not done anything negative with Dr. Snider, but he is a lecturer and doesn't have the protection of tenure. There is something that we can do to counteract the freeper world.
When teachers in higher ed are attacked by the freeper world, we can and should respond with thoughtful and supportive emails to administrators where the teacher is. In Clifton Snider's case, here are some of the people to contact:
President Robert Maxson <rmaxson@csulb.edu>
Provost Gary Reichard <reichard@csulb.edu>
Dean Dorothy Abrahamse <dabraham@csulb.edu>
Chair Eileen Klink <eklink@csulb.edu>
Composition Coordinator Mark Williams <mwilliam@csulb.edu>
And a note to Dr. Snider would also be great at
<csnider@csulb.edu>. Dr. Snider, among other things, is a member of Poets against the War.
Why Should We Get Involved?
My worry is that we are already seeing the start of a serious attack on U.S. colleges and universities by the right. Several factors are at work. One is the right-wing's sense that conservatives are discriminated against in hiring. Last fall, Senator Gregg, held a hearing on "Intellectual Diversity" and invited four people to testify, Anne Neal from the American Council of Trustees, Robert David Johnson, a faculty member whose tenure case was an issue for the right, Greg Lukianoff from FIRE, and an upset student from U VA. Senator Gregg's statement is here and Phyllis Schlafly's report is here. Most Dems said don't worry about it, but at the same time, security "concerns" were beginning to attempt to limit the publication of scientific research deemed "sensitive but unclassified," an attack from another direction. See the American Association of Universities, the organization of the research schools letter here. For most universities, unless the research actually is classified, publication control means that the research won't be approved by the university itself. Add to that the various calls for more federal control of colleges and uni versities, librarians who object to the provisions of the Patriot Act and the summer of 2003 attack on federally funded research studying sexual behavior, we are seeing something ominous on the horizon.
Why the academy is now even more at risk
In the election just past, academics didn't just vote for Dems; they contributed to federal candidates at a rate that put them as the #9 industry in the Center for Responsive Politics analysis. The large private and public research schools were at the top of the list.
So from this point on, we can expect that these student attacks will get lots of PR work from the wingers and given legitimacy even by Congress. I've looked at several sites with student complaints about liberal bias and my favorite from the Horowitz site is below:
Metropolitan State CO-quote from BRIAN M. GLOTZBACH
Somehow, Michael Moore's books have been required readings in at least three classes in the last two semesters, including a History 1000 course this semester. What Michael Moore has to do with an American History class is anyone's guess. Noam Chomsky has been required reading. Howard Zinn is required reading all the time. Other books that could be considered leftist are required reading. My question is this: Where are the books by Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Bill O?Reilly? How come these differing points of view are not presented to our young men and women?
This student doesn't seem to understand that reading historian Howard Zinn or satirist Michael Moore isn't the same as reading Ann Coulter. We need to be ready for the right-wing attacks on the last clear home of liberalism and do our best to respond, as I hope you will in Dr. Snider's case.