Nov. 30, 2006

Letter to the Editor: MC Alum reacts to Mac’s departure

Bancheri, McNamara….and the list goes on and on.

So what if McNamara is gone. He was just a Prof in McKinney, teaching a few classes each week and coming into contact with 50 or so college students. End of story. He has experience as a TV Anchor and spent years doing Radio but he actually had no experience moderating a workshop for the National Convention of Radio and TV Professors Annual Clinic, nor did he write a paper or a book. Yes, so Mac really falls short in my way of thinking. Run him off!

As is said in Southern Ohio, “You know, all he really did was teach.” Someone with those skills should be easy to locate and employ. Run him off.

In fact, word on campus should be “who cares about McNamara?’

Talk about lack of knowledge, I ran into a group of students the other day who were actually remorseful over McNamara’s departure. Someone said “Mac is the best,” while others spoke of his “way with students.” Another commented that he was “tough but fair.” What does a group of 18- 24 year old students know anyway?

I can only comment that “he failed to work at the Annual Clinic” and he “wrote not even one book.” Run him off!

So what value can he really be to the college? To the students?

What I like best is that this keeps the Administration’s record pristine clean…people who act as Mac has acted must be asked to leave and should only be given a year-to-year contract until a real Professor can be found. The fact that Mac led the Department during the search for a new Chair or that he has been voted “the best” by students has no bearing on his remaining at Marietta…nor should it, as he failed to help with the Clinic. Run him off.

See ya Mac…you’ve gone the way of so many other older guys who just didn’t seem to fit in somehow. Heck, that Mac is probably crazy enough to leave and have a remorseful beer with losers like Bancheri. I say, send ’em down the road and get a better and younger one… I agree with those who run the place.

But in closing, I must comment about my dream the other night…I dreamed that Mac’s hands-on experience really helped students, that his dedication paid them huge dividends, that he smile lit up a lot of kid’s lives, that his personality was the very magnet that students saw, appreciated and positively reacted to on a daily basis. I even dreamed that a lot of us wrote him a note that said “Mac, we will miss you so much.”

Dreams seem so real sometimes.

Bob Springer, Class of ’64
Retired Trustee