Dozens of handwritten thank you notes — this is something Ann Wicks remembers from her two years working as Robert McClure’s secretary.

‘He believes in the importance of the handwritten thank you note,’ she said. ‘He is very traditional in this sort of way.’

But McClure will leave more than an obsession with decorum and good manners when he retires from 41 years of service as a professor and administrator at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at the end of the semester. He will leave a legacy of contributions marked by his old-fashioned — some say outdated — approach to everything, from teaching to dressing for work.

‘I am basically most comfortable in the 18th century and maybe the 19th century. I chafe at the 20th century, and I am wholly unsuited for the 21st century,’ McClure said.

Computers, cell phones or PowerPoint presentations are nowhere to be seen in McClure’s lectures. Nor is tardiness, for that matter, because the door will be locked.

All he brings to class are his lecture notes, chalk tucked away in his back pocket and a host of questions aimed at unsuspecting students. His in-your-face style of winding through the aisles has made him infamous among students who do not like to participate. But it has also helped him accumulate a long list of student and alumni awards as one of Syracuse University’s best professors.

‘In his class you know you don’t really have a chance if you don’t read. Read or else you look like an idiot,’ said Antoinette Blacconeri, a self-described McClure ‘groupie’ who has taken two courses with him.

McClure’s style is not just to teach the material but to teach students how to think. And while they’re thinking, he also teaches them manners, said Blacconeri, a senior political science and international relations major.

‘There was no eating or drinking. It’s one of those quirky things you learned to embrace, even though it is very traditional,’ she said.

With every essay, McClure writes the breakdown of the grades on the board. If there are any As at all, there’s usually only one, Blacconeri said.

His standards turn some students off, but he has kept a number of others coming back. John Chapple, from the Class of 1975, was one of them.

‘I was a poli-sci major, and he gave me B,’ said Chapple, who is a member of SU’s Board of Trustees. ‘I’ve been trying to get even ever since.’

Chapple said he, like many others, found a mentor in McClure who went beyond academics. In honor of McClure’s commitment to teaching and promoting civic engagement, Chapple and his family honored him in 2006 with an endowed professorship, the Chapple Family Professor of Citizenship and Democracy.

Like McClure’s traditional rules and strict grading policy, his lecturing style may be influenced on another human tradition — religion.

Jeff Stonecash, a political science professor, has been a friend and colleague of McClure’s for decades. Stonecash recalls getting in a long discussion about televangelism with McClure and a graduate student when the two had offices on Ostrom Avenue decades ago.

‘We were all joking about evangelical preachers, and he burst out how he studied them and their technique’ to replicate during lectures, Stonecash said. ‘We were sort of like ‘Ew, those Sunday morning goofballs?”

Stonecash said it was the first time he saw McClure hesitate to say more. But whether or not McClure will admit he looks to preachers for style tips again, Stonecash said he thinks McClure’s lecturing style really works.

‘He’ll get right in their faces. I always got the impression kids walked out knowing that he put in the time and energy,’ he said.

McClure has also worked to make a lasting impression on the school, Stonecash said. The two worked together on a number of occasions, most recently on changes to promotions and tenure policies. McClure was constantly thinking in the long term and giving all the options fair consideration, he said.

‘He’s very careful,’ Stonecash said.

But when it comes to teaching political science, McClure has taken a definitive and vocal stance.

He approaches the subject as a citizen, a player in politics, not as an objective scientist. He prompts his students to critique and analyze politics as empowered citizens of a democratic state. His approach greatly differs from the study of political systems and patterns, which have come to typify political science over the past 50 to 100 years, said Ralph Ketcham, professor emeritus of history and political science.

Ketcham dated McClure’s approach to political science somewhere in the mid-19th century — so traditional that he’s untraditional. McClure’s focus on civic engagement has not been a standard part of political science curriculum for 150 years, when college presidents would teach a senior-level class on citizenship.

‘I never describe myself as a political scientist. If you ask me, I’m a teacher,’ McClure said.

His dissenting form of political science was a source of frustration for some professors, who believe the discipline should focus on the methodology and objective study of political systems, Ketcham said.

For those in the social sciences who disagreed with McClure, his unorthodox approach was particularly frustrating, as he has been a leading figure in sculpting curriculum.

During his 13 years as associate dean of external affairs from 1990 to 2003, McClure spent several years drawing up and implementing Maxwell’s only two undergraduate classes. MAX 123: ‘Critical Issues for the United States’ and MAX 132: ‘Global Community’ focus on helping students shape their opinions about national and international political issues, respectively.

He names the courses as two of his greatest achievements at SU.

In his final semester at SU, McClure led the crafting of Maxwell’s first signature undergraduate major. And after raising controversy, responding to criticism and coming up with a coherent draft, McClure and eight committee members agreed on a program that embodies McClure’s approach to political science: a civic engagement major.

McClure fulfilled his last committee duty last week when he presented the proposed major to the Maxwell faculty.  Next semester he will take his first semester off since 1969 before returning to teach one class a year and will pass the civic engagement major over to a new committee.

In fact, he said, he ended his role as chair by sending the members of the signature program committee eight handwritten thank you notes.

rastrum@syr.edu

Published on December 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm