The Repercussions of SWICs Decision to Fire Mr. Patrick McGarrity A Letter to SWIC President, Mrs. Georgia Costello I want to preface all of this with the idea that I am not intending to write the following on behalf of Mr. Patrick McGarrity. Most within the bureaucracy of South Western Illinois College (SWIC) are all ready aware of my views of Mr. McGarrity. What they might not be aware of, however, is to what degree their rather fool hearted decision of letting Patrick go negatively effects SWIC, as a whole. Having been through the system, I can attest, and already have on many occasions, to the character and the teaching abilities of Mr. McGarrity. However, before proceeding further, I want the reader to understand, that I have always excelled in academia. I finished fourth in my graduating class in high school of which I was President of my senior class with multiple high scholars awards. I received my Associates Degree from SWIC and I went on to graduate from Southern Illinois University, Cum Laude, with a BA in History and a minor in Political Science. I currently am a successful business owner in the Sparta, IL. area. I mention these things, not to pat myself on the back, but to give the people reading this some insight into my past and thereby yield favor to my credibility. That being said, it saddens me to contemplate the seriousness of the charges brought fourth upon one of the finest instructors that SWIC has ever been privileged to call their own. The first semester I went to SWIC I had a class with Mr. McGarrity. At that time I was fresh of out high school and was, to be frank, rather unprepared for what Mr. McGarrity was going to throw at me. To be fair; I had friends, older than myself, that had already had their SWIC experiences and many of those friends warned me that Mr. McGarrity was NOT the instructor to take if you wanted an “easy” class. Please, re-read that last sentence and let it sink in, particularly you folks that are on the board at SWIC. Okay - Got it? Now then, with that in mind, do you really want ALL of your instructors to be known as the “easy” ones? Is there not something far more beneficial to be gained from having a “difficult” instructor here and there within your curriculum? Let me answer that for you. Yes! There certainly is. In fact, I would argue that you need far more Mr. McGarritys and far less of ‘those other instructors’, but we’ll get to that. As I said, I was rather unprepared for what Mr. McGarrity was going to throw at me. In fact, I still remember, to this day, the very first class I had with Patrick and more specifically the first thing that he did on that day. He came into the classroom, wrote “S.W.I.C.” on the board and asked the class what it stood for. Patrick went on to tell us that many students had deemed “S.W.I.C.” to stand for “Still Writing In Crayon” and that if any of us were expecting that lax level of teaching than we were in the wrong class. He followed that by saying that it was his job to prepare us for university level courses and that he was going to do just that - and he did just that. Further, he told us that he owed us that much. We paid money for his course and we were going to get what we paid for. Granted, there were many that deemed the class too hard and dropped out and those folks are likely still flipping burgers. So then, SWIC deems it necessary as opposed to raising their students up to be able to accomplish the difficult task of succeeding in a “hard” course to instead, completely eliminate said hard course and drop the difficulty level down to a substandard level. As opposed to finding talent, it is the idea of the board members at the college to stop looking for it completely and yield to the masses. It’s rather difficult to find an instructor that genuinely cares about the level of education his students receive. SWIC had that instructor and shamefully, you fired him for it! It’s preposterous! More than anything else; it makes you look, on the whole, incredibly unprofessional. It’s as if SWIC doesn’t want to produce ‘A’ students anymore - you are more comfortable catering to the ‘D’ students’ desires. I can guarantee you this, I plan to have kids and they will go to school but they won’t be going to your school and I’m not the only one that feels this way. Knowing now, how you operate, why on earth would I send my kids to be “taught” by your instructors? Speaking of instructors, as one might suspect, I had many throughout my years at SWIC and SIU but I have never had the pleasure of learning under anyone more passionate and effective at the craft. I had many instructors who were very good; Mr. Herman Albers and Dr. Allen Friedman come to mind but Patrick is on a whole new level. A level which I suspect likely scares his colleagues, and I know, scares some of his students. That is not something to be punished, but an attribute to be praised. If I were an instructor at your college and Patrick was teaching in the next room over I would know that one of two things were likely to happen, either I was going to have to raise the bar and bring my ‘A’ game or Patrick was going to make me look bad. As a student Patrick made you do that same thing. Raise the bar. That first class was the only course in my entire post high school education in which I received a lower grade than a ‘B.’ I received a ‘C’ in that course. I could have, at that time, made the conscious decision to never take another one of Patrick’s classes, had I wanted to - take the easy way out, but I didn’t want to, I wanted to “beat” Mr. McGarrity. I knew that I could do better than a ‘C’ and I knew Patrick was the most challenging instructor that I had ever had. I went on to take many more courses with Patrick, he challenged me and I rose to the challenge. I went on to join the SWIC History Club where I eventually became the President. Nothing - and I mean absolutely nothing - in my life prepared me better for what SIU was going to throw at me than the “McGarrity Experience” at SWIC. After that, SIU was a cakewalk. Clearly, SWIC needs McGarrity. All junior colleges need a McGarrity. After all of that, what does SWIC do? They fire him because he’s making his cohorts look bad because they refuse to work harder and teach better - all the while making up some obscene excuse. When did SWIC become a body that rewards mediocrity and punishes excellence? I’ve had what SWIC has to offer and McGarrity is bar none, the best. Period. Patrick’s dedication and passion didn’t stop when class ended. He made it possible for me to study abroad in both Ireland and England. These are two trips that almost certainly would not have happened without him first opening the door. Patrick gave up his spring break for the trip to England. A critic might suggest that he didn’t “give up” his spring break but the trip “was” his spring break. This would clearly be a critic that has never organized a trip such as this one; a critic that, in short, simply doesn’t know what they’re talking about. The planning and organizing and implementing was nothing less than work and was far and away from a break of any sort. On top of this, Patrick, with help from the various SWIC History Club members and events that he spearheaded, helped raise over $30,000.00 to endow the Kathleen McGarrity Memorial Scholarship. This type of dedication and effort deserves praise and promotion yet somehow the bureaucracy at SWIC decides to punish it. I guess as opposed to working harder to make your faculty and yourselves look good, you choose instead to take the easy way out and simply do away with those ‘A’ grade instructors. Without ‘A’ grade instructors, your ‘C’ grade instructors look that much better, eh? Was that your thought process? That thought process is as laughable as it is pathetic. SWIC has done itself a very serious disservice within the eyes of its once potential customer base. You’re becoming a laughing stock, perhaps the students were right about what S.W.I.C. stood for, perhaps you’re still writing in crayon. Most Sincerely, - Jim Douglas II
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 20:21:49 +0000