Once a year, PA City and State releases a list of the most influential leaders throughout the state. It includes both those involved in politics and those behind the scenes that work hard to help others that often do not get recognized on a day-to-day basis. Those individuals then travel to Philadelphia, Pa. to be recognized for their hard work over their lifetime and get to meet the other award winners.
This year, the list coming out outlines the strength of Elizabethtown College and one staff member in particular: Dr. E. Fletcher McClellan. Yet, the impact not only ends with him, but with the students and staff it inspires. First-year student at the College Percy Lachman had this to say when asked what they thought of the news: “I think it is cool how the staff at our school are gaining recognition from these outside sources.”
McClellan began his interest in political science and informing others of current events from an early age. He has distinct memories of the news on the television and in the newspapers. As a teen in the 60s and 70s, with worries of the Vietnam war and civil rights everywhere, he was very exposed to politics. Even when he went to college at Franklin & Marshall College there were issues regarding what to teach about the war as well as about students’ rights. With those topics at hand, and the school even completely shutting down the year prior to when he attended due to the overwhelming impact it had on education, he was able to be a political figure at F&M.
Following graduation, he got into teaching. He has been serving as a political science professor at Etown for over 40 years. Although he has gotten recognition from the College and even the Kreider prize, he is most proud of his relationships with his students. He said, “I’ve taught 100’s and 100’s of students and try to keep in touch with a good number of them and just so many of them have been successful with what they’ve attempted. I don’t claim any credit for it, but they are in government and politics and teaching and business and law and they contribute to their communities.”
Alongside being a professor, he has been involved in getting recognition for the teaching side of political science as that is where most people with an interest in the subject end up. He spends a lot of time working with the American Political Science Association (APSA) specifically in the political science education section. Within this, he has been recognized through both a mentoring award and a lifetime achievement award. The section has worked to change the focus from larger, more prestigious universities to smaller schools. They have done so by publishing their own journal and making it so that the APSA devotes a great deal of their conferences to teaching and learning.
His own work has gotten him so far that he has been appointed to a task force by the APSA president in which they aim to set updated guidelines to reform the political science undergraduate major by the end of this academic year. When writing these guidelines, the task force must consider the changes that have occurred in the past 30 years since the last change, such as the kinds of students interested in the subject, their interests and concerns and what is happening in and outside of the classroom.
Outside of the association, he has written for the PA Capital Star and the Lancaster online and appeared on television on cable networks. Through the discussion of current issues, he has amassed a small fanbase of readers and listeners who appreciate his opinions and approach.
In his eyes, political science is never boring due to its ever-changing nature, and he feels that “it’s important to let citizens know how much is at stake.” Luckily, the College as well as his readers and listeners in Pennsylvania have been aided by him in the process.
