Pols give Nutter advice about his new job at Columbia
It might sound like a cushy gig: former Mayor Michael Nutter, out of office just three weeks, signed on Wednesday as a professor at Columbia University.
It might sound like a cushy gig: former Mayor Michael Nutter, out of office just three weeks, signed on Wednesday as a professor at Columbia University.
But David Thornburgh, the leader of the good-government group Committee of 70 and former head of the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, invoked the famous words of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger when offering Nutter advice about his new job: "University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small."
"I think my counsel for him is, don't think for a minute you're entering a politics-free zone," Thornburgh said. "Those patches on the tweed jackets that those professors wear? That's to disguise the sharp elbows."
Still, Thornburgh predicted Nutter will succeed because his administration served as home to many Fels graduates.
"He had a profound influence," Thornburgh said. "It feels like a good fit to me."
Former Gov. Ed Rendell, who has taught at Fels, offered this advice about students: "They sign up because they're somewhat curious, but if you don't move them in the first couple of classes they'll drop out on you. You've got to get them invested."
Sounds like City Council. Rendell agreed.
Speaking of which, Mayor Kenney served with Nutter on Council and then chafed at his former colleague's occasional smarter-than-thou attitude as mayor.
"Take the opportunity to learn from the students, too," was the advice Kenney, who has taught at Fels, offered. "Some of the brightest people I've ever met were my students."
Nutter will be a professor of professional practice in urban policy at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.
Mark Alan Hughes, a former chief policy adviser to Nutter and now faculty director at the Fels Policy Research Initiative, ribbed his old boss, calling Columbia the Ivy League's farm team.
He also said Nutter's daughter, Olivia - Columbia Class of 2017 - is welcome at the University of Pennsylvania if she feels crowded by her father's arrival.
"The reason we teach is it's one of the best ways to learn," Hughes said. "Take advantage of that and assign students to figure out how to get City Council to give up their cars."
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