Harvard has Henry Kissinger. Columbia had Al Gore. UB had Tony Masiello.
While most students spent the winter intersession away from the classroom, 55 graduate students in the School of Management spent a week learning at the feet of recently re-elected Buffalo Mayor Tony Masiello. Mayor, or perhaps professor is a better term, Masiello co-taught MGE 690, "The Changing Economy," a course dealing with topics of familiar to the three-time elected mayor: urban transportation, poverty and housing, crime, and the history of Buffalo.
The idea of a mayor teaching at a local university is one that seemingly wouldn't cause many eyebrows or tempers to raise. Assumptions like that can sometimes be foolish. Certain quarters were quite vocal in their opposition to the mayor taking the time to teach while "Rome burned," as one local columnist alluded to the city's continuing fiscal crisis. Criticism was also leveled at the fact Masiello received $8,000 for his time in addition to his $2,000 salary from the city.
It's rather obvious that Buffalo is in dire straits, simply far beyond the usual malaise and economic difficulty engendered by the decline of its prior industrial infrastructure. Buffalo's shrinking population means less revenue, coupled with a $7 million budget hole, and a lack of expendable funds coming from the state in the wake of Sept. 11, place the city in penury, indeed.
Even if Masiello were locked in his City Hall office 24 hours a day, hunched over his desk, crunching numbers like Bob Cratchit on Christmas Eve, the problems would not be solved. Indeed, they cannot be solved solely through force of will, as appealing as the concept might be. As Masiello realizes, the problems will take a long time to solve, and concentrating until one's brow is permanently furrowed solves nothing.
Is the city of Buffalo, an entity that's existed for almost 200 years, truly ready to break at a moment's notice? It's a modern fallacy to assume that chief executives - mayors, governors, and the like - need to be at their posts at all times or their jurisdictions will fall apart. Governments have department heads and bureau chiefs delegated powers to handle the day-to-day operations of the city: police and fire chiefs, sanitation, public works, etc. If the city needed the mayor's complete presence at all times, that in itself would signal that Buffalo has even larger problems than it does right now.
Perhaps if the mayor were lounging on a Hawaiian beach or planning a Super Bowl weekend getaway to New Orleans the criticism would be valid. However, he was hardly behaving like a Spring Breaker. He spent a week instructing over 50 students - who paid to attend the course - in one of, if not the strongest programs UB has to offer.
His instruction served a two-fold purpose: strengthen the city's ties to the university and make a direct, necessary pitch to help keep UB's best and brightest in area. Having the mayor offer his insight and experience in how to run one of the largest cities in the state shows a university the value of a community it's been slowly moving away from for the past four decades. UB can tap into the wealth of experience and knowledge from all facets of city resources. An occasional reminder is always helpful.
Any revitalization of the city will require the necessary human capital to make it happen. Pitching to UB's best and brightest about the needs of the Queen City is a smart, efficient move. By instructing them on how cities work, and what isn't working in Buffalo, the mayor demonstrated the demand for highly educated, motivated young people to stay in the city. While one class alone will not shift the tide and root these students to the shores of Buffalo forever, it's certainly a foundation to build upon for the future. Such is an appropriate job for Mayor, or professor, Masiello.
