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BU officials extend offer of employment to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino

Boston University has extended an offer of employment to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino for after he retires as mayor, said City of Boston spokeswoman Emilee Ellison.

In a forum at University of Massachusetts-Lowell on Monday, Menino said after he retires as mayor, he is not interested in pursuing a job in the corporate world, according to various news sources. Instead, he said he is interested in working with Boston’s youth.

BU political science professor David Glick said if hired, Menino could be a valuable resource for BU’s political science department.

“He [Menino] would be a good fit in balancing our more theoretical, generalized approach to politics and political science with his obviously extensive real-world experience and perspective,” Glick said. “He [Menino] would potentially and hopefully allow some students to get a sense of comparing the more academic approach to political science with how it’s applied … in the real world.”

Menino said he has received offers of employment from several universities, including BU, Harvard University, Northeastern University and Suffolk University, according to various news outlets. Menino has not made a set deal with any university yet, but he plans to make a decision in the next few weeks.

However, Dot Joyce, Menino’s spokeswoman, confirmed with news outlets that Menino will not be accepting offers of employment from Harvard.

BU’s Office of the Provost declined to comment on the offer of employment extended to Menino. Glick said if Menino joins the BU faculty, his presence would not only benefit students, but professors as well, as his joining would help generate and verify student interest in the field of political science.

“If we get students interested in urban politics from an academic setting, hopefully they would be interested in learning more from [Menino’s] applied, real-world experience and would be able to … compare what they’ve learned in the classroom to what he has to say about his own experiences,” Glick said.

Glick said Menino’s presence at BU would help BU professors get involved in politics and policy issues. He said Menino could assist BU professors in designing political science classes as well as suggest additional topics to cover in the classroom.

“Many of us would find it [Menino at BU] fascinating, given his experience leading our city for such an extended period of time,” Glick said. “We [BU’s political science department] have, in the last couple of years, increased our offerings in terms of urban politics and more generally state and local politics… Most of what we’ve done in the past is national-level politics in the U.S. and elsewhere, international relations, things like that.”

Katherine Einstein, another BU political science professor, said Menino could contribute to the political science department by giving guest lectures in public policy and urban policy classes. She said he could also connect BU faculty and students to people who work in the city of Boston.

Einstein said she teaches a political science course in which her students must compose a final paper that focuses on urban politics specifically within the city of Boston. She said Menino could potentially connect her students with sources, as well as provide valuable input based on his experiences.

“For students to have Mayor Menino actually located at BU, potentially available for either interviews, or just meeting with him … would be an enormously helpful resource both to the professors and the students who are involved in those classes,” Einstein said.

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