Mayor Menino Visits PO 313 as a Guest Speaker
On December 10, Professors Katherine Levine Einstein and David Glick turned over the last day of their course “The Politics and Policy of HBO’s the Wire” to a very special guest. Boston Mayor Tom Menino visited the class for the entire 1:20 session. He spoke for a few minutes and then answered dozens of student questions about city politics, policy programs, and his experiences. The Mayor’s visit was a fitting end to the class (syllabus) which combines episodes from the critically acclaimed HBO show with academic journal articles to investigate the social science behind a variety of topics related to urban life. The Mayor touched on topics included in the class such as unions, bureaucracy, economic development, housing costs, and the media. After the class the Mayor took pictures with many of the students and even discussed some of their research papers in which they are conducing original research about politics and policy issues in Boston. While Mayor Menino made this visit in official capacity as Mayor he will soon be seen around BU’s classes more often in his new role as co-director of the new Initiative on Cities at BU.
Both the Daily Free Press and the Boston Herald covered the Mayor’s visit to class.