As former mayor and current University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor Dave Cieslewicz knows, there is no better qualification for teaching a class on political leadership than real world experience in public office.
Cieslewicz served as the Mayor of Madison from 2003 to 2011, before losing a close race to current mayor Paul Soglin. He has lectured at the university since 2006, teaching topics from graduate-level public management to an undergraduate course this semester called “Bikes, Pedestrians and Cities.”
His knowledge as an educator is a testament to the all-encompassing nature of running a city.
“I don’t think that anybody knows any city as well as its mayor, because you have to get around and meet everybody in the neighborhoods,” Cieslewicz said. “It’s a very hands-on, tangible job. And you really know whether you’re accomplishing things or not.”
It’s not just his experience as mayor that informs his work in the classroom. To Cieslewicz, teaching requires a bigger-picture perspective that would help as a politician, although he currently has no plans to seek public office.
“Teaching forces you to step back and take a broader look at politics, how it functions, how people are successful at it and how they go wrong,” Cieslewicz said. “I think if I did return to politics, and I think that’s unlikely, having taught would make me a better leader.”
While Cieslewicz said he does not currently plan to teach at the university next fall, he said he may return to his position at UW-Madison in spring of 2014.
“I’ve had a great time teaching and my students have been wonderful,” Cieslewicz said. “My students today are very serious about their studies and it’s really a joy to teach.”
Answering questions from students with aspirations for public office has been a common occurrence, especially given one of the courses he currently teaches is titled “Exercising Political Leadership.”
“Just be yourself and enjoy the work,” Cieslewicz said. “The politicians we admire the most are the people who took some joy in the political process and [the politicians] who enjoyed people and enjoyed politics itself.”
