The Ivy League for Professor Nutter

For months, wags have wondered what Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter would do when he left office this month. We now have part of the answer: He’s going to be a tweedy, Ivy League professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

OK, maybe not tweedy.

“I’ll be working on a series of engagements,” Nutter said in a phone interview. “One is a course. There will be some guest lectures. I’ll interact with students on a regular basis, and there will be some forums and seminars that the school normally hosts.”

A course — will he be grading papers?

“I don’t think students would be too happy about that,” he laughed. “There will be some support staff to help with those things.”

The announcement from Columbia said Nutter would be a professor of professional practice in urban policy. Nutter said he expects the work will closely track with the issues that he wants to pursue — fighting poverty, improving urban education, and reducing violence, especially among young African-American men.

Besides this academic think-tank stuff, Nutter said he plans be active in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and preparations for the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. But, he said, this may not be the last employment he finds in the coming weeks.

“Today’s announcement is the first in probably a series of announcements of things I’ll do to stay engaged in the work I care about in a post-mayoral life,” he said.