\u201cI was a practicing attorney in Syracuse<\/strong>, which is where my great-grandparents came after Ireland \u2026 the streets I walked on, the houses I saw, the places were places that they had been. I had a real connection to the community through my family and through this history. I saw [the city] going in a direction I thought I could change, so I ran [for mayor] initially to say, \u2018I want to be part of the solution. I want to help it be welcoming to people like it once was to my ancestors.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cOne of the things that really attracted me to local politics<\/strong> is you touch the issues that affect people\u2019s daily lives. You have a real sense of helping people and being in a community. Also, with a city the size of Syracuse, you could implement ideas or policies, check them in real time, and then fix them if they didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPart of what I felt very proud of was<\/strong> my ability to attract a high caliber of person to work for the city of Syracuse. Together, we did innovative work in infrastructure and public education and policing, and, in many ways, also became a voice for small cities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI teach two classes [at Colgate].<\/strong> [One is] on state and local politics, which is really a class on federalism. I [also] teach a class called The View from the Mayor\u2019s Desk, which is a deeper dive into housing, infrastructure, education, and free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI started writing this book because<\/strong> I knew I\u2019d always been interested in politics. Then I started and never thought I would finish\u2026 The students at Colgate were fantastic. They were interested in what I had to say and [would] talk to me both before and after [class] and at office hours about politics and local government. They wanted to hear lots of war stories. I thought, well, if they want to hear these war stories, then maybe other people do too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s been my honor to teach the students I\u2019ve had at Colgate.<\/strong> They\u2019ve been thoughtful, engaged, and want to learn. What I say to students who take my class is, think about ideas and think about how the other person thinks about something too. The best politicians I have ever seen are people who are able to almost viscerally understand both. They can hold different ideas at the same time so they can have their thoughts about how a problem should be solved, but they can also listen to other people and adapt to that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe ability to listen and think and be respectful is a hallmark of our democracy.<\/strong> We\u2019re struggling with that right now. But I think the people who want to be involved in politics should be involved in politics as citizens of a democracy. We all have a responsibility to do that\u2026. You\u2019ve got to vote\u2026. You have to let people know whether you agree with how they\u2019re conducting themselves or whether you don\u2019t agree with how they\u2019re conducting themselves. Because if you don\u2019t, other people will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 Interview by Daniel DeVries<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, now a Colgate professor, talks politics and teaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1260,"featured_media":18435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"coauthors":[327],"class_list":["post-18433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scene"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-4Nj","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/08\/022625_Stephanie_Miner_MDD_0030-e1755173764263.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18433"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18484,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18433\/revisions\/18484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18433"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=18433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/08\/81LXXT8gfpL._SL1500_-199x300.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The students at Colgate were fantastic. They were interested in what I had to say and [would] talk to me both before and after [class] and at office hours about politics and local government.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n