University of Chicago’s Harris School aims to build muni talent pipeline
3 min read
Harris School of Public Policy
The University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy is launching a new course, “Careers in Municipal Finance,” designed to grow the public finance talent pipeline.
The course will be offered to students in the first quarter of its Master of Public Policy program, and will rely on collaboration with the municipal finance industry.
Already, well over 30 students have signed up to join the inaugural class, and the school is optimistic the 40-seat course will sell out, said Krisinda Doherty, associate dean of professional and career services at the Harris School.
Six industry partners have so far offered to help with the course, with room for more to join, she said.
While the Harris MPP is a broad degree with far-reaching opportunities, “we do find that students are a little bit overwhelmed by that broad application and are wanting to be a bit more specialized,” Doherty said. “If something is for everybody, it also can feel like it’s for nobody.”
Harris is the home of the Center for Municipal Finance, which has always had deep industry connections, she said, and the Career Development Office has long worked with alumni to fulfill their hiring needs.
But they feel like they’ve hit an inflection point where the industry is asking for more talent — “and we just want to make sure that we’re delivering on that,” Doherty said.
Enrollment at the Harris School has grown from 350 to more than 1,100 students over the past decade, according to a presentation shared with The Bond Buyer.
Most students drawn to Harris enroll in its degree programs looking to land a job where they can make an impact, Doherty said. For those students, a career with the word “finance” in it may not initially be top of mind.
“I hope that by giving more air time to the potential career opportunities, students will kind of connect those dots between the opportunities working in municipal finance with the impact that they want to make on those communities,” she said.
Harris School research professor and Center for Municipal Finance Director Justin Marlowe said by email that public finance ticks all the right boxes for many Harris students. They just need to learn what municipal finance pros actually do for their communities.
“Today’s public policy students want to influence people’s lives, and they want that impact to happen at scale and in a durable way,” Marlowe said.
“Students who come into the field are often surprised to learn how much authority and autonomy local and state governments have to shape their communities,” he said.
“A career in municipal finance gives professionals a seat at the table where priorities are debated and resources are allocated,” he added. “Once students make that connection, they’re excited to explore the field.”
One goal of the new course is to prepare students for their summer internships, so that when they land one, they’ll be ready to hit the ground running.
Doherty said Harris students are put through an analytically rigorous curriculum that matches their strong determination with well-honed critical thinking skills and a sense of responsibility.
“They’re very motivated, very driven, they want to use that analytical toolkit that they get here to have a really deep impact,” she said.
Members of the municipal finance industry interested in participating in the new Harris offering can contact Doherty’s team at HarrisCDO@uchicago.edu, and a team member will set up a call, she said.
Marlowe said municipal finance practitioners often join the field through a series of happy accidents. The Harris School’s goal with this new course, and with the public finance specialization more broadly, is “to dramatically increase the likelihood of those ‘happy accidents,'” he said.
“Our hypothesis is that once students are exposed to the field in an inviting and systematic way, they’ll want to start their career in it as soon as possible,” Marlowe said. “To that end, members of the industry can support it by sharing their experiences. Municipal finance is full of smart, dedicated, innovative people working to improve the quality of life in our communities. Once students see themselves doing that same work, they’re ready to jump in.”
