Spring 2013 - D'Youville College

Rosemary Townley ’73It has been a long and winding road from teaching grade school,after graduation from D’Youville in 1973, to settling disputesbetween Wall Street executives and their investment bankemployers or between an NFL team and a football player, but it’sthe one I traveled over the past 40 years.When Pat Van Dyke asked me to write an article outlining mycareer since leaving D’Youville in 500 words or less, I told her itwas impossible. Five hundred words would barely get me throughthe ’80s. But, I told her I would try.In 1969, I was among a small group of students who were grantedfull four-year scholarships, under the auspices of the D’Youville-Buffalo Diocesan Program. We signed contracts that required thecompletion of all coursework in three years and four summers, inexchange for one year of teaching in a Diocesan school during theusual fourth year of college, for a small stipend. For a graduate ofKensington High School growing up in the Lovejoy District, it wasthe opportunity of a lifetime that provided me with the foundation graduating from college. I spent my fourth year teaching 6-8thgrade at St. Bernadette School in Orchard Park. The followingyear, I taught fourth grade at The Medaille School, which at thetime was part of Medaille College. At the same time, I earned mymaster’s in education at SUNY-Buffalo.Thanks to my late father, Angelo Mustarelli, who was a uniontradesman and activist, I was always involved in civic matters,even as a teenager. He always told me that if I wanted to be part ofany change, then “do something about it, or shut up.” His adviceschool board in the City of Buffalo in 1974. At the time, I was the I later became vice president of the board. I have fond memoriesof my days on the board and learned much about education andlabor relations from the late Dr. Joseph Manch, the late Dr. GeneReveille, and my fellow board members, such as Michael Ryan,Esq., a prominent attorney in Buffalo, and Florence Baugh, thenboard president. I will never forgot the wisdom and knowledge ofthe former associate superintendent of schools Joseph Murray whotaught me so much about large city school administration. I left inlate 1976 when I entered Syracuse University to earn a Ph.D. ineducational administration, with a focus on arbitration and laborrelations.After earning my Ph.D.and during my late20s, I worked at theN.Y. State EducationDepartment for a numberof years. There, I initiallyworked in the section thatadministered arbitrationhearings involving disciplinefor tenured teachers andadministrators and providedanalysis of labor-relatedproposed legislation to the then moved to the sectionthat was responsiblefor the oversight andauditing of school businessadministration in publicschool districts statewide.When offered the opportunityto “sit at the table” and engagein collective bargaining, I joined the administers the court system in the state. I was partof a team that negotiated approximately 50 contracts,primarily downstate in the metropolitan NYC region, onbehalf of the Court of Appeals, with the various unionsrepresenting different groups of court employees.From 1980-1984, I served as the director of employeerelations in the Ardsley School District in WestchesterCounty, N.Y. In that role, I was the chief school districtspokesperson at the bargaining table and implementedthe collective bargaining agreement, while running theDuring my bargaining days, I participated in numerousrealization that I understood and enjoyed the importanceof the nuances of employment dispute resolution – onewho readily understands both sides of an argument andappreciates the value of settling matters out-of-court. Icontinued on page 26alumni.dyouville.edu 25