CAMPBELL STILL HAS EVERYONE GUESSING

Politician-Academic Plays Both Fields

Students and professors at the Haas School of Business at UC-Berkeley
should know this about Tom Campbell, selected this month as their new
dean:

He sees good in everything, even in very bad movies.

"They're really ponderous, think they have a message, are poorly
made, and have terrible acting," Campbell said last week. "Yet they
are like humanity at its best -- frail, but not knowing how frail
they are."

Campbell was not selected to lead the nation's second-oldest business
school because he could recite dialogue from "Plan 9 From Outer
Space," though he certainly can. But that passion for things small
and great -- most notably in education and politics -- helped the
Stanford University professor and former congressman from Silicon
Valley win over the Berkeley crowd.

"He knows the business world has lost some direction lately," said
Hans Grande, former student-body president at the business school and
a search committee member. "And he believes business is not just
about making money, but a connection to a higher good."

For Haas, the new dean next fall could be a godsend: a man colleagues
call a brilliant scholar of impeccable integrity; a peppy
people-person whose political and fundraising skills will help the
budget-challenged school; and perhaps most important, someone who
will bring Haas even more valuable connections to the high-tech
businesses of Silicon Valley.

For Campbell, a moderate Republican who lost an uphill Senate race in
2000 against incumbent Dianne Feinstein, the move to the dean's
office offers a new script in one of the two cherished roles he has
played for more than 20 years -- public servant and academic. But as
the man once called the brainiest member of Congress is about to turn
50, the job change raises a big question for the ambitious Campbell:

Will Haas be his grand finale or a cliffhanger?

"Most politicians take these jobs for one of two reasons," said Dan
Schnur, a political consultant who has advised Campbell over the
years. "They see it either as a way to clean up their reputation
before they run for their next office, or an intermediate step on the
way to retirement. In Tom's case, I think it really is about the
school and the students."

Asked last week whether the Haas job means his public office days are
over, Campbell closed his eyes and carefully selected his words. "I
would say `never' about very few things in life. We need to live in
the present. Let's just say this is a chance to do a good job."

Unpredictable

Campbell's history of moving between politics and education would
suggest a return someday to the former. Then again, as a smart
contrarian with a doctorate in economics and a Harvard University law
degree, Campbell has made a career out of keeping people guessing.

A Stanford professor since 1983, he was elected five times by voters
in the 15th Congressional District, a GOP-friendly pocket of the
liberal Bay Area. Angering fellow Republicans, he voted against Newt
Gingrich for speaker in January 1997. Angering Democratic
constituents, he voted to impeach President Clinton for lying about
the Monica Lewinsky affair.

A spending foe and fiscal conservative, he supported abortion rights
and used his run against Feinstein to suggest America's war on drugs
was an abject failure. He suggested the nation might follow the lead
of Switzerland, where drug-treatment centers provide heroin for
addicts.

Some suspected his criticism of the drug war was a ploy to grab
headlines for a sagging campaign. "It was kind of strange, really,"
said Feinstein's campaign manager, Kam Kuwata. "Calling for the
relaxation of drug laws was an odd way for a Republican to run."

But those who know Campbell say he has always been someone who
follows his conscience, regardless of political fallout.

"I don't think he had anything to gain from it and, in fact, it may
have hurt his Republican base," said Bill Zimmerman, executive
director of the Campaign for New Drug Policies, which successfully
pushed treatment-focused Proposition 36 to victory, even as Campbell
got walloped by Feinstein. "I think he decided it was going to be a
difficult Senate race and this would be his swan song and he'd go out
telling the political truth."

Campbell said he is proud of what he did. "I knew going in that I had
a very difficult campaign before me. So I thought that if I don't
make it, at least I want to be able to look back and feel good about
the process. So let me pick one important public-policy issue and
give it a major hearing.

"We need to solve this horrible scourge of drugs, and I thought I
could do some good."

Since his loss to Feinstein, Campbell has continued to speak out
against what he calls the nation's failure to deal with its
drug-abuse crisis in an intelligent and innovative way. He promises
he will continue to do so, even as he returns to academia.

"America has failed on the subject, and it requires courage on the
part of our leaders to say that," Campbell said. "The easy thing is
to appear to be tough on drugs but then do more of the same. But more
of the same has led to increased addiction, increased deaths,
increased incarceration."

Grand Experiment

Sitting the other day in his small end-of-the-hallway office at
Stanford Law School, a notoriously articulate Campbell was
tongue-tied about only one thing: how he felt to be named dean at the
University of California-Berkeley school. "Happy. Excited. Huge
opportunity. Everything's good."

For Campbell the politician, Haas in many ways will be his grandest
political experiment. He sees classroom learning as akin to
participatory democracy. He uses the words "constituent" and
"customer" interchangeably to describe students and staff. Just as he
considers public service a stage for teaching and learning,
epitomized by the spirited give-and-take that kept constituents
coming back to his town hall meetings, the new dean is already
talking about the political aspects of leading a business school to
new heights.

"Going into administration is new for me," he said. "Listening,
recognizing different constituencies, sincerely trying to understand
problems that are expressed, finding opportunity for making peace
where there is conflict -- all those things are related to politics."

Campbell will be running a school with 64 professors and more than
1,600 students. He also will be much closer to his wife of 24 years,
Susanne, who works at the Institute of Management, Innovation &
Organization. While the institute is located at Haas and works with
the business school, Campbell said there is no direct link between
his office and that of his wife.

Campbell replaces Laura D'Andrea Tyson, the national economic adviser
for former President Clinton, at a place known for its innovative
academic culture that stresses information technology and
entrepreneurship. Campbell said that mission remains strong, despite
hard times in Silicon Valley, whose economy he expects to "come
roaring back." He even envisions a course like "Dot.coms: What Went
Wrong?"

But his primary challenge at Haas is clear: "It's a superb business
school. Its financing is constrained. There it is."

Campaigning

Campbell said the number of faculty members should be boosted by 50
percent for proper teacher-student ratio. "We should go on a strong
run of hiring," he said, "and to do that we need to raise money."

But this time, Campbell is not the candidate -- Haas is. "And," he
said with a grin, "it'll be much easier to tell a favorable story
about the Haas School of Business than about me personally."

Fans say Campbell -- a suspender-strapped teetotaler often described
as "an altar boy" -- is the right man at the right time for the job.

"Haas is on the cusp of becoming one of the top-drawer business
schools, and Tom can make it happen," said Sally Herrick, director of
development relations at the Hoover Institution at Stanford and a
longtime friend. Then she added a caveat:

"He'll definitely return to politics someday," Herrick said. "He grew
up in a Democratic, FDR-type household, almost Kennedyesque, where
the kids were taught principles of leadership. It was instilled in
Tom, and he'll have that until he dies."