Stanford Names Acting Director of Think Tank

Stanford University has sidestepped for now the controversial decision of appointing a long-term successor to W. Glenn Campbell, the combative director of the Hoover Institution. Instead, the think tank’s deputy director, John Raisian, has been named acting director for a year.

However, Raisian said he has been assured that he remains a top candidate to become permanent director of what is widely known as a stronghold of conservative intellectual thought. “We are going to date to see if we should get married,” he quipped Friday.

According to several sources, the directorship was first offered to Michael Boskin, the Stanford economics professor who is chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers. Boskin reportedly said he was not ready to leave Washington, although the sources said he might be a candidate for the Hoover job next year.

Recent Battles

Raisian, an economist specializing in labor issues, is to become acting director on Sept. 1. Campbell, who headed the Hoover Institution for nearly 30 years and recently battled Stanford over the terms and timing of his own retirement, said he welcomed the selection.

“Dr. Raisian is a man of integrity and talent and I am confident he will continue to advance the scholarly activities of the Hoover Institution and fiercely protect the academic freedom of its scholars,” Campbell said in a prepared statement this week.

Campbell once again criticized Stanford President Donald Kennedy and what he labeled as “a coterie of intolerant left-wing professors” for allegedly attacking the independence of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace.

The think tank, which has 80 resident scholars and a well-regarded library, is supposed to be independent, though within the purview of the university. But that has proven a difficult arrangement. Some Stanford faculty resent what they claim is the Republican hue at Hoover and have called for the university to have more control over appointments and programs.

Situation Worsened

The situation worsened last year as Campbell first resisted the university’s insistence that he retire on his 65th birthday this August, and then made public demands about retirement pay. Campbell is to be an adviser to the Hoover director for five years.

Several sources said that Raisian is on good terms with university President Kennedy and is likely to improve relations between the institution and university. “It won’t change immediately. But with Campbell gone, the way is open for a significantly better climate,” said one official, who asked not to be identified.

Raisian, 39, said he would promote “a kind of campaign to put to rest the idea that the institution is a political entity” while also ensuring its independence within Stanford. His main tasks as acting director will be fund raising and helping to publicize Hoover scholars’ research, he said.

Professional History

Raisian has a Ph.D. in economics from UCLA and taught at the University of Washington and the University of Houston. In the Reagan Administration, he worked in several capacities at the U.S. Department of Labor, including being the director of Research and Technical Support. After heading a consulting firm in Los Angeles, he came to Hoover in 1986 and later was made second in command to Campbell.

The Hoover committee searching for a new director is to resume meeting in the fall. The final choice will be a complicated one, involving Kennedy, the university’s Board of Trustees, the Hoover overseers and the foundation run by the descendants of former President Herbert Hoover, who founded the institution.