Former Senator Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) will join the Georgetown Public Policy Institute as a visiting professor this fall, the university announced Wednesday.

Serving for over 25 years in Congress, including a 10-year stint as Democratic leader in the Senate, Daschle has played an instrumental role in the development of U.S. legislative and regulatory policy.

Daschle, who lost a bid for re-election to the Senate in November, will conduct student seminars, guest lecture in classrooms and hold public discussions related to politics and policymaking.

In a press release, University President John J. DeGioia said Georgetown “will benefit enormously from the opportunity to learn firsthand from so able and experienced a leader.”

Daschle’s presence, DeGioia added, “will strengthen our community’s ability to engage in and contribute to the policymaking process.”

Daschle lost his campaign for a fourth consecutive Senate term to Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) in the nation’s highest profile and most expensive congressional race last fall. The bitterly contested election, which Thune won by 4,500 votes, resulted in the first ousting of a sitting Senate leader since 1952.

Since his defeat, Daschle was named to a commission to recommend possible changes to the nation’s federal election system. He also joined the Washington, D.C., office of Alston & Bird LLP, an Atlanta-based law firm, last month.

Federal law prevents former senators from lobbying Congress for one year after their retirement. In the interim, he will serve as a special policy advisor in Alston’s Legislative and Public Policy Group, counseling on all aspects of public policy with a particular emphasis on issues related to financial services, health care, energy, telecommunications and taxes.

He was recruited by another former Senate leader, Republican Bob Dole, who joined the firm as a special counsel in 2003.

Only last week did Daschle make his first major speech on national policy since his November loss during a tour of several sites in his home state.

In the April 5 speech at the University of South Dakota, he said financial security is a key to freedom and criticized President Bush’s plan to privatize parts of Social Security.

No longer faced with the burden of a Senate seat, he added, “I’ve had a chance to take a broader look at where our nation stands and the challenges that it now faces.”

Daschle was the second-longest serving Democratic Senate leader in history. He became minority leader of the Senate in 1994 and majority leader in 2001.

After the 2002 midterm election, Democrats lost their slim majority and Daschle again became minority leader.

He also served as co-chair of the Democratic Policy Committee and the Democratic Conference.

Elected to the House of Representatives in 1978, Daschle served there until 1986, when he successfully defeated incumbent Sen. James Abdnor (R) for one of South Dakota’s two Senate seats. In his first year, he was appointed to the powerful Senate Finance Committee, an unusual honor for a freshman.

“Daschle’s experience will provide our students a model for commitment to public service,” Judith Feder, dean of the Public Policy Institute, said in a press release.

Daschle, 57, joins other distinguished practitioners at the Public Policy Institute, including former Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget Alice M. Rivlin and syndicated columnist and political commentator E.J. Dionne, Jr.