Joseph Robert “Bob” Kerrey served as president of the New School from 2001 through 2010. Prior to serving as the seventh university president, Kerrey was the United States Senator for Nebraska from 1989 until 2001.

Kerrey graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in pharmacy, and attended Officer Candidate School at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island the following year. He was deployed in Vietnam as a Navy SEAL officer in 1969, where a platoon under his command was responsible for a massacre of civilians in the village of Thanh Phong. Kerrey was discharged later that year after being seriously wounded, losing the lower half of his right leg. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1970, and upon returning to the United States pursued a career in business, variously owning a chain of restaurants, gyms, and a bowling alley. He ran and won the election for governor of Nebraska in 1982 as the Democratic candidate, serving a single term before becoming a Senator. He was chosen as President of the New School following his retirement as Senator in 2001.

Lacking a graduate education, Kerrey was an unpopular choice with faculty members, although his political connections made him very popular with the board of trustees. The Kerrey presidency focused on using Kerrey’s public profile to fundraise and continue building the endowment, raising the collective profile of the New School as a unified institution, in an effort to move away from a reliance upon the discrete reputations of the divisions. Notably, Kerrey’s term accelerated the process of centralization that had begun under Fanton. Kerrey was also responsible for dramatically increasing the number of full time faculty at the New School. In 2005, Kerrey renamed New School University as The New School, its current name, as of 2023.

Kerrey’s term was marked by controversy, including a 2008 faculty vote of no confidence, prompted in part by Kerrey’s leadership style and high administration turnover (five provosts left the university under Kerrey). Protests continued to plague Kerrey’s tenure, including a student protest in which students occupied the Graduate Center and the New York City police were brought in to expel them from the building. Kerrey was succeeded in 2011 by David Van Zandt, previously the dean of Northwestern University School of Law.

Sources: “Bob Kerrey to Step Down from New School Emeritus Role after Transformative Tenure.” Newschool.edu, February 1, 2013. https://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2013/Emeritus.htm

Chan, Sewell. “The New School’s Kerrey Is to Step Down in 2011.” New York Times, May 7, 2009. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/nyregion/08newschool.html.

Foderaro, Lisa W. and Marc Santora. “New School Faculty Votes No Confidence in Kerrey.” New York Times, December 10, 2008. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/nyregion/11kerrey.html.

Friedlander, Judith. A Light in Dark Times: The New School for Social Research and Its University in Exile. Columbia University Press, 2019. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/frie18018.