Former Nebraska governor and senator Bob Kerrey received a no-confidence vote Wednesday from some senior faculty members at The New School, where he has served as president since 2001.
Seventy-four senior, tenured faculty members at the Manhattan university voted in favor of the no-confidence resolution, while two others voted against it and one abstained, said Jim Miller, co-chairman of the school's Faculty Senate.
Supporters of the vote, who accuse Kerrey of failing to protect the school's academic values, hoped it would pressure the school's board of trustees to fire him. But the board on Wednesday gave Kerrey a unanimous vote of confidence at its regular meeting, said school spokeswoman Caroline Oyama.
"The New School is a very, very special place and I think it now it hangs on the edge of a precipice in terms of governance," said Arjun Appadurai, an anthropologist who is helping lead the opposition against Kerrey. "The trustees really have to step up."
When the Vietnam War veteran took over the liberal campus, some faculty members complained he lacked academic credentials and held moderate political views. Some also have argued Kerrey places the school's budgetary concerns over academic excellence.
The vote came after Kerrey's recent announcement that he would serve temporarily as the school's provost after the departure of the fifth person to fill that role in seven years. The turnover has prompted accusations that Kerrey wants a provost who will carry out his will.
On Wednesday, however, he said he'd consider appointing an interim provost if the search appeared it would be prolonged.
Kerrey, 65, defended his decisions: "I don't think it is legitimate to say to me that I do not have the authority to hire and fire my provost."
Kerrey, an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 1992 who lost part of his right leg in combat, said while he took faculty members' concerns seriously, he was undaunted by Wednesday's vote. He noted that the group that met Wednesday was a fraction of the New School's 333 full-time and 1,733 part-time faculty.
"I don't fear any vote that the faculty could take," said Kerrey, whose contract at the school ends in 2011. "The problem at the New School is not necessarily me."
