Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The New School’s president, Bob Kerrey, a former U.S. senator, said he won’t resign his post at the New York university after senior faculty members expressed no confidence.

The faculty’s resolution was passed Dec. 10 by a vote of 74 to 2 with one abstention, said Jim Miller, the chair of liberal studies and a co-chairman of the faculty senate. The vote was followed by an affirmation of support for Kerrey by the board of trustees, according a statement released by the New School, which is situated in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village section.

Kerrey, 65, said the faculty has a history of protesting and he planned to meet with deans to discuss the issues. He has clashed with faculty members repeatedly over the university’s budget, his effort to centralize operations and his plans for the school’s future, according to published reports.

“The only vote that matters to me is my trustees,” Kerrey said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Kerrey said he and the school’s chief operating officer have been working to produce a budget surplus during an economic crisis, and talk of productivity and efficiency hasn’t been popular.

“We’ve got to find the administrative savings in order to keep our tuition rates down and provide financial aid to our students,” he said. “It’s a tough time. We’re not Harvard, we’re not Princeton.” He said the school’s endowment is about $200 million.

Kerrey, a Democrat, served as governor of Nebraska from 1983 to 1987 and as a U.S. senator from that state from 1989 to 2000. He took over as the New School’s president in January 2001 and is under contract until 2011.

The faculty members who voted no confidence want a larger voice in academic planning, according to Miller. Kerrey hasn’t taken the school’s academic mission seriously enough while he concentrates on corporate issues, Miller said.

‘Rock Star’

“Bob Kerrey is a political rock star, so he raised the profile of the university,” Miller said. “But in terms of the academic issues and in terms of the core values of the university, it hasn’t been a good match.”

Miller said turnover of provosts had been another contentious issue. The fourth provost in Kerrey’s seven years, Joe Westphal, abruptly left in early December, prompting Wednesday’s faculty meeting, Miller said.

“We have toiled for seven years and we couldn’t take it anymore,” he said. “It is impossible to do effective planning every year and a half with a whole new cast of characters.”

Kerry said he may have erred by appointing himself the chief academic officer after Westphal’s departure.

“It may have been a mistake I have to correct,” he said.

Enrollment is up to 9,500 students this year, a 34 percent increase since Kerrey began, according to the school. In May, New School graduated its largest class ever, 2,835, a 69 percent increase. Applications are also up 28 percent to nearly 5,700.

Succession of Names

The university also offers more than 1,000 continuing- education courses to 13,000 adults, according to the school. It was founded in 1919 and adopted the name New School for Social Research three years later.

After a period of calling itself New School University, it is now called simply the New School, and consists of eight divisions, including Parsons The New School for Design.

Miller said the faculty acknowledges that Kerrey has some strengths.

“Many of us rather like Bob Kerrey as a human being,” he said. “I find him almost irresistibly charming, even when I’m mad at him.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Janet Frankston Lorin in New York jlorin@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 12, 2008 00:01 EST