Kerrey leaves post at the New School

NEW YORK, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., has left a controversial post as president-emeritus of the New School in New York, university officials confirmed.

Kerrey, who also formerly served as governor of Nebraska, had been paid $3 million as New School president in 2010, the most recent year tax documents are available. He gave up the post in 2012 while conducting an unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign in Nebraska, but was retained in the emeritus role, leading to questions about whether he was fulfilling his duties.

Kerrey was supposed to obtain the school's permission to seek other employment, but did not do so in accepting a job two weeks ago as executive chairman of an experimental online university in California, the Minerva Institute for Research and Scholarship, The Chronicle of Higher Education said.

Kerrey told The New York Times upon taking the Minerva job he planned to work at both places simultaneously "unless and until this becomes by my own choice something that takes too much time away from doing the work at the New School."

He told The Chronicle of Higher Education Friday the decision to leave the New School was mutual.

"I think it's a good time to separate," Kerrey said. "I'll be trying to help them out as much as I can."

The $3 million Kerrey made in 2010 made him the highest paid college president in the country that year, the Chronicle said.