'Epstein Hall': Building Honoring Former Governor Vandalized
by John Gage
A building honoring former Nebraska Governor Bob Kerrey was vandalized after it was revealed that his name appeared in the recently released Epstein files.
The vandalism occurred late Tuesday night outside Kerrey Hall, which is part of The New School University, located in Manhattan, New York City. The vandal painted “Epstein Hall” outside of the building, according to New School Free Press, a student-led newspaper that first reported the incident.
The perpetrator said the vandalism was done in order to pressure the university to take Kerrey’s name off of the building. “I am going to keep pressuring the school to remove Bob Kerrey’s name off the whole institution until they do so,” the person said in a statement, adding, “They have not caught me and I don’t intend on being caught.”
Campus police have still not identified the individual behind the act.
Kerrey in the Epstein Files
The vandalism happened after it was reported that Kerrey was listed in the Jeffrey Epstein files that the Department of Justice released this year. The documents reveal that Epstein met with Kerrey multiple times in New York.
Epstein was convicted in 2008 and served time in prison for procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. He was later arrested in 2019 and charged in federal court for sex trafficking of minors.
Kerrey’s meetings with Epstein occurred between 2013 and 2014, five years after Epstein’s first conviction. The only meeting Kerrey says he remembers is a lunch on February 22, 2013, which he had with Epstein and Stephen Kosslyn, a psychologist and neuroscientist.
Records show two months later Kerrey had dinner again with Epstein, as well as movie director Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn, Allen’s wife. Previn is the adopted daughter of Allen’s former long-time partner, Mia Farrow.
In total, Kerrey met with Epstein at least five times, records released by the Department of Justice indicate.
Kerrey Served Two Schools
Kerrey was the president of The New School from 2001 to 2010. He continued to serve as president emeritus until 2013.
During his time as president, Kerrey helped double the size of the full-time faculty at the school and led $110 million in fundraising to advance the university’s administrative and academic goals.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for The New School said the university regrets any association with Epstein.
“It is apparent from the files released by the Department of Justice that Jeffrey Epstein was often in touch with members of the higher education community,” said Amy Malsin, vice president of communications. “We regret that anyone associated with our university was in contact with him.”
Since leaving The New School, Kerrey has served as the Executive Chairman of the Minerva Institute for Research and Scholarship and is the Chair Emeritus of Minerva University.
It was in his role with Minerva University that Kerrey met with Epstein. Kerrey said that he wanted Epstein to donate to the university.
Minerva University said in a statement that it never received any money from Epstein and that Kerrey had “no active governance role” with the university.
“Minerva University condemns Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal conduct and the harm inflicted on survivors,” the statement reads. “Following the recent document release, an internal review confirmed that Minerva University has never received donations, funding, or support from Epstein.”
Kerrey Still Involved in Nebraska Politics
Kerrey served as the 35th Governor of Nebraska from 1983 to 1987, and later served as a United States Senator from 1989 to 2001. He has since moved to New York.
In 2012, Kerrey moved back to Nebraska to run for senator again, losing the race to Senator Deb Fischer.
Despite leaving the state, Kerrey has continued to support the state party and occasionally endorses candidates in Nebraska political races. During the 2026 cycle, he has endorsed Democratic state senator John Cavanaugh in his bid to represent Nebraska in its second congressional district and donated to Dan Osborn, who is running for U.S. Senate.
In 2022, the Nebraska Democratic Party voted to rename their fundraising dinner after Kerrey and Ben Nelson, who served Nebraska as governor and in the U.S. Senate.
— John Gage is the Executive Editor of The Plains Sentinel.
The story has been updated with a statement from Minerva University.
