Biography

Kermit L. Hall

Seventeenth President of the University at Albany

Hall previously served as president and professor of history at Utah State University for four years. Before that, he was the provost and vice president for academic affairs and a professor of history at North Carolina State University for two years. From 1994-1999, he served at The Ohio State University where he was executive dean and a professor of history and law of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1996-99, and dean of the College of Humanities from 1994-1999. He has held other academic and administrative positions at the University of Tulsa, the University of Florida, Wayne State University and Vanderbilt University.

Hall is an expert on judicial organization, having written extensively on the development of both American federal and state courts and judiciaries. His most recent book, with Kevin McGuire, is: The Judicial Branch (Oxford University Press, 2005) that addresses on a comparative basis the development of judicial systems in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Hall has also written five other books and edited twenty-two, including The Magic Mirror: Law in American History (Oxford, 1989; 2nd revised edition forthcoming in 2006), the award-winning Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (2nd ed., rev., Oxford, 2005), and the Oxford Companion to American Law (Oxford, 2003).

Hall was one of five Americans appointed by President Bill Clinton and confirmed by the Senate to the Assassination Records Review Board in 1992 to review and release to the public documents related to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. For his commitment to openness in government, the American Library Association bestowed its James Madison Award on him in 1999.

Actively engaged in higher education issues, Hall is currently a member of the boards of the American Council on Education, the National Association of State University and Land Grant Colleges, the International Student Exchange Program, the NCAA Presidential Task Force on the Future of Intercollegiate Athletics, and the Research Foundation of the State University of New York. He was formerly a member of the board of the Research Triangle Institute, one of the nation's most successful private research enterprises.

Hall has held fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Bar Foundation, and the Fulbright Education Foundation.

At Utah State, the land grant university of Utah with 23,500 students and a $600 million budget, Hall led efforts to improve freshman retention rates, attract better prepared undergraduates, and increase the number of doctoral students. He also implemented a program for students seeking nationally competitive scholarships and worked to raise endowed dollars for scholarships, increase resources for graduate fellowships, and boost sponsored research. He attracted $10 million for a new recital hall, the largest single individual gift in Utah State's history.

Hall received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University of Minnesota. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Akron, a master's degree in 1967 from Syracuse University and a master of studies in law degree from Yale Law School in 1980. He is a graduate of two Harvard University professional education programs: the Harvard Seminar for New Presidents in 2001 and the Harvard Institute for Educational Management in 1993.

Hall was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. The son of a tiremaker and a bookkeeper, he is a first-generation college graduate and a Vietnam-era veteran.