\u201cHow sad it is to see our beloved Harvard Divinity School in such decline and decay,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe disarray of a scattered curriculum, the disenchantment of talented yet deferential faculty, and the disorientation of precious students loom large.\u201d<\/p>\n West, who added that Harvard has become \u201cmarket-driven,\u201d tweeted, \u201cLet us bear witness against this spiritual rot!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe School has no comment on Dr. West\u2019s letter,\u201d Jonathan Beasley, a spokesman for the Divinity School, said Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n The release of what West described as his \u201ccandid\u201d resignation letter came after journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones\u00a0announced\u00a0<\/a>last week that she had accepted a faculty position at Howard University and turned down an offer to teach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill because of a long and remarkably contentious back-and-forth over tenure. Although trustees for UNC-Chapel Hill voted to award tenure to Hannah-Jones, the vote came after the public university hired her as a professor without the job-protection status, which caused faculty members and students to protest that she had been mistreated.<\/p>\n Nikole Hannah-Jones to join Howard faculty after UNC tenure controversy<\/a>At Harvard, many students were sharing West\u2019s letter on social media, said Noah Harris, the student body president, \u201cbecause it\u2019s really bringing to light a lot of the treatment of professors of color. \u2026 We have to do a better job as a university, as a culture.\u201d<\/p>\n Harris, who is Black and from Mississippi, said West was the first Black teacher he ever had. Hundreds of students have taken West\u2019s introductory course, he said, and have been able to talk about things in their lives as a shared experience. At Harvard, Harris said he became close to several professors who left because they weren\u2019t given the opportunities and respect they deserve. \u201cIt\u2019s just devastating to the student body every time.\u201d<\/p>\n Harris said he doesn\u2019t know all the facts about what happened regarding West. \u201cWhat I do know is that Harvard lost one of the best professors of our generation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n David Carrasco, a professor at the Divinity School and the department of anthropology wrote in an email that he was hurt and deeply disappointed \u2014 \u201cdown for the count.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCornel West is an intellectual powerhouse, a truth teller, an attentive and even generous colleague and a beloved teacher,\u201d he wrote. At convocation and graduation talks, \u201che lifted us all up!\u201d Carrasco wrote. \u201cWhy would the university now say \u2018no\u2019 to his very reasonable request in a timely manner? Something is very wrong in this story.\u201d<\/p>\n West is irreplaceable, said Jacob K. Olupona, a professor of African and African American Studies and at the Divinity School, who wrote in an email that West is \u201can outstanding professor; a leading intellectual and scholar of repute.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still hoping that he will be able to come back, and return to our community,\u201d Olupona said by phone. \u201cThat is our wish and our prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n West was previously a tenured Ivy League professor at Harvard, Princeton and Yale. He left Harvard in 2002 after a public fight with the university\u2019s president at the time, but returned to the institution in a nontenured position in 2017.<\/p>\n He told The Washington Post that although he was happy to come back to Harvard for \u201cone last chance\u201d four years ago, not having tenure had been a point of contention since his return to campus.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could tell they were so frightened of me,\u201d he said of the administration.<\/p>\n The news first came to light in the spring when West, in announcing he was leaving, said the university had turned down a recommendation by a faculty committee that would have made his untenured position a tenured one. When that tenure fight became public, he told the\u00a0Boycott Times<\/a>, a nonprofit outlet, in March that Harvard had made strides in diversity but that the \u201cpettiness\u201d of the talks about his status made him feel \u201cdisrespected and devalued.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHarvard has actually done very well in terms of bringing different peoples of different colors and gender at a high level into the administration,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it does not yet translate on the ground in terms of faculty. It does not yet translate in terms of being able to speak to the seeking of truth among the students.\u201d<\/p>\n The school changed course following an outcry to give him tenure, but West told the\u00a0Harvard Crimson<\/a>\u00a0that the university\u2019s shift as a result of public pressure only reaffirmed his decision to leave.<\/p>\n West, a professor of the practice of public philosophy, said in his letter that he hoped for a different outcome to an issue that has been a sticking point since his return to the university. He said he had been earning \u201ca salary less than what I received 15 years earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI hoped and prayed I could still end my career with some semblance of intellectual intensity and personal respect,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHow wrong I was!\u201d<\/p>\n The public intellectual claimed that \u201cthe shadow of Jim Crow\u201d is present in Harvard through \u201cthe language of superficial diversity.\u201d Although the issue of tenure in university classrooms has come up in the past week with him and Hannah-Jones, West said to The Post that many Black instructors face what he describes as a \u201csystemic problem\u201d in higher education.<\/p>\n In addition to mentioning the lack of tenure, he noted the administration\u2019s \u201chostility toward the Palestinian cause.\u201d The school has reportedly invested\u00a0nearly $200 million<\/a>\u00a0in companies linked to Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n The lack of support and well wishes from the administration after his mother died were also mentioned in his resignation letter. \u201cIn my case, a serious commitment to Veritas requires resignation \u2014 with precious memories but absolutely no regrets!\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n West said Tuesday that he was surprised by the reaction to his resignation letter, which he made public to start a \u201csubstantive public conversation about the prospects for excellence in higher education.\u201d He emphasized that the problems he laid out are not exclusively confined to the halls of Harvard.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I think about Harvard, I think about the best, and I think about the worst,\u201d he told The Post. \u201cThat best is the magnificent care and challenge and adventure and deep love and friendships and students and colleagues.<\/p>\n \u201cThe worst are the hounds of hell: greed, contempt and disrespect.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n![\"Cornel](\"{"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"53","src":"\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAM6twg.img?h=533&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=2211&y=1347"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"42","src":"\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAM6twg.img?h=417&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=2211&y=1347"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"42","src":"\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAM6twg.img?h=417&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=2211&y=1347"}}\")
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