Weekly Briefing: 'Decline and Decay' at Harvard, Says Cornel West

The philosopher and activist posts a scathing resignation letter. ADVERTISEMENT [Advertisement]( [logo] Was this newsletter forwarded to you? [Please sign up to receive your own copy.]( You’ll support our journalism and ensure that you continue to receive our emails. [Read this newsletter on the web](. Cornel West leaves Harvard. [image] Philip Keith, Guardian, eyevine, Redux This week the philosopher and activist Cornel West resigned from Harvard University’s Divinity School, ending a long and public fight with the university over his tenure bid. [In his resignation letter]( West described the discrimination he’d faced at Harvard, calling it, “the shadow of Jim Crow.” He wrote that all of his courses were lumped under Afro-American religious studies, even if they were about existentialism or democracy in America. He said the administration had rejected his committee-recommended tenure review. Despite increasing his teaching load, he was still not awarded tenure. He said he will [return to the faculty at Union Theological Seminary]( where he started his teaching career in 1977, and where he has worked several times since. [West said in March]( that he would be leaving Harvard, after the institution had denied him tenure. The university offered to reconsider his tenure bid, but West told [The Harvard Crimson]( that the change happened only after the university was criticized for the denial. If you haven’t been following, West has had a turbulent history with Harvard. Here’s a concise rundown: - In 2002, after a public disagreement with Lawrence H. Summers, the university’s president at the time, West [left his tenured position](. - In 2017 [he came back to Harvard]( a nontenured professor of the practice of public philosophy. Some of the details from West’s resignation letter may ring a bell. His departure comes one week after[this newsletter]( told you about the outcome of Nikole Hannah-Jones’s battle with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill over tenure. Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who is Black, was awarded tenure after a tug of war with the university but opted to take a tenured position at Howard University instead. West’s and Hannah-Jones’s stories are remarkable because of what they exemplify: In both circumstances, Black academics were denied tenure, and only after public criticism did their institutions reconsider. Shaun R. Harper, a professor of business and education at the University of Southern California and executive director of the USC Race and Equity Center, told our Megan Zahneis that these cases don’t exist in a vacuum. There are very likely other Black scholars at Harvard who have had similar experiences, he said. West’s and Hannah-Jones’s cases, Harper said, send an important message to Black academics. “It signals to every Black scholar that if this kind of disrespect and these miscarriages of justice can be done to Cornel West and Nikole Hannah-Jones, certainly you are not exempt from also experiencing similar miscarriages of justice, no matter how accomplished you are, no matter how productive and prolific you are.” [Read Megan’s story here](. And if you want to read more about the plight of Black scholars, here are four stories: - [The Assault on Black Academics]( - [Cornel West: ‘My Ridiculous Situation at Harvard’]( - [How Nikole Hannah-Jones Flipped the Script on Chapel Hill]( - [Being a Black Academic in America]( Paid for and Created by Stony Brook University [Progress on Gender Equity Requires Commitment and Accountability]( Through programs like Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) and movements such as HeForShe, Stony Brook University maintains a longstanding commitment to gender equity that has led to more women in leadership positions, STEM majors and male-dominated industries. ADVERTISEMENT [Advertisement]( Subscribe to The Chronicle The Chronicle’s award-winning journalism challenges conventional wisdom, holds academic leaders accountable, and empowers you to do your job better — and it’s your support that makes our work possible. [Subscribe Today]( Lagniappe. - Learn. If you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep, [read this](. And if you’re skeptical about getting 10,000 steps a day, [here’s good news](. (The New York Times) - Read. I flinched [just reading]( the headline. (The Guardian) - Listen. For fans of postcolonial West African pop music, listen to this compilation from 2016: Bobo Yéyé: Belle Époque in Upper Volta. ([Spotify]( - Watch. For 70 years, the price of Coke stayed the same. [How]( (Part 2 is [here.]( (TikTok) —Fernanda Chronicle Top Reads LEADERSHIP [Suspecting Plot to Oust Chancellor, Chapel Hill Faculty Gears Up for (Another) Fight]( By Jack Stripling [image] A Black philosopher at Texas A&M thought forcing a public discussion about race and violence was his job. Turns out people didn’t want to hear it. 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Today's Global Campus Strategies for Reviving International Enrollments and Study Abroad Pandemic travel restrictions cut both ways, causing international enrollments to plummet and limiting study-abroad opportunities. This Chronicle report provides an in-depth look at how the global education experience has changed and offers strategies for assessing and adapting programs to ensure students' exposure to cultural and global diversity. [Order your copy today.]( Job Opportunities [Search the Chronicle's jobs database]( to view the latest jobs in higher education. What did you think of today’s newsletter? [Strongly disliked]( // [It was OK]( // [Loved it](. [logo]( This newsletter was sent to {EMAIL}. [Manage]( your newsletter preferences, [stop receiving]( this email, or [view]( our privacy policy. © 2021 [The Chronicle of Higher Education]( 1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037