7 ms·
Cornel West Releases Resignation Letter from Harvard
- underseacables 5y agoI think Harvard has wrapped itself in an echo chamber and views itself as, well, invincible. Nothing can hurt Harvard. Nothing can tarnish its reputation. It doesn’t need anyone, with the money it has in the bank, and I think all of those billions has fulfilled the adage that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
- x86_64Ubuntu 5y agoDid you read the resignation letter? It had pretty much nothing to do with "corruption" or absolute power.
- freshdonut 5y agoDid you read the resignation letter? I thought it was pretty obvious that corruption - maybe in a less sinister form - was the underlying reason for the issues he brought up.
- elefanten 5y agoGiven how wrapped the letter is in one-sided rhetoric and how full it is of sweeping, dismissive accusations such as "we all knew the mendacious reasons had nothing to do with academic standards"... how exactly do extract an "obvious" takeaway about the underlying events?
- x86_64Ubuntu 5y agoHe spoke about Palestine and not getting enough condolences for his mother's death. Neither of those subjects jump out as "corruption".
- dmos62 5y agoApathy and politicaly-motivated administration is corruption of a collegial environment and academic responsibilities.
- underseacables 5y agoDid you even read the HckrNews rules? “Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that."” https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- soundnote 5y agoTheir endowment is was $39 billion (yes, b, not m) back in 2018 according to WSJ.
- pmoriarty 5y agoDoes anyone have a direct link to the text of the letter?
- whymauri 5y agois an image OK? https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E6JB3QqWQAMCsyC?format=jpg&name=medium https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E6JB3QqWQAMCsyC?format=jpg&name=...
- stevecalifornia 5y agoHis resignation letter chastises the school for not giving enough attention to his mother's death-- he only got two condolences. Does this strike anyone else as a really strange thing to bring up a tally of condolences in a resignation letter?
- yellow_lead 5y agoYes. I was wondering if I was misunderstanding what he meant by "public replies."
- pradn 5y agoHe means that his colleagues at the Divinity School don't seem to care enough about him to send him a condolence for his mother's death. It's about the apathetic work environment at the school. That would be a problem for me, too, at my company if I chose to disclose that via a public email. Hell, I have several colleagues that wish me well when I have a cold.
- whymauri 5y agoEspecially for a Divinity School, his point is that it marks a fundamental departure from the spirituality and community that made the school special at some point.
- fidesomnes 5y agoComedy gold right here.
- OrvalWintermute 5y agoWhat struck me about his letter was not only that specifically about the death of his mother, but he also referenced the death of his colleague's mother, Dr. Cooke-Rivers, received no public condolences. Whether that is Spiritual Bankruptcy, or merely Indifference, I know not, but it definitely reflects a culture problem of sorts. The best workplaces do not involve parking your humanity or caring at the door.
- 5y ago
- Animats 5y agoHarvard still has a divinity school? That's retro.
- neom 5y agoDo you think the Department of Philosophy is retro as well? Theology has shaped humanity, wouldn't it be weird for a school as prestigious as Harvard to not have a school for it?
- hogFeast 5y agoMost of the ideas within Theology are ideas that went on to become known as Philosophy (for proof: Christian theology came after Philosophy but Aristotle was regarded as the authority on basically everything for pre-Reformation theologians, despite him not being a Christian or having anything to with Christianity...this also occurred in Judaism and Islam). There are obviously topics that are fairly inseparable from religion, for example hermeneutics, but religion is just another frame of reference onto all the issues that are still important to humans today. Whether you believe that God exists or not is usually not particularly relevant, you just believe the eventual cause is different.
- neom 5y agoThere are many parallels between theology and philosophy, that's why I mentioned it... I still don't understand what that has to do with them being passé? There's nothing rétro about studying divinity.
- Black101 5y agoPhilosophy makes a lot more sense then Theology.
- Grakel 5y agoYes, philosophy was rendered irrelevant by the scientific method.
- 5y ago
- elefanten 5y agoHe's a celebrity public intellectual. He hasn't pioneered any ideas or theories. He builds departments and plays a ton of politics (both internally at academic institutions and publicly in the American media ecosystem.) He's a PR intellectual. He gets way too much air time for his contributions to humanity. A boring figure.
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoI don't know about that. He's someone I disagree with on many points, but he still speaks in a way that I understand. I may still disagree, but I find myself thinking that many of his points are interesting and/or at least somewhat valid.
- elefanten 5y agoYeah I was over the top there. He’s smart and prolific. Public intellectuals are important, it just feels like he’s in that class that cares about spectacle over substance.
- robotastronaut 5y agoThere is a growing number of academics who might argue that the spectacle can be part of the substance. For quite a long time, spectacle (or even advocacy) has been regarded as problematic in academia, particularly in the sciences. I see a lot of what West does as making “good trouble” that gets really important philosophical issues added to the general discourse
- jjeaff 5y agoI don't know enough about his actual academic contributions to comment on that. But I have seen him in enough public appearances to know he is definitely not "a boring figure".
- foobarian 5y ago*Harvard Divinity School
- eric_b 5y agoYikes, the writing in that letter was not up to par for a professor who was seeking tenure at a prestigious university. The tone, word choice, layout, everything felt amateur and overly emotional. I haven't read many resignation letters but I'd have expected more polish and professionalism.
- handrous 5y agoOne takes a rather different tone in a pointed and deliberate "fuck you; strong letter to follow" than in a resignation letter that's mostly polite BS, as is typical.
- cosmotic 5y agoI'm not sure the point was about tone. It was letter by an academic for an academic touting the former's intellectual contributions and apparently intended to be publicly displayed. I would have expected something more structured, easier to follow, and better targeted.
- handrous 5y agoIt does seem rather inside-baseball for something released publicly. Maybe the audience is only a subset of the public, though, and this was just the simplest way to get it to them.
- keel1o 5y agoHe's hardly a professor. He's contributed no meaningful research in his field and by my own recollection he only ever appears when he makes headlines for saving something extremely racist, or extremely harsh. He's a divisive figure and a celebrity "philosopher". A literal nobody. It comes to me, and anyone else with experience an academia, that such a washout would never make tenure. Even at a "woke" academic institution.
- endisneigh 5y agokind of ironic that cornel west releases his resignation letter and meanwhile we get some new account calling him a nobody. at least use your main account to say such things. anyway - addressing your comment itself. doesn't he now have tenure at UTS? Wasn't he also tenured previously at Princeton and Yale? hardly a nobody lmao
- eplanit 5y agoThe main reasons in his conclusion are: Harvard doesn't support Palestine, he's displeased by the level of sympathy he received at his mother's passing, and general issues with the underlying politics of the curriculum. It all seems a bit self-centered. Why publicize the letter, other than to signal and cue the outrage mob? The letter helps make the point of how absurd these heavily-endowed universities have become.
- whymauri 5y ago>Harvard doesn't support Palestine I read this differently. Figured that his point is that Harvard is willing to block his career based on an academic disagreement surrounding Palestine. Instead of engaging with his perspective and providing, well, a collegial environment for this discourse, they've undermined his academic career (while still benefiting from his speeches, tutelage, and instruction).
- lupire 5y agoIt is a bit strange to see a professor of divinity complaining about intellectual bankruptcy. (To be fair, his list of courses taught seem broader than "divinity". )
- gamesbrainiac 5y agoI think some are focusing on his mother's death; it's the straw the broke the camel's back but the root cause is apathy towards him. They are however, ignoring the part where he was declined tenure for no good reason, and despite being a professor at other prestigious universities. He was also paid badly and was treated poorly when it came to sabbaticals. In other words he was sidelined for no good reason. This is sad. There are some questions though, why did he leave Princeton? I mean what difference does it make if you're at Princeton or Harvard, they are both great schools.
- smt88 5y ago> I mean what difference does it make if you're at Princeton or Harvard, they are both great schools. Why do we tell academics they have to stay in one place forever once they get tenure? Don't they want to move around as much as anyone else? Maybe his reason was just that he wanted a change.
- NtochkaNzvanova 5y ago> Why do we tell academics they have to stay in one place forever once they get tenure? We don't tell them that. Tenured academics do move between universities, and rarely if ever have to regain tenure -- because they negotiate with the new university to immediately be at the same status they had at the old university. If West couldn't swing that, that's on him. West definitely seems to be more interested in playing the outspoken celebrity intellectual / activist than being a serious academic, and Harvard probably didn't want to risk a replay of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_West#Dispute_with_Lawrence_Summers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_West#Dispute_with_Lawre....
- whymauri 5y agoExactly. At nearly 20 years of membership and collective service to the Divinity School and Harvard College, he's been a fixture (from undergrad, to postdoc, to lecturer, to professor, to joint appointee, to commencement speaker) for nearly as long as I have been alive, and certainly for longer than current undergrads have been alive. If I devoted half that amount of time to an institution and received this treatment in return, I would struggle to contain my composure. I think the letter insinuates that his service to Harvard stems from a love/appreciation for what the institution stood for 20, 30, perhaps even 40-50 years ago. Who here doesn't feel similarly about their undergrad? Of those who feel that way, who else would feel irate if they were treated this way in return?
- propter_hoc 5y agoCondolences for his loss, that's always terrible to deal with.
- robotresearcher 5y ago'no possible summer salary' Summer salaries are usually paid for by research funding raised by the professor from outside sources. Typically you make sure your students are supported, then travel and operating costs for your group, then if any funding is left over, you can pay yourself summer salary. Is the university preventing him from raising funds? If he is not raising funds, then the expenses above could be unmet. It's hard to get tenure without covering your costs.
- derbOac 5y agoWhere I was at, in an entirely different field, it wasn't uncommon for faculty to obtain summer salary through summer teaching. Usually that was reserved for graduate students, but it was a normal thing for some faculty to have.
- robotresearcher 5y agobackgrounder: It's not obvious to outsiders that being a successful researcher is expensive, and the university does not pay for it after a short startup period. Harvard is unusual in that they have much more internal student scholarship money than most, which helps a lot. That subsidy, and the Harvard brand, means that Harvard faculty have a good advantage over the field when raising money. On the other hand, a lot is expected of them. The university is considering the opportunity cost, and the opportunity is very valuable.
- iammisc 5y agoI'm not a fan of West's politics (look up my comment history, because it's pretty clear what my politics are), but the comments here making light of West's objections seem completely off the mark. Reading the letter I see a few extremely salient complaints: 1. His first complaint is that he was a token diversity hire. Instead of his courses being placed in the general coursework section, his courses were put under 'African American' religious studies. As many minorities know, this is a way of discounting minority viewpoints. No one would dare dream put a history class taught by a white professor under the 'European American studies' portion. If he's teaching a course supposedly on American democracy, then surely it should go under history or social sciences, not 'black people social sciences'. 2. Failure to compensate an appropriate amount given West's celebrity status. Again, I don't particularly like West's politics, but he is clearly quite the celebrity. It seems he was not compensated appropriately, despite Harvard being happy to use his celebrity status to further their own reputation. Pretty standard employee complaint. 3. His tenure application was denied despite Harvard asking him to leave an existing tenured professorship. He believes his application was denied not due to his teaching but because Harvard disagreed with one of his political views. Again, as much as I disagree with West's politics, it seems incredibly disingenuous to profit off of a new employee's celebrit, tempt him to join you from a stable job with promises of future stability, and then to deny him tenureship because he has differing opinions on some random issue. 4. Despite supposedly wanting a close faculty, no one in the faculty would stand up for him when his tenure was denied. The fact of his mother's death not soliciting any response was not brought up in isolation as other comments claim (current top comment does). It was brought up in reference to the fact that no one on faculty would dare speak up to the administration on his behalf and it seemed like, after tenure was denied for his beliefs on Palestine, he was ostracized from his department. Many academics know that being ostracized in your department is not good. 5. Furthermore, it seemed that Harvard has a problem in not focusing on the whole person. Instead, it's developed into a technocratic institution (which I know from personal knowledge, West decries). So yeah, all the people saying this is only about his mother or because of palestine are either being incredibly dense or purposely deceitful. Again, I disagree with basically everything West stands for, but I agree with him that he shouldn't essentially be exploited and then canceled. That goes against every shred of common decency.
- 5y ago
- mark_l_watson 5y agoI am really sorry he was not treated well. He is one of those people who I am grateful to have in the world because they push back against untrue “accepted narratives.” There is so much bullshit in the world, from corporations, governments, and almost all news media. I look to West, Chomsky, Tulsa Gabbard and a few others who I think really say and do what is right. I have never seen Cornel West talk live - I need to fix that.
- klyrs 5y agoJune 30th, 2021 I hope and pray you and your family are well! This summer is a scorcher! Here is my brief and candid letter of resignation: "How sad it is to see our beloved Harvard Divinity School in such decline and decay. The disarray of a scattered curriculum, the disenchantment of talented yet deferential faculty, and the disorientation of precious students loom large. When I arrived four years ago - with a salary less than what I received 15 years earlier and with no tenure status after being a University Professor at Harvard and Princeton - I oped and prayed I could still end my career with some semblance of intellectual intensity and personal respect. How wrong I was! With a few glorious and glaring exceptions, the shadow of Jim Crow was cast in its new glittering form expressed in the language of superficial diversity: all my courses were subsumed under Afro-American Religious Studies, including those on Existentialism, American Democracy, and the Conduct of Life, no possible summer salary alongside the lowest increase possible every year. Yet I delivered two convocation addresses and one commencement speech in four years. I was promised a year sabbatical but could only take one semester in practice. And to witness a faculty enthusiastically support a candidate for tenure then timidly defer to a rejection based on the Harvard administration's hostility to the Palestinian cause was disgusting. We all new the mendacious reasons given had nothing to do with academic standards. When my committee recommended a tenure review - also rejected by the Harvard administration - I knew my academic achievements and student teaching meant far less than their political prejudices. Even my good friends in the Afro-American and African Studies Department were paralyzed, given their close relations to the administration. And after teaching extra courses, including five courses in one year, this silence continued. When the announcement of the death of my beloved Mother appeared in the regular newsletter, I received two public replies (just as that of my colleague Dr. Jacqueline Olga Cooke-Rivers who received none when her blessed Mother died). Any ordinary announcement about a lecture, award or professional advancement received about twenty replies! This kind of narcissistic academic professionalism, cowardly deference to the anti-Palestinian prejudices of the Harvard administration, and indifference to my Mother's death constitute an intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy of deep depths. In my case, a serious commitment to Veritas requires resignation - with precious memories but absolutely no regrets!" Cornel West
- leephillips 5y agoDoes anyone here have any insight into what these “anti-Palestinian prejudices” are, other than the recognition of Israel’s right to exist that is shared by almost all Americans?
- Digory 5y agoI love Cornel West, but he's left Harvard in a huff three or four times in the last twenty years. I feel like this is the second news cycle for this departure, even.