Why Cornel West’s Tenure Fight Matters

March 10, 2021 7:19 PM

I wrote letters for West’s hire and renewal at Harvard. The school’s administrators completely miss the point of tenure. Noted scholar Robin D.G. Kelley explains why tenure matters, and why he thinks West was denied tenure.
posted by Ahmad Khani (37 comments total)

Wait, what?!? Cornel West was hired without tenure after previously having had tenure at Harvard and Princeton?!? What the actual fuck?!?
posted by medusa at 7:44 PM on March 10, 2021 [22 favorites]

Thank you for posting this. I have heard rumblings about this on the internet but haven't read a good article about it. This one was enlightening and I particularly enjoyed reading the letter at the end. Yet again I cannot believe how much institutions are shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to these things.

I am not trying to diminish either of these individuals, but this somewhat reminds me of the relationship breakdown between Meghan Markle and the British Royal Family. The BRF had a once-in-a-generation opportunity to embrace someone who might help drag them into modernity and relevance and instead appears to have driven Meghan out due to their inability to embrace one ounce of change. Harvard had the opportunity to give Cornel West tenure - an inestimable academic, as set out in the article - after already screwing it up once. They have been unable to bring themselves to do so for really quite incomprehensible reasons. Both the BRF and Harvard were unable to look beyond themselves and see the absolute gift they'd been given in these individuals who were in some way seeking admission into their ranks, and in the end entirely blew their chances and now a) look worse in the public's eyes and b) are in fact worse off.
posted by hepta at 7:54 PM on March 10, 2021 [14 favorites]

Also, I find it surprising that Kelley received a request for a letter recommending West for a Professor of the Practice position and did not realize that this was a non-tenure-track position. “Of the Practice” is standard terminology for non-tenure-track.
posted by mr_roboto at 8:21 PM on March 10, 2021 [13 favorites]

To be fair, even though West previously held a tenured position at Harvard, neither his father or grandfather were tenured at Harvard, nor were they on the boards of any of the large corporations that contribute to Harvard's endowment. Really, what were they to do? *shrugs*
posted by Anoplura at 9:07 PM on March 10, 2021 [19 favorites]

Seems a great opportunity for an institution with vision to beat a path to Dr. West's door with a tenure offer.
posted by axiom at 9:11 PM on March 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Seems a great opportunity for an institution with vision to beat a path to Dr. West's door with a tenure offer.


He's going back to UTS. He's still emeritus at Princeton and teaches there occasionally I think.
posted by mr_roboto at 9:22 PM on March 10, 2021 [4 favorites]

Honest to god... I don't know how to put this in the correct terms, but it seems like the central issue that resulted in West's leaving is related to a prominent political conflict in American academia that is difficult to talk about. The Crimson article I linked to above quotes West regarding it (he calls it "taboo") and it is alluded to in Kelley's article. There's a lot of political tension around this issue and there's a lot of speculation as to how important it was in contributing to the conflict between West and Harvard.
posted by mr_roboto at 9:26 PM on March 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

it seems like the central issue that resulted in West's leaving is related to a prominent political conflict in American academia that is difficult to talk about

...and that all the furious claptrap about "cancel culture" and "postmodern Marxist political correctness" is transparently obviously tailor-made to take the spotlight off.

The thing about conservatives that they keep acting as if they don't understand is that everybody can see straight through their bullshit except them, that exception existing only because they've made a gentleman's agreement to keep their own eyes pointed the other way while they ploot it forth.

At some point during the Reagan years, most of these chucklefucks completely lost sight of the "plausible" in "plausible deniability".
posted by flabdablet at 10:13 PM on March 10, 2021 [8 favorites]

...and that all the furious claptrap about "cancel culture"

That's not what I'm talking about.

West came into conflict with Harvard regarding issues surrounding Israel and Palestine, which we generally avoid discussing on MetaFilter.

West has made this explicit in his public statements.
posted by mr_roboto at 10:18 PM on March 10, 2021 [13 favorites]

My feelings on the Cornel West story are pretty much parallel to the Megan Markle story.

1) tenure is bad, actually
2) furthermore, Cornel West is going to do all right no matter what happens
3) yet, not giving Cornel West tenure was surely a poor decision on Harvard's part, looking solely at Harvard's self-interest
posted by anhedonic at 10:20 PM on March 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

1) tenure is bad, actually

The concept of tenure - the idea that an academic should be able to pursue lines of research without worry for their continued employment without peer review - is in of itself sound. The problem is how higher education treats this - as a special, rarified state only granted to a limited set of their number, instead of something that a professor receives as a matter of course following a reasonable introductory period. It's this that causes all the distortions in academia that has made tenure so problematic.
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:10 AM on March 11, 2021 [53 favorites]

I used to listen to Dr. West (he does a lot more for the title than it does for him in my opinion, but somehow I feel compelled to follow Tavis' use of it) quite a lot during his regular visits to The Tavis Smiley Show, and as one of the guests in heavy rotation on Democracy Now.

He is one of very few people in American public life who I think is endowed with a kind of moral perfect pitch, and it has been very comforting to feel like a member of the choir for one of the only times in my life.
posted by jamjam at 1:01 AM on March 11, 2021 [4 favorites]

I've listened to West a number of times and I'm always impressed but I can never remember why. All I recall is rolling cadences with little illumination, like thunder without lightning.

In his quest for tenure he's at least skirting antisemitic commentary when he blames his failure on people in “certain circles” – the sort of placeholder used by conspiracy theorists who want their audience's prejudices to fill in the blanks. Or when he says things like

Is Harvard a place for a free Black man like myself whose Christian faith & witness put equal value on Palestinian & Jewish babies- like all babies- & reject all occupations as immoral?
6:31 PM · Feb 19, 2021

Go on Cornell, tell us about your dear Christian faith that causes you to love everybody, as opposed to people in (((certain circles))) who only care about Jewish babies. Gosh, I wonder who they might be.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:14 AM on March 11, 2021 [4 favorites]

Huh. Knowing a little bit about the Harvard context and given the pseudo-aristocracy/class structure of Ivy League schools, I would have interpreted "certain circles" to be referring to rich, white wasps (of the "politely racist" variety) with long-standing family ties to Harvard. But I haven't been paying a lot of attention to West in particular, so may be missing other relevant context.
posted by eviemath at 4:20 AM on March 11, 2021 [4 favorites]

Jones told the New York Times Monday that West’s new position is tenured and that, if she could, she would grant West “quadruple tenure.” From mr_roboto's link about UTS.

Joe in Australia, do you consider Cornell anti-semitic? (Harvard apparently didn't give the guy tenure because the administration does not like his critique of how Israel has treated Palestine, which I am not suggesting we discuss here and turn it into a shit storm.) Because fuck anti-semites. But you can be appalled by the situation in Palestine without being anti-semitic. It is not clear to me from that quote that he is one.
posted by Bella Donna at 4:24 AM on March 11, 2021 [11 favorites]

My question is: why did West accept this position? He had tenured positions before -why not just stay there?

This case is really different from most - most people up for tenure don't have other choices.
posted by jb at 4:49 AM on March 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

This case is really different from most - most people up for tenure don't have other choices.

Yes, which means that this is the case where the academic denied tenure on political grounds has the resources to fight the decision (which is why we're hearing about it) and potentially set a precedent that improves things for others without those resources.
posted by eviemath at 4:53 AM on March 11, 2021 [3 favorites]

But I haven't been paying a lot of attention to West in particular, so may be missing other relevant context.

It's pretty clear from the tweet Joe in Australia posted that West is not talking about WASPs, he is talking about unseen forces who do not value Palestinian and Jewish babies equally. West's critique of establishment powers frequently refers back to the I-P conflict as an example, even when it is not the subject of the discussion. Is it because he draws a direct line between Black and Palestinian oppression? Is it because he thinks Jews are the establishment? Both? Of course you can sympathize with Palestinians and not be anti-Semitic, but it is also true that the number of people in the left who sympathize with Palestinians because they themselves are anti-Semitic is hardly zero (the parallel on the right would be people who are pro-Israel because they believe shoving all Jews into Israel will bring the Second Coming, or at the very least remove them from everywhere else).

So basically when someone is talking about the establishment holding them back because of their I-P views it is pretty clear to me anyway why a person would be concerned their rhetoric is not principled but rooted in conspiracy theory about Jews.
posted by Anonymous at 5:20 AM on March 11, 2021

West took a position that was never slated for tenure though. It seems weird to take an explicitly non-tenured position if your ultimate goal is to get tenure. Also I am not aware of him leading the pro-tenure charge for anybody else, so I am also skeptical of the argument that he took this position because he has a larger goal of providing everybody with more opportunities for tenure.
posted by Anonymous at 5:27 AM on March 11, 2021

Dr. West was a very prestigious professor even before having Harvard on his CV, and he has never tended to stay in one place. I don't doubt he'll be fine without tenure. Also, from what I've heard, Harvard tends to think that the innate prestige of being a Harvard Professor means they don't have to pay their professors that well or give them commensurate benefits. Superstar prof vs. snooty institution is not likely to make either side look great, Harvard will come off looking worse but doesn't really have to care.
posted by rikschell at 5:39 AM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

On the one hand, West doesn't ding my anti-semitism radar particularly hard and someone who has co-written books with Rabbis on Black-Jewish relations in America is probably not where I would go looking for evidence.

On the other hand, he did refer to Larry Summers as the "Ariel Sharon of American Higher education" and there is literally only one thing that the Larry Summers and Ariel Sharon have in common.

I think it's probably fair to say that like everyone else in society, there are unspoken prejudices that sometimes shine through in otherwise good people.
posted by atrazine at 5:43 AM on March 11, 2021 [12 favorites]

Also, from what I've heard, Harvard tends to think that the innate prestige of being a Harvard Professor means they don't have to pay their professors that well or give them commensurate benefits

Business Insider claims otherwise. (Cf Oxford.)
posted by BWA at 6:24 AM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

He talks about it on democracy now among the many reasons he speculates its because of his support of Palestine, and blatant and systemic racism at Harvard.
posted by stilgar at 6:51 AM on March 11, 2021 [3 favorites]

So, if I have this right, West took (inexplicably) a non-tenure-line appointment at Harvard, and is now waging a public fight that he requested tenure and they are denying it to him? In that case he is not applying for tenure the same way the rest of us do. He was essentially demanding that the University gives him tenure (and a tenured appointment) just because he asked for it. Maybe he was using his possible departure as a negotiating tactic to gain a tenured appointment, and he lost.

My interpretation would be that he is publicly eliding over the usual steps (and job line) that build to tenure, but appealing to that process anyway in "Harvard denied me tenure!!" to bring attention to his causes.
posted by Dashy at 7:22 AM on March 11, 2021 [11 favorites]

I am not at all an expert, but the idea that he was not in a tenure-line position (as the previous comment suggests) seems important here, and it is given some more importance in this thread https://dailynous.com/2021/02/19/harvard-declines-consider-cornel-west-tenure/
If I recall, one of the comparisons is to John Kerry teaching at Yale or whatever. These just aren't positions that come with tenure or are made into tenured positions (or have the usual sorts of requirements for research, for example).
That doesn't mean that Harvard hasn't treated him badly in other ways of course.
posted by melamakarona at 7:28 AM on March 11, 2021 [4 favorites]

My understanding is also that Harvard is unusual in that it rarely (never?) grants tenure to professors after working there a few years. Most colleges hire professors in a tenure track position, evaluate them for six years, then decide to give them tenure or not. Harvard is different. You're either hired with tenure, or you're hired without tenure and you understand it's a temporary job with no possibility of tenure. (This may be changing at Harvard, how quickly I do not know.)

West's case is exceptional though. He had tenure at Harvard and then left. It does seem strange he'd take a job coming back to Harvard that was not tenure track, then expect to get tenure. West is an exceptional intellectual though and Harvard would certainly benefit from his association.

Bonus West link: Cornel West talking smack about WEB Dubois with Louis Gates. Lovingly, but it's a funny moment. From the excellent 2019 PBS documentary on Reconstruction.
posted by Nelson at 7:45 AM on March 11, 2021 [9 favorites]

I hate to say this. But the headline article here was written by a full, distinguished prof at UCLA who is claiming that he had no idea! shocked! that the letter he wrote wasn't a tenure letter.

His letter starts Per your letter of June 10, 2020, I am submitting my evaluation of the scholarship of Dr. Cornel West, who is being considered for reappointment.

Any academic knows full well the difference between reappointment and tenure, regardless of whether the appointment is tenure-line or not. That article's framing is complete bs. Sorry, but not sorry.
posted by Dashy at 7:55 AM on March 11, 2021 [7 favorites]

Joe in Australia, do you consider Cornell anti-semitic?

I have no idea what is in his or anyone else's heart, but he made an antisemitic statement and he has a duty to do better. People don't need to be explicit racists or women–haters to contribute to racism and misogyny; he's a scholar and wordsmith and knows the implications of his words.
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:16 PM on March 11, 2021 [3 favorites]

“Of the Practice” is standard terminology for non-tenure-track.

I have no doubt this is true. But, it's the first time I've heard it and I would never have assumed that was the meaning. I'd have skipped by it and assumed it was some campus-specific phrase. (I guess we have "research professors" in my field which seem to be more or less the same thing and are also poorly named.)
posted by eotvos at 2:38 PM on March 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

It sounds like he moved to Boston for personal reasons, and that's why he initially took a non-tenured position?

About five years ago, when he had just remarried and wanted to live in Boston, he returned to Harvard, accepting a nontenure position. At that point, he says candidly now, he needed a job, and also considered Roxbury Community College and Boston University.

via NYT
posted by matildatakesovertheworld at 4:00 PM on March 11, 2021

If Harvard wanted to give him tenure, they could give him tenure. The could create a tenure position for him. I've seen it happen at my university. There are only a finite number of tenure track position if you want there to be.
posted by armacy at 5:04 PM on March 11, 2021 [4 favorites]

Sure. But not getting an already-tenured position created specifically for you is not the same as putting years of your life and scholarship into a tenure-track position and not receiving tenure at the end. If the former is the same as being denied tenure, well, every university on the planet is denying me (and West) tenure. The article is framing this as West being denied tenure, and it sounds like it is simply not the same thing.
posted by Anonymous at 6:02 PM on March 11, 2021

I assume that this comment will be deleted as will Joe in Australia’s. I can’t find any records of anti-semitic statements by Cornel West. I do find criticisms of Israeli policies in regards of Palestinians but that is not anti-semetic. It’s possible I’m mistaken and that I missed something that Professor West said.
posted by rdr at 6:46 PM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

The quote that Joe in Australia posted that compares Palestinian and Jewish babies does strike me as questionable. Why not Israeli babies? Why buy into the framing that Israel is Judaism, a position that implicates the entire Jewish diaspora in the actions of the Israeli government?

I can't read a man's heart, and I for sure do not want to say that I'm particularly insightful when it comes to anti-semitism, but I do have questions about that specific quote I would put to the doctor.
posted by Merus at 11:43 PM on March 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

My bad. I was reacting to Joe in Australia's 13:16 comment without realizing that Joe in Australia had provided a quote in his 3:14 comment. I'm guessing that Professor West meant to say that his political stances got in the way of him getting tenure in particular his support of BDS but that's a guess. It has to be a guess because West didn't give that context in his tweet. That's problematic in a country that's had four years of crypto anti-Semetic ideology being accepted by a major political party, not to mention shootings in synagogues. Like Joe in Australia said upthread, West is a scholar and he's responsible for paying attention to the context in which his tweets are embedded.
posted by rdr at 3:02 AM on March 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

If we do not know what is in a person's heart, yet we've introduced the question of West's anti-semitism, let's at least admit this thread is derailed by a question that is not necessarily appropriate to the topic.

1) Do we have any idea Harvard made any decision about West, in light of comments he has made about Israel?

2) "In his quest for tenure he's at least skirting anti-semitic commentary.. " I suppose if we were discussing Norman Finkelstein I could see why a person would place a focus on the person, their area of scholarship, and the question of anti-semitism (let's recall the times Finkelstein has been labeled a self-hating Jew). Has West devoted a significant portion of his time to the question? Is it fair to characterize West in terms of his views on Israel and Palestine, in the context of a thread that is ostensibly about a Harvard decision?

The fact that this is about West and Harvard, and for some this arrives at a line in the sand on anti-semitism, is for me a bit peculiar.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:32 AM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

Edit: an idiot can see that the question is relevant. Feel free to delete the comment for adding a heap of nothing, with my apologies.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:47 AM on March 12, 2021