Cornel West resigns from Harvard after tenure dispute and accuses university of 'spiritual rot'

Cornel West, the eccentric professor, public intellectual and progressive activist, resigned from Harvard after a tenure dispute and accused the university of "spiritual rot" in a letter posted to his Twitter on Monday.

"How sad it is to see our beloved Harvard Divinity School in such decline and decay," he wrote in the letter. "The disarray of a scattered curriculum, the disenchantment of talented yet deferential faculty, and the disorientation of precious students loom large." His resignation comes after he said Harvard denied him an opportunity to receive tenure, the indefinite academic appointment that makes it extremely difficult to remove professors.