Dr. Cornel West Leaves Princeton University

Takes pay cut to return to school he taught at in 1977

The New York Times is reporting that Dr. Cornel West is leaving his post at Princeton University to return to teaching Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, where he got his start as an assistant professor in 1977.  

Marking somewhat of a return to his roots, West said in an interview says that Union was “the institutional expression of my core identity as a prophetic Christian.”

The split comes amicably unlike the time he left Harvard University after a squabble with then-president, Lawrence H. Summers in 2002.

West tells the paper:

“I don’t have that much time, and I want to be able to do precisely what I’m called to do,” Dr. West, 58, said. It will also be nice, he said, to be within walking distance of the Apollo Theater.

"Don't have much time" doesn't sound too good. Has the good doctor fallen ill again? He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2002, and judging that it's been 10 years since it was revealed, it looks like he's beat it.

Dr. West will begin his new position next summer.