[chadash]

> "he was declined tenure for no good reason"

Usually you get tenure for a good reason. Plenty of very talented people are denied it for no good reason. I'm not saying that his accusations are untrue, but denial of tenure happens all of the time, so the onus is really on him to say why he should have gotten it.

I feel like i'm missing some pieces of this story though. Why did a previously tenured academic well into his career agree to take a poorly paid job without tenure in the first place?

[okareaman]

Some people are less interested in money and status than they are in discovering something original about the Universe. If not original, a new take on it. Dr West strikes me as such a person. I focused on the part of the letter that says he wanted to explore philosophy but they miscategorized his endeavors as Afro-Studies. I'd get frustrated and quit too.