Cornel West returning to Harvard University

Harvard University officials say scholar and activist Cornel West is returning to the college, 14 years after he left the Ivy League school after a falling out with then-university President Lawrence Summers.

During the election, West became an oustpoken advocate for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. In return, Sanders named West as one of his selections to sit on the DNC Platform committee, which met in Philadelphia.

Lawrence Bobo, chairman of Harvard’s African and African-American studies department, tells The New York Times that West will hold a joint appointment at the department and Harvard Divinity School. Bobo said the appointment will likely occur by July, but could happen as early as January.

West left Harvard for Princeton University in New Jersey in 2002. He and Summers were at odds over the school’s commitment to affirmative action and the quality of West’s scholarship. “This is either a deliberate attempt to push me out…or just messing with the wrong black man, with the wrong person,” West said in an NPR interview at the time.

West, who is now retired, did not immediately return a message Sunday. Harvard faculty voted to invite West back earlier this year.

The Associated Press contributed to this story