Note what Mansfield, the conservative professor in question, has to say about it:
"I was not present at the famous interview between him and Cornel West, but in my opinion (Summers) merely used my name in a clumsy attempt to cajole Cornel West into behaving more like a professor, less like a celebrity," said Mansfield.
Cornell West was one of the gang of colleagues that Skip Gates brought with him to the Black Studies Department at Harvartd when he was hired. We were actually trying to hire Skip Gates, but Harvard made him an offer we could never match: two million a year for himself, a couple of friends, and a bunch of secretaries.
Larry Summers later harangued Cornel West because he made some sort of rap DVD instead of writing a book. Summers publicly said something to the effect that at Harvard professors are expected to write scholarly books, not produce rap music. So Cornel West went to Princeton, which was also fishing for prominent black studies talent, in a snit.
West is not considered a serious professor at Princeton, according to people who are studying there. He’s more of a token, a campus celebrity figure, hired in order to attact applicants.