Responding to a bizarre series of personal attacks and threats, Professor of the Philosophy of Religion and Professor of Afro-American Studies Cornel R. West '74 canceled a May 11 Arkansas speaking engagement, according to officials.

The reverend of the church where West was to speak said yesterday that the agency which books West's engagements told him the cancellation was the result of serious security concerns.

On the afternoon of May 5, West's wife reported that she saw a man with a handgun in the driveway of the Wests' home on Commonwealth Ave., according to Lt. Robert McDonald of the Newton Police Department.

West's wife described him as a white male in his fifties wearing a black shirt, McDonald said.

He added that officers searched the premises but were unable to find traces of the intruder. Detectives later returned to the house to make a composite sketch, but West's wife had not seen the man well enough to provide one.

Reverend William Robinson said that he was informed by Helen Chucko, a receptionist at the agency, that "a person with a rifle with a scope on it had drawn a bead on his wife in his home in Massachusetts and she screamed and hit the floor, and by the time the police got there, the individual had gone."

On May 8 or 9, there was a threatening phone call in connection with West's appearance at the University of Utah, West's agent told The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The agent declined to comment on the incidents to The Crimson.

West was in Utah to deliver the 17th annual Lecture on Human Values.

Last Friday, West's housekeeper reported that she saw a prowler around his home, according to The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

A reporter for the Democrat-Gazette said West's agent told him that the housekeeper did not call the police at the time, but that West later requested the police provide increased security.

McDonald, however, reported no record of a second police contact after May 5.

In Class

Eliot A. Ratzman, a Divinity School student who took one of West's classes this semester, said the professor made an announcement about the incidents on the last day of class, May 6.

Ratzman said that "he mentioned in class [something that] sounded like a home invasion last week.... It involved someone with a gun and [his wife] screaming.... He wasn't very clear about that."

Ratzman added that West "mentioned that when he was at Princeton, his house was attacked six times in six years."