University President Lawrence H. Summers today issued his first direct response to reports that his handling of the Afro-American Studies department has prompted some of its most famous members to consider relocating.

The department, widely considered the nation’s best, was a pet project of Summers’ predecessor, Neil L. Rudenstine. Over the past couple of weeks, national media attention has focused on a dispute between Summers and Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West ’74, who is reported to be considering a return to Princeton University.

“With regard to the Afro-American Studies program at Harvard, we are proud of this program collectively and of each of its individual members. We would very much like to see the current faculty stay at Harvard and will compete vigorously to make this an attractive environment,” Summers said in a statement issued to The Crimson (full text below).

Reports in The New York Times and The Boston Globe say department professors take issue with Summers’ lack of endorsement of affirmative action—something Rudenstine strongly promoted. Summers’ statement indirectly responds to this.

Citing the University’s “longstanding commitment to diversity,” Summers vowed to “maintain that commitment.”

“Our approach to admissions, cited as a model in the nation’s highest court, advances our compelling interest in racial and other forms of diversity,” he said.

With today’s statement Summers tried to patch up what is turning into something of a public relations debacle for the University and its new president.

The main point of contention: a meeting with West in which Summers is reported to have abrasively discussed such issues as the prevalence of grade inflation and West’s use of his time away from Harvard last year. Last year, West was on a medical leave of absence during which he also recorded a rap album. In addition, he is heading up an exploratory committee for prospective presidential candidate the Rev. Al Sharpton.

West was unavailable for comment.

Climenko Professor of Law Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., who is representing West in this matter, expressed his approval of Summers’ statement in an interview today with The Crimson.

“It meets the objectives that many people had set forth—it’s strong, it’s clear, it’s unequivocal,” Ogletree said today in an interview with The Crimson.

“We have made incredible progress with President Summers, and I am very happy with the way things have developed,” Ogletree said.

Summers does not address the meeting with West in his statement, but the Globe story quotes him saying, “It’s a very unfortunate misunderstanding if my views have been perceived in other ways.”

According to the Times and Globe reports, another department bigwig, Professor of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy K. Anthony Appiah, is also being courted by Princeton University.

In an interview with The Crimson prior to the release of Summers’ statement, Appiah said he felt the accusation that Summers was not in favor of affirmative action was untrue. He also said he had not considered leaving Harvard and denied that he had an offer from Princeton.