So did the overwhelming support offered by Tilghman and Gutmann following his prostate cancer surgery at the end of January.

West said he received nearly weekly calls from Tilghman and Gutmann during his recovery from the surgery.

“I didn’t receive any telephone calls from President Summers,” West said to Smiley. “I did receive one note.”

And though Summers recently made several attempts to reach out to West through Gates and Climenko Professor of Law Charles J. Ogletree—both close friends and colleagues of West—those efforts proved too little, too late for West.

“To say that somehow he worked so hard to keep me is simply false, just another example, I think, of the pattern of mendacity that I’ve seen over the past few months,” West said.

The University had no response yesterday to West’s comments except to reiterate that Summers had attempted—though unsuccessfully—to contact West.

“Over the past several weeks, Professor West did not respond to repeated overtures from President Summers for conversation. It doesn’t seem fruitful now to have that conversation in the press,” said Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Alan J. Stone.

West’s comments yesterday delivered one of the harshest critiques yet of Summers’ young presidency.

Though some Faculty and students suggested yesterday that the comparison to the Israeli prime minister may have been too strong, they said the general criticism behind the metaphor was on the mark.

“I think Professor West had a good point in that both Sharon and Summers seem to have come into a new situation and have been the ‘bull in the china shop,’” said Charles M.G. Moore ’04, vice president of the Black Men’s Forum.

“However, I think Professor West probably used that as part of his…political leanings right now, and I don’t think the comparisons really work well—it could have been any bull in a china shop and not just Ariel Sharon,” Moore said.

Ogletree, who has spoken on West’s behalf in recent months, was hopeful that Summers would learn from West’s departure.

“Every Harvard president has stumbled early in his tenure and found ways to improve,” Ogletree said. “I’m hopeful that President Summers will be able to do the same.”

But not all professors said they felt the spat with West should lead Summers to change his ways.

“I hope that President Summers will not yield to his critics, because if he does they will only multiply,” said Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature Ruth R. Wisse.

—David H. Gellis contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu.