Prize-winning journalist considers suing UNC-Chapel Hill over lack of tenure

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones might sue the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill over a delay by the Board of Trustees to make her new position at the school a tenured one.

Posted 7:32 p.m. May 27, 2021 — Updated 11:34 p.m. May 27, 2021

Matthew Burns

, WRAL.com senior producer/politics editor, & Julian Grace, WRAL anchor/reporter

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones might sue the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill over a delay by the Board of Trustees to make her new position at the school a tenured one.

Lawyers representing Hannah-Jones, a UNC-Chapel Hill alumna and a New York Times reporter, sent letters Thursday to university officials and state lawmakers demanding that they preserve all emails and other documents related to tenure decisions by the board.

"To ensure the academic and journalistic freedom of Black writers is protected to the full extent of the law and to seek redress for the University of North Carolina’s adverse actions against me, I have retained legal counsel to respond to the Board of Trustees’ failure to consider and approve my application for tenure, despite the recommendation of the faculty, dean, provost and chancellor," Hannah-Jones said in a statement. "I had no desire to bring turmoil or a political firestorm to the university that I love, but I am obligated to fight back against a wave of anti-democratic suppression that seeks to prohibit the free exchange of ideas, silence Black voices and chill free speech."

After winning the Pulitzer, a Peabody Award and a so-called "genius grant" from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for "The 1619 Project" about slavery's impact on America, she was hired in April as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the university's Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has funded numerous Knight Chair faculty positions nationwide, and they typically carry tenure. But Hannah-Jones was offered a five-year contract instead, starting July 1 at a salary of $180,000 a year.

Her supporters say she hasn't been given tenure because of the controversial nature of her work. Conservative groups have said The 1619 Project paints the U.S. in a bad light, and lawmakers in North Carolina and other states are pursuing legislation to curb the instruction of "critical race theory," a point of view that acknowledges the existence of white supremacy and systemic racism and holds that some institutions are inherently racist because they maintain the momentum of racial inequality.

"We are evaluating all available legal recourse to fully vindicate Ms. Hannah-Jones’s rights, including possibly initiating a federal action against UNC, the Board, and/or affiliated entities and individuals," the letter from her lawyers states.

Employment law attorney Laura Noble said the lack of transparency about the UNC-Chapel Hill board's actions only bolsters any claim Hannah-Jones makes against them.

"I had hoped the university would have reached another decision. I would have hoped they would have been more transparent about their decision-making process," Noble said. "They make it easier for individuals to reach the conclusion that they're basing their decision on something untoward when they are not transparent about it.”

In addition to documents related to Hannah-Jones, her attorneys want employment-related information regarding past Knight Chairs at the Hussman School and "any and all tenure considerations, including any and all employment-related decisions and policies, from January 2011 until the present" at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Pat Ryan, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, dismissed the letter, saying, "The legislature has no role in the faculty hiring decisions at UNC System schools or the terms by which faculty are hired."

The letter comes two days after a recommendation for tenure was resubmitted to the Board of Trustees, which referred it to the University Affairs Committee for review.

WRAL Statehouse Reporter Travis Fain contributed to this report.

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