UNC reaches settlement with Hannah-Jones over tenure saga

“The steps taken to resolve the lingering potential legal action posed by Ms. Hannah-Jones will hopefully help to close this chapter and give the University the space to focus on moving forward,” Chairman David Boliek said in a text message to WRAL News on Friday morning.

Boliek said the settlement was less than $75,000. At that level, Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz has authority to negotiate terms without seeking approval from the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system.

Lawyers for Hannah-Jones said their client was happy to have the matter resolved. “She looks forward to continuing her professional work committed to using the power of investigative journalism to expose the truth about the manifestations of racism in our society and training the next generation of aspiring journalists to do the same at her academic home of Howard University,” Legal Defense Fund President Janai S. Nelson said in a statement.

Hannah-Jones, a UNC-Chapel Hill alumna, was hired last year as the university’s Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism, but she was offered only a five-year contract instead of being granted tenure, as previous Knight Chairs had been. Many thought the decision to not grant her tenure was because of her work on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project, which focused on slavery's lasting impact on American history.

Walter Hussman, a major donor whose name is on UNC’s journalism school, had previously questioned Hannah-Jones, saying the 1619 Project wasn't objective reporting, and he didn't want the school dragged into the national controversy over it. He also privately expressed concerns to Hussman School of Journalism and Media administrators about hiring her.

Hannah-Jones criticized Hussman for not supporting her hiring, and he also faced pushback from professors in the program who claimed the episode damaged UNC-Chapel Hill's reputation.

The situation in part prompted the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications to temporarily downgrade UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

"The controversy surrounding the decision by Nikole Hannah-Jones to turn down a tenured, endowed chair at the school exposed long-standing problems,” the accrediting team found in May. “Many stem from inconsistencies in executing the goals in the 2016 Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan."

"As Ms. Hannah-Jones has stated previously, ‘the right to free expression is a cornerstone of our democracy, and its protection is particularly critical for Black Americans and other marginalized groups who have a long history of battling infringement of this right,’” Nelson's statement said Friday.

July 2021: Faculty say Hannah-Jones tenure saga tarnished UNC-Chapel Hill's reputation

As a part of the settlement agreement, the university will "accelerate its investment in crucial initiatives in Carolina Next, its strategic plan, to further that ongoing work," Beth Keith, the associate vice chancellor of university communications, said in a statement. Keith didn't provide details on what specific initiatives would be accelerated.

“This is an important step forward as Carolina focuses on its future and continues to educate the next generation of leaders," Keith said.

The vice president of the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors said Friday that the controversy is still being felt throughout the university.

“She went through a kind of hazing and humiliation that she should not have had to go through,” said Jay Smith, a UNC history professor who was in favor of the settlement.

Smith says the ordeal has lingering effects on the university. “There’s a real possibility that we’re going to fail to attract the people we want to work here,” he said. “In fact, we have seen that. People have declined offers to come here because they’re disturbed by the atmosphere.”

The professors’ association hopes UNC becomes more transparent in these kinds of decisions going forward.

“If they want to begin to do the repair work that UNC needs to do, they need to take the initiative to embrace shared governance with seriousness,” Smith said.