Education

Tenure controversy could leave UNC-Chapel Hill without Hannah-Jones, only a black eye

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones was supposed to begin her new job at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Thursday, but it's unclear when - or even if - she will arrive on campus after a protracted fight over tenure that battered the university's reputation.

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By
Sarah Krueger
, WRAL Durham reporter & Heather Leah, WRAL multiplatform producer
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones was supposed to begin her new job at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Thursday, but it's unclear when – or even if – she will arrive on campus after a protracted fight over tenure that battered the university's reputation.
Hannah-Jones, a UNC-Chapel Hill alumna and New York Times reporter, was hired in April as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill's Hussman School of Journalism and Media. She won the Pulitzer, a Peabody Award and a "genius grant" from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for "The 1619 Project" about slavery's lasting impact on America.
Although university officials recommended her for tenure, and most of the Knight Chair faculty positions nationwide funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation are tenured, the Board of Trustees delayed voting on her tenure application for months because some members questioned her academic qualifications. Instead, she was offered a five-year contract.
Some of her supporters argued that the tenure delay was racially and politically motivated because of her 1619 Project work. Her lack of tenure became a national cause célèbre, with journalists nationwide excoriating UNC-Chapel Hill for its handling of the situation, and faculty, students and alumni demanding in protests, newspaper ads and social media posts that the Board of Trustees vote on the matter.

"These last weeks have been very challenging and difficult, and I need to take some time to process all that has occurred and determine what is the best way forward," she said in a statement following the vote.

Students are now registering for classes this fall, and an investigative reporting class she was scheduled to teach is no longer on the schedule, while a magazine writing course just lists "staff" as the instructor after earlier having her name attached to it.

A spokesperson for the Hussman School said Hannah-Jones was still listed on UNC Hussman's internal schedule and within registration information the school sent to its students on Thursday.

"We're looking into the issue of her not being listed elsewhere," a spokeswoman added.

Hussman School professors WRAL News talked with on Thursday said they have no idea whether Hannah-Jones will eventually teach there after the tenure fight.

"I hope she does come. We’d love to have her in the department," Associate Professor Deen Freelon said. "The decision is ultimately hers, and I would not blame her at all if she decided to go elsewhere or not to do academia at all."

"If she is seeking my advice, I would say take the job right now," Professor Deb Aikat said. "She will be a great person to have on campus as one of our colleagues."

Either way, both men said UNC-Chapel Hill has been damaged by the tenure fight.

"Obviously, it’s not a great look for UNC. It’s very problematic. I’m sure it sends the wrong message," Freelon said.

The tenure fight is only the latest episode at UNC-Chapel Hill that members of the school's Black community say contributes to a negative environment for them on campus. First, it was years of protests over a long-standing "Silent Sam" Confederate monument on campus, and that was followed by an aborted deal that would have given the statue – protesters pulled it down three years ago – and millions of dollars to the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

"I hope that the administration will learn a lesson from this. I don’t know how many more scandals it’s going to take," Freelon said. "We hope that the next time that something like this happens, there won’t need to be a massive pressure campaign to get the administration to do what they should do."

Aikat agreed that he hopes UNC-Chapel Hill can use the episode as a learning experience and make changes to improve. If that happens, he said, the school's image can recover.

"Am I worried about the crisis we are going through? Yes. But this is not the first crisis ... and this is truthfully not the last," he said. "In a strange way, it brings a great reputation to UNC if we can solve it."

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