Faculty leaders demand that UNC trustees reconsider tenure for Nikole Hannah-Jones
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The hire and the fury: Nikole Hannah-Jones at UNC
Read all of The News & Observer’s coverage of the University of North Carolina’s decision to hire the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist and the controversy that ensued.
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UNC-Chapel Hill faculty and student leaders are demanding that the campus Board of Trustees officially reconsider tenure for Nikole Hannah-Jones, who is set to join the journalism faculty in July.
The Faculty Executive Committee held a special meeting Monday to vote on a statement.
“The Faculty Executive Committee strongly urges the Board of Trustees to uphold the long tradition of respect for recommendations for faculty bodies in hiring and tenure cases, and to take up the matter of tenure for Nikole Hannah-Jones immediately, and to explain, to the fullest extent possible without violating the law, the reasons for its decision,” the statement said. “These steps must be undertaken to address a breach of trust in a process that is essential to our standing as a leading public research university.”
The faculty are upset because they say the principle of respect was violated in this case.
“It’s a shocking breach of trust to me,” professor Beth Mayer-Davis said at the meeting. “We cannot operate this way.”
In April, Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at The New York Times, was named the Knight Chair in the UNC-CH Hussman School of Media and Journalism, a position that has historically been tenured. But instead, Hannah-Jones was hired as a fixed-term professor of practice with the option of being reviewed for tenure within five years.
She accepted the position, knowing it was not tenured, earning a $180,000 annual salary through June 30, 2026, according to her contract. It was offered on March 2 and says UNC expects she will be “considered for a tenured appointment during or at the conclusion of the term of this appointment.”
The Knight Chair Endowment Grant pays for 33% of her academic salary and benefits and the remainder is paid for by the journalism school with state funding, according to UNC-CH.
At Monday’s meeting, Faculty Chair Mimi Chapman explained said the faculty was deciding the best course of action for this tenure case to be revisited and stressed the urgency of the matter.
“This is a recruitment issue,” Chapman said. “She needs to know what the options are.”
Hannah-Jones is set to start at UNC-CH in July, while continuing to work as a journalist for The New York Times. As of Monday, Hannah-Jones had removed her affiliation with UNC’s journalism school and title as Knight Chair in her Twitter bio.
Susan King, dean of the journalism school, shared her continued support of Hannah-Jones on Twitter on Monday.
“On behalf of our school and our students I hope the Board of Trustees will vote on @nhannahjones tenure package. I think they will be impressed as are we. I will be out for two days on medical leave,” King tweeted.
Controversy over Hannah-Jones’ tenure
The controversy over Hannah-Jones’s lack of tenure swelled into a national story last week, as outraged faculty, students and professional journalists have defended Hannah-Jones and criticized the Board of Trustees.
The trustees have the authority to approve tenure for UNC faculty, but the board never voted on this case. Hannah-Jones’ application for tenure was presented along with others to be considered at the January meeting, but was postponed because trustee Chuck Duckett had questions, Board Chair Richard Stevens said. Stevens said that wasn’t unusual for candidates “that don’t come from a traditional academic-type background.”
After the board’s inaction, Hannah-Jones accepted the offer without tenure and the news of her hiring was announced in April. There was celebration and some backlash at the time, but the recent controversy came when the news of the lack of tenure spread.
Some have pointed to politics, race and gender as reasons why Hannah-Jones’ didn’t get tenure, citing her work on The 1619 Project, which explores the legacy and history of the enslavement of Black people in America. She won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, but the project has faced scrutiny from some historians and conservative politicians and led to a clarification from the New York Times.
But UNC faculty members are concerned that trustees, by ignoring the faculty recommendation to hire Hannah-Jones with tenure, shows that faculty aren’t valued or respected. As of Monday, about 350 professors, alumni and students have signed a statement expressing their disappointment and demanding further explanation.
Chapman previously told The News & Observer this raises issues “over whether this is happening because this is a person who is a Black woman and writes about race. What is it about her portfolio that is so different from other Knight chairs who were also non-academics but nevertheless came into UNC with tenure with no questions?”
At the meeting, Chapman asked about the next steps, should this request “fall on deaf ears.”
Tim Ives, chair of the UNC System Faculty Assembly, explained they would expect an official response from the board, but without one the issue could be raised to UNC System President Peter Hans or the UNC System Board of Governors. The chancellor and provost can also bring the issue to the president or board members to get the issue on the agenda.
The UNC System Board of Governors meets Wednesday and Thursday this week.
Student leader threatens vote of no confidence
Lamar Richards, student body president and member of the Board of Trustees, sent a letter to Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, Provost Bob Blouin and Board Chair Richard Stevens calling on them to push for tenure for Hannah-Jones to be reconsidered.
Richards asked Blouin to re-submit Hannah-Jones as a candidate for tenure to the board immediately, as it was originally presented or as an amendment to her original contract.
He asked Stevens to take up that tenure recommendation or contract amendment as an official matter of the board by placing it on the agenda at a special called meeting.
Further, Richards requested that they get consent from Hannah-Jones to discuss her personnel record and candidacy for tenure in open session.
“While our Board was not responsible for rejecting her tenure, Kevin, Bob, and Richard: you three were and continue to be single-handedly responsible for delaying and denying Nikole’s right for her application for tenure to be heard in formal capacity before our Board,” Richards said.
Richards told Guskiewicz that if Hannah-Jones decides not to come to UNC as a result of not being considered for tenure, he will “have lost my faith in your ability to lead this University alongside the 30,000 students I represent.”
He told Blouin the same and that his and Stevens’ actions and inactions will follow them into their future endeavors.
Richards said if this matter remains unresolved, he will “support any efforts of the Faculty Governance Council, Employee Forum, or both houses of the Undergraduate and Graduate & Professional Senate to take up a vote of ‘No Confidence’ in any and every individual responsible.”
This story was originally published May 24, 2021 at 12:50 PM with the headline "Faculty leaders demand that UNC trustees reconsider tenure for Nikole Hannah-Jones."
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