Ms. Nikole Hannah-Jones — Former MacArthur Fellow, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist, and UNC Alumna — Denied Tenure in Unprecedented Fashion
Nikole Hannah-Jones (UNC Masters, ‘03), Journalist for The New York Times and the recipient of several accolades for her investigative work on Racial segregation’s effects in education and American history. Source: The Daily Northwestern
On Wednesday of this week, Joe Killian and UNC Hussman Student Kyle Ingram reported under NC Policy Watch that UNC’s Board of Trustees failed to offer Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times journalist and 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winner, tenure after the faculty of UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, Executive Vice Chancellor and provost Robert Blouin, and UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz each recommended she be awarded the lifetime appointment. Instead, Ms. Hannah-Jones has been offered a fixed, 5-year contract while still serving as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism with the possibility for review of tenure. This fixed-term agreement does not require approval from UNC’s Board of Trustees.
The failure to offer Ms. Hannah-Jones tenure deviates heavily from UNC’s own precedent. The Knight Foundation, which sponsors professorships for journalists in universities across the country, has worked with UNC since the 1980s. NC Policy Watch reports that every Knight Chair that has worked at UNC was immediately offered tenure. Furthermore, this comes after UNC’s faculty spent an estimated 164 hours and 20-plus days reviewing her candidacy, including fielding recommendations from professors at institutions outside of UNC.
Tenure positions at UNC must be approved by the Board of Trustees, whose members are appointed by the North Carolina Legislature — which is currently constituted by a Republican-majority. Ms. Hannah-Jones has faced criticism from many political conservatives, including former President Donal Trump, for her work on racial segregation in America and most especially for her recent publications on the historiography of Early American History. Regarding Ms. Hannah-Jones’ candidacy for tenure, one member of UNC’s Board of Trustees, speaking anonymously, told NC Policy Watch, “The university and the board of trustees and the Board of Governors and the legislature have all been getting pressure since this thing [Ms. Hannah-Jones’ application for tenure] was first announced last month.” And, in response to exactly why the Board did not offer Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure, the Trustee said bluntly: “politics.”
What is meant by ‘politics’ is almost certainly a reference to the conservative backlash against The 1619 Project, an ongoing collection of essays, poems, primary documents, photographs, and accounts seeking to piece together the historiography of America by centering on the lives of the enslaved and its effects on their progeny. The 1619 Project was first published in The New York Times Magazine in August of 2019, commemorating the 400th anniversary of one of the first documented beginnings of slavery in America. Ms. Hannah-Jones was one among several journalists, writers, scholars, photographers, and poets who contributed to the collection, although her name is most prominently attached to the project for both her work in creating and organizing the initiative, as well as her essay “The Idea of America” -- the introductory essay to The 1619 Project and for which Ms. Hannah-Jones earned the Pulitzer Prize in Distinguished Commentary, with the Pulitzer Foundation praising the essay for “prompting public conversation about the nation’s founding and evolution.”
The denial of tenure for Ms. Hannah-Jones prompted calls for transparency and stringent warnings on the alienating effect it brings to UNC’s present and future faculty. In a statement following the initial events, UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media writes that by denying Ms. Hannah-Jones tenure -- a graduate of UNC (Masters, 2003) and whose honors include the Peabody Award and MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant and Fellowship -- it “unfairly moves the goalposts and violates long-standing norms.” Professor Mimi V. Chapman (Ph.D.), Chair of the Faculty and Associate Dean for Doctoral Education, writes in her own address to the Board of Trustees, “To take this decision, is to say to the faculty—intentionally or not—that our expertise, our judgement, our devotion to this institution, and indeed our time is not something you value.” She adds that, “to receive this message after a year like we have all had, in which we have gone to extraordinary lengths to respond to student needs, keep our research going, keep our own families healthy and whole, is devastating and demoralizing.”
And the reverberating effects of the Board’s decision extend not just to the faculty, but to UNC’s students, too. UNC’s Student Body President, Lamar Richards -- newly sworn in as president on May 20th, and himself now a member of the Board of Trustees (after the Boards’ decision to deny tenure) -- put out his own statement addressing the Board. He notes the hazards of not just failing to offer tenure to Ms. Hannah-Jones, but more importantly that doing so without having the Board vote on Ms. Hannah-Jones’ appointment or explaining to the public as to why this is the case is antithetical to UNC’s core values of liberty and democracy: “If we truly want transparency, harmony, and success at Carolina, you all will act swiftly to get the matter of her tenure before our Board in a Special called meeting to discuss further the merits of her application and candidacy – in open session (if legally allowed, once receiving her consent).”
The Chairman of the UNC Board of Trustees, Richard Stevens, held a virtual press conference on Thursday. He detailed that the reason a vote was not held regarding Ms. Hannah-Jones’ candidacy was that Committee Chairman Chuck Duckett requested a delay in the vote and, in the meantime, Dean of the Hussman School Ms. Susan King and Chancellor Guskiewicz instead offered her a 5-year term as the distinguished Knight Chair, side-stepping the need for Board approval. Chairman Stevens added that Provost Blouin and Chancellor Guskiewicz never officially recommended Ms. Hannah-Jones for tenure. Yet such an account differs from what is expected of the tenure application process -- namely that the filing of Ms. Hannah Jones’ application to the board, which Provost Blouin undertook, indicates the Provost and Chancellor’s recommendation of Ms. Hannah Jones for tenure. Again speaking on anonymity, a member of the Board told NC Policy Watch “The journalism school did not make this decision [to offer a 5-year contract], and they did not intervene in the process while the board was still in the vetting process and just needed more time,” and went further in saying “[Chairman Stevens] and the Chancellor are trying to pass the buck now to the journalism school, but they both know . . . . it is about politics, not credentials.”
As this situation evolves, the UNC Board of Trustees now faces national pressure to explain why Ms. Hannah-Jones will not be tenured. Separate statements have come from the National Association of Black Journalists, the Dean of Northwestern’s internationally acclaimed Medill School of Journalism Charles Whitaker, and others from its faculty, along with the Knight Foundation denouncing UNC’s Board of Trustees actions. Regarding her future, it is unclear if Ms. Hannah-Jones will accept the position and teach at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media under the fixed 5-year term as distinguished Knight Chair (which is slated to start this July), under a restructured agreement where the Board retroactively offers tenure, or not at all. Regardless, Nikole Hannah Jones wrote on Twitter this week: “I have been overwhelmed by all the support you all have shown me. It has truly fortified my spirit and my resolve. You all know that I will OK (sic). But this fight is bigger than me, and I will try my best not to let you down.”
Please Note: This is an ongoing situation. Currently, there are calls nationwide for Nikole Hannah-Jones to be awarded the tenured position. It remains to be seen what specific action the Board of Trustee will take in response, if at all. New developments are sure to come.