Protesters at UNC trustees meeting object to lack of tenure for Nikole Hannah-Jones

More than three dozen students, faculty and community members stood outside the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees meeting Thursday morning to protest their decision not to grant tenure to acclaimed journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure.

Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times investigative journalist and MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Grant” recipient who will join the UNC-CH faculty as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism in July.

The outrage from faculty, students and professional journalists stems from the fact that previous Knight Chairs have always been tenured positions at UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Hannah-Jones, however, will have a fixed-term “Professor of the Practice” position, with the option of being reviewed for tenure within five years.

Kim Talikoff of Chapel Hill joined two friends at the protest on the sidewalk outside the Carolina Inn, where the Board of Trustees meets. Talikoff said she is upset that UNC made a different deal with Hannah-Jones than with other Knight professors.

“I care deeply about freedom of speech and freedom of thought. I trust people to think critically, and I don’t think the university is a place where people ought to be afraid of ideas,” Talikoff.

The meeting is being held in one of the large ballroom spaces at the Carolina Inn, with trustees spaced out at separate tables along the perimeter. As the meeting was about to start, protesters were allowed to come in. They filed in quietly, bringing their signs, some of them holding them above their heads.

As the meeting got underway, one protester said, “Shame on you. Shame on you.”

Then a few began to sing “We Shall Overcome.”

Board Chairman Richard Stevens told demonstrators they were welcome to be there, but said if they interfered with the meeting, they would be asked to leave and could be subject to arrest.

LeRoi Brashears continued to sing and say, “Shame,” and then left the room. Brashears is a member of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro branch of the NAACP.

Hannah-Jones, a Black woman, went through the extensive process to be granted tenure, gaining the support of UNC-CH faculty and academic administrators along the way. But it was held up by the board early in the spring semester without public discussion. That decision was made before UNC’s announcement of her hire in April, and Hannah-Jones accepted the position as a non-tenured professor.

Susan King, dean of the journalism school, said she was told that the trustees didn’t approve tenure to someone outside of academia, as Hannah-Jones is a professional journalist, not a professor. However, the Knight Chair is specifically designed to bring the best in their industry into higher education.

The news of Hannah-Jones’s hiring sparked scrutiny from conservatives critical of her work, particularly on The 1619 Project, which explores the legacy and history of Black Americans and slavery. Her piece won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, but has been criticized by some historians and politicians and led to a clarification from the New York Times.

Some UNC-CH faculty were stunned by the news that she didn’t receive tenure and pointed to politics, race and gender.

Associate Professor Deb Aikat told The News & Observer it sets a disturbing precedent that “in 2021, when we are in a racial reckoning, the UNC Board of Trustees declined to consider for tenure a prospective faculty of color.”

“Our faculty colleagues in UNC are troubled and tormented that conservative ire has forced the UNC Board of Trustees to back down from offering a tenured position to an acclaimed journalist like Nikole Hannah-Jones,” Aikat said.