SILS faculty condemn UNC’s refusal to grant tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones

As faculty at the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, we condemn the decision, made by the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, to override the university’s recommendation that tenure be awarded to Nikole Hannah-Jones. The Hussman School of Journalism and Media, in selecting Nikole Hannah-Jones as a Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism, had endorsed her appointment as a full professor with tenure, and this recommendation was affirmed by the university’s Appointments, Promotion, and Tenure committee, and by the provost and chancellor.

Following established procedures and standards, faculty at the Hussman School had concluded that Nikole Hannah-Jones’s qualifications — which include twenty years of distinguished professional practice as a journalist, a Pulitzer Prize, a Peabody Award, and a MacArthur Fellowship (popularly known as a “Genius Grant”) — fully warrant tenure. In contrast, as reported by NC Policy Watch, the Board of Trustees made a “political” decision — based not on the strength of Hannah-Jones’s achievements but upon partisan animus.

The board’s disregard for established administrative processes regarding tenure and promotion, reversing the careful decision-making of numerous faculty and administrators, across multiple levels of the university, constitutes an extraordinary violation of precedent. Moreover, this apparent disdain for intellectual freedom damages the integrity of the University of North Carolina system. Our reputation as a top-tier research institution will suffer, perhaps irreparably, from this ill-advised action. Furthermore, opposition to Ms. Hannah-Jones’s tenure on “political” grounds contradicts the explicit commitment to “prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in teaching, research and service” made as part of the Carolina Next strategic plan, approved by the Board of Trustees.

Accordingly, in solidarity with our colleagues at the Hussman School, we reiterate their call for university leadership to

• Reaffirm its commitment to the university, its faculty and time-honored norms and procedures, and its endorsed values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Tenure Nikole Hannah-Jones as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism.

Signatories:

1. Denise Anthony, Teaching Assistant Professor
2. Jaime Arguello, Associate Professor
3. Ronald E. Bergquist, Teaching Associate Professor
4. Robert Capra, Associate Professor
5. Sayamindu Dasgupta, Assistant Professor
6. Melanie Feinberg, Associate Professor
7. Mary Grace Flaherty, Associate Professor
8. Amelia N. Gibson, Associate Professor
9. David Gotz, Associate Professor
10. Stephanie W. Haas, Professor
11. Bradley Hemminger, Associate Professor
12. Sandra Hughes-Hassell, Professor
13. Christopher (Cal) Lee, Professor
14. Cliff Missen, Clinical Associate Professor
15. Javed Mostafa, Professor
16. Casey Rawson, Teaching Assistant Professor
17. Ryan Shaw, Associate Professor
18. Brian W. Sturm, Professor
19. Helen R. Tibbo, Alumni Distinguished Professor
20. Francesca Tripodi, Assistant Professor
21. Arcot Rajasekar, Professor
22. Yue (Ray) Wang, Assistant Professor
23. Megan Winget, Teaching Assistant Professor