To reflect on the year, Chapelboro.com is re-publishing some of the top stories that impacted and defined our community’s experience in 2021. These stories and topics affected Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the rest of our region.
This year, Carolina made headlines following the UNC Board of Trustees’ decision to “take no action” on Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones’ tenure application. This sparked community outrage both locally and nationally.
Hannah-Jones was set to return to her alma mater in July as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism, traditionally a tenured professorship. However, as first reported by NC Policy Watch, the school changed its plans following political pressure from conservative groups who object to her work “The 1619 Project.”
Instead of a tenured professorship, the Board of Trustees (BOT) offered Hannah-Jones a fixed five-year term with the option of being reviewed for tenure at the end of that time period.
While the BOT initially received Hannah-Jones’ tenure application for consideration at its January 2021 meeting, chair of the board’s University Affairs Committee, trustee Chuck Duckett, indicated he had questions about Hannah-Jones’ dossier, which delayed its consideration.
During a BOT media availability in May, former chair Richard Stevens said more time was needed to go over Hannah-Jones’ application and answer questions regarding her candidacy.
“We take seriously our responsibility for approving tenure – we’re talking about a lifetime position here,” Stevens said. “So, it’s not unusual for members of the board, or in particular the chair of the committee, to have questions for clarification about background – particularly candidates that don’t come from a traditional, academic-type background.”
Hannah-Jones was set to join the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media’s faculty July 1. In mid-June, however, the legal team of Hannah-Jones announced she would not join the UNC faculty unless she was offered a tenured position.
After news about Hannah-Jones’ tenure postponement came to light, dozens of university departments, groups and organizations issued support for the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. UNC faculty and alumni, student government, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP chapter, the National Association of Black Journalists and other groups found ways to express displeasure with the Board of Trustees and credit Hannah-Jones’ work.
Over the summer months, several faculty of color also announced they would leave the university for other opportunities, with some directly citing the Hannah-Jones controversy as a reason for their departure.
Following a month and a half of community outrage and public scrutiny, the UNC Board of Trustees approved tenure for Hannah-Jones during a special meeting on June 30.
Amid demonstrations in favor of Hannah-Jones outside the Carolina Inn, where the meeting was being held, the BOT voted 9-4 in favor of granting tenure. The special meeting came not only as Hannah-Jones was set to begin her position at UNC the following day, but also as the terms of five out of the 13 trustees, including Chair Stevens, were set to end that week. All of the departing trustees voted in favor of granting the award-winning journalist tenure.
UNC Students with the Black Student Movement speak with Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees Gene Davis Jr. The demonstration came as the board voted to approve tenure for Nikole Hannah-Jones on June 30, 2021.
Although, less than a week after the board granted her tenure, Hannah-Jones said she would not join the UNC faculty. Instead, she announced her intent to teach at Howard University as the inaugural Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism – a tenured professorship.
“I went through the tenure process and received the unanimous approval of the faculty to be granted tenure,” Hannah-Jones said in a statement. “And to only have [the Board of Trustee’s] vote occur on the last possible day at the last possible moment after threat of legal action, after weeks of protest, after it became a national scandal, it’s just not something I want any more.”
Now, as part of her joining the Howard faculty, Hannah-Jones will help found the Center for Journalism and Democracy at the university – which is currently working to raise $25 million to prepare aspiring journalists to “cover the crisis of our democracy.”
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Sparked outrage from left wing zealots who have ruined education in this country.