One year ago, the saga surrounding the UNC Board of Trustees’ delay in granting prospective journalism professor Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure seemed to come to a close. But continued ripple effects were felt throughout the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
Newspaper publisher Walter Hussman Jr. donated $25 million to the UNC journalism school in Fall 2019 and the school was given his namesake.
Hussman later emailed then Dean Susan King expressing his concerns over the hiring of Hannah-Jones. When those emails surfaced, the donor agreement between Hussman and the university was leaked.
Daniel Kreiss, a professor in the Hussman School and a principal researcher at the Center for Information Technology and Public Life, still has questions about donor guidelines and how Hussman may have received Hannah-Jones’ personnel and tenure file.
“The state of the Hussman School is unresolved,” Kreiss said. “Frankly, the state of the university is unresolved. I think there are a lot of loose ends.”
Kreiss was one of a reported 22 faculty members who had their emails and harddrives searched as the university looked for answers on how Hussman’s donor agreement was released.
While the search itself was not illegal, Kreiss said it showed the university was willing to attempt to retaliate against faculty and staff who “don’t toe the line with what more powerful donors and political appointees to the university want.”
“I feel vulnerable and I’m concerned about entrapment or you know things that could be used against me,” Kreiss said.
Deb Aikat, a UNC Hussman professor of 27 years, described the email probing as another “murky chapter” of the saga surrounding the university’s treatment of hiring Hannah-Jones.
“The university was trying to do like a witch hunt to kind of scare faculty but they failed,” Aikat said. “Truth be told, I think it has a chilling effect until today.”
Aikat said faculty now are hesitant to communicate anything through their university emails. But he said while many focus on the negatives, he looks to this national embarrassment as a chance for growth.
“I hope we take this opportunity to work with our strengths to have a better tomorrow,” Aikat said. “In my 27 years in the school, I cannot say that there was a year when we were without problems. But the reason our school has emerged as one of the nation’s prized, is because we all have worked harder if not in a more focused way to solve these problems and emerge stronger.”
The conversation surrounding Hannah-Jones attempted hiring highlighted another issue within the department – a lack of diversity.
In early May, the Hussman School was downgraded to a provisional accreditation status by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The report gave non-compliance for diversity and inclusiveness.
Greg Johnson is the incoming chair of the Hussman Foundation Board – a volunteer-driven board which oversees resources to support teaching, research and service. He spoke at the school’s commencement ceremony in May and mentioned the after effects from the tenure complications for Hannah-Jones.
“We have work to do,” Johnson said. “We’re going to increase our representation of diversity on the faculty and staff and among the students. We can’t be a leader unless everyone is fully represented as part of this great place. We’re going to hold ourselves accountable to get this done.”
Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz shared similar sentiments in his recent interview with 97.9 The Hill.
“We are working really hard to ensure a diverse faculty in the Hussman School [and] a diverse student body in the Hussman School,” Guskiewicz said.
The chancellor noted the shortcomings from last years handling of tenure.
“There’s no question that we’ve been through some hard moments in our recent history,” Guskiewicz said. “Leaders like me, we’re not perfect and could have handled some things differently, and so as an institution of higher learning, we have always got to be willing to learn and work through the challenges and learn from their mistakes.”
Kreiss said he wants a full, public accounting of everything involved in Hannah-Jones’ case. He said the strongest institutions learn from their mistakes and this controversy ultimately led to a better outcome for Hannah-Jones as she was able to found the Center for Journalism and Democracy at Howard University as its inaugural Knight chair.
“I’m glad for [Hannah-Jones] personally,” Kreiss said. “Broadly, the journalism that she practices, the movements that she’s a part of that are necessary for racial equity and racial equality have been furthered by what happened, even if UNC was diminished by it.”
But brighter skies may be on the horizon.
The Hussman School is under new leadership compared to last summer at the height of the controversy. Raul Reis officially joined UNC as the journalism school’s dean effective July 1.
Aikat mentioned Hussman visiting the school several times for one-on-one meetings with faculty about their concerns. Additionally, he pointed to the opening of the Curtis Media Center and faculty searches for hiring three positions to be announced soon as future bright spots. The school also won its eleventh intercollegiate Hearst Award championship.
“If you look at our school in a holistic manner we are in a very new chapter,” Aikat said. “All of us evolve and transform, and this is a moment of truth where we are trying to address some of our strengths and benefit from them and then try to learn from the problems that have affected us.”
Walter Hussman Jr. declined to speak on the record for this story. Nikole Hannah-Jones did not respond to a request for an interview.
Featured photo via Jon Gardiner / UNC
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