The tension between UNC leadership and incoming journalism professor Nikole Hannah-Jones continued this week, as the Pulitzer Prize-winner’s attorneys said she will not begin her position at the university without an approval of tenure.
According to a report from NC Policy Watch on Tuesday, legal representatives for Hannah-Jones wrote a letter to the university earlier this week, saying she will not begin on July 1 as planned unless tenure is granted.
A New York Times journalist hired to be the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism, Hannah-Jones saw consideration her tenure delayed by the Board of Trustees during its initial review earlier this year. NC Policy Watch previously reported the decision was made for “political” reasons due to Hannah-Jones’ work on the 1619 Project portraying the impact of slavery on American history and Black culture. Instead, Hannah-Jones agreed to a fixed-term contract, which lasts five years and is meant to lead to further consideration of tenure.
Chair of the Faculty Mimi Chapman said in an open letter on Saturday the decision to delay consideration for Hannah-Jones’ tenure application was made by Board of Trustee member Chuck Duckett, who chairs the board’s University Affairs Committee.
“In light of this information,” reads the letter from Hannah-Jones’ legal team, according to NC Policy Watch, “Ms. Hannah-Jones cannot trust that the University would consider her tenure application in good faith during the period of the fixed-term contract. Such good faith consideration for tenure was understood to be an essential element of the fixed-term contract when Ms. Hannah-Jones agreed to enter into it.
“In light of the information which has come to her attention since that time,” the letter continues, “she cannot begin employment with the University without the protection and security of tenure.”
The decision to delay consideration of Hannah-Jones’ tenure may also coincide with the end of terms for members of the UNC Board of Trustees. Trustee Duckett, as well as Jeff Brown, Haywood Cochrane, Munroe Coby and Chair of the Board Richard Stevens, will leave the board on July 1. One trustee, who is left anonymous in Tuesday’s report, said they believe such board members are leaving Hannah-Jones’ tenure consideration to the new board, but at the cost of “damaging the reputation of the school.”
In April, the UNC System Board of Governors approved Rob Bryan III, Perrin Jones, Malcom Turner and Ramsey White as the newest members of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees.
UNC previously acknowledged it was in communication with attorneys representing Hannah-Jones on the matter of her employment. In the letter shared by NC Policy Watch on Tuesday, the journalist’s legal team describes the potential basis for litigation against the university if Hannah-Jones is not granted tenure.
“The inferior terms of employment offered to Ms. Hannah-Jones in the fixed-term contract resulted from viewpoint discrimination in violation of the freedom of speech and expression, secured by the United States and North Carolina Constitution; race and sex discrimination and retaliation in violation of federal and North Carolina state law; unlawful political influence in violation of North Carolina state law; and other unlawful grounds,” it reads.
In a statement shared to Chapelboro on Tuesday, UNC Vice Chancellor of Communications Joel Curran confirmed the university has been contacted by attorneys representing Hannah-Jones. He did not confirm whether she will begin her position at UNC on July 1.
“While this remains a confidential personnel matter, as Chancellor [Kevin] Guskiewicz has said publicly, we feel she will add great value to the Carolina campus,” wrote Curran.
Hannah-Jones, who has shared little public comment on communication with UNC over her tenure, shared NC Policy Watch’s report on her Twitter and Instagram accounts Tuesday with no further comment.
Photo via the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
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