UNC faculty chair urges students, faculty to speak out against board's silence over Hannah-Jones controversy

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's faculty chair is asking her peers to speak out in support of faculty input in tenure decisions after the university Board of Trustees did not offer it to New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones.

Hannah-Jones is a Black woman, winner of a Pulitzer Price, a Peabody Award winner and recipient of the so-called "genius grant" from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for her work on "The 1619 Project" about slavery's impact on America.

UNC could face legal deadline in fight over tenure for NY Times journalist

The university's Black Caucus said a majority of its members were considering leaving the university after seeing how the board was treating Hannah-Jones.

Critics of the Board of Trustees view the decision not to offer Hannah-Jones tenure as political intervention, due to the nature of Hannah-Jones' work to re-examine American History through the lens of the first enslaved Africans that arrived in the colonies. Walter Hussman Jr., namesake of UNC's journalism school, anticipated a "possible and needless controversy," if Hannah-Jones was hired.

"You do not have to agree with Ms. Hannah-Jones’ conclusions in The 1619 Project to do this.," Chapman wrote in her letter. "You only have to agree that faculty voice must govern the tenure process for academic integrity to have meaning."

Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said Thursday that he would meet with leaders of the UNC Black Caucus.