WUNC: “In a detailed written statement, Hannah-Jones described her fond memories of studying journalism in Chapel Hill, but said she could not accept a professorship after how she was treated. She will instead accept a similar offer, with tenure, at Howard University, a private historically Black school.
“I won the battle for tenure,” Hannah-Jones wrote. “But I also get to decide what battles I continue to fight.”
After UNC-CH trustees delayed a vote on her tenure application for months — sparking protests and numerous statements of support from students, alumni and faculty — last week, the university’s trustees voted 9-to-4 to offer her tenure.
Tenure confers a lifetime appointment to the university and academic freedom to pursue research interests. Hannah-Jones’ work at The New York Times Magazine has centered on the legacy of racism in the United States, most notably with the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project, which some conservatives have criticized.
Hannah-Jones has said top university officials never explained why trustees did not take up her vote following a unanimous recommendation by a faculty committee in November, but prominent donor Walter Hussman has publicly opposed her appointment to the journalism school that bears his name.
In a public letter published on Medium, over 45 faculty members of UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media decried the treatment of Hannah-Jones by UNC-CH leaders.
“While disappointed, we are not surprised. We support Ms. Hannah-Jones’s choice. The appalling treatment of one of our nation’s most-decorated journalists by her own alma mater was humiliating, inappropriate, and unjust. We will be frank: It was racist,” faculty members wrote.
Susan King, the dean of the UNC journalism school, had rigorously sought Hannah-Jones to join the school’s faculty.
“Well, of course I’m disappointed,” King said.”