Support Nikole Hannah-Jones’s tenure appointment and demand that UNC BOT do its job.

This petition supports Nikole Hannah-Jones’s tenure appointment to UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and demands that the UNC-CH Board of Trustees carry out the responsibilities with which it has been entrusted. The letter below will be sent to all current members of the BOT along with a link to this petition on June 29, 2021, but the petition will remain active after that date. Please stand up for academic freedom, racial justice and academic excellence, and sign this petition!  

Dear Chair Stevens and all members of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees,  

We, as alumni of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), are writing to express our deep concern and outrage regarding the Board of Trustees’ (BOT) handling of Nikole Hannah-Jones’s tenure file. By refusing to vote on her candidacy for tenure, you are denying her a fair and unbiased process—a move that can only be viewed as racist and cowardly given the circumstances.  

We will not recount all of the details of this case that has been widely reported by numerous media outlets. Yet, it is necessary to state the basic facts. UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media offered Nikole Hannah-Jones—a Black alumna of Hussman and recipient of several highly prestigious accolades including a MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Award”—its Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism, a professorship that has always been accompanied by tenure at UNC-CH. Hannah-Jones’s journalism focuses on uncovering the racial inequities in our society, including the root causes of systemic racism by examining our nation’s history. She is the creator of the 1619 project, for which she one the Pulitzer Prize in 2020. After her tenure file successfully advanced through the rigorous review process, which required the endorsement of experts in the field, the Faculty Executive Committee, the appropriate Dean, and the Chancellor, the BOT essentially shut the door in her face, denying her the final vote. Although the BOT has not offered any credible reasons for this rebuff, it clearly stems from external pressure and participates in highly politicized debates taking place across the country over what type of history should be taught in schools.   

This politically-charged refusal to perform its duties violates the BOT’s mission, which as stated on its website, is to “promote the sound development of its institution within the functions prescribed for it, helping it to serve the people of the state in a way that will complement the activities of the other institutions and aiding it to perform at a high level of excellence in every area of endeavor.” Rather than sincerely fostering the continued success and excellence of UNC-CH, the BOT has placed partisanship and politics above academic rigor and distinction. Consequently, the university is now in the position of not only losing Hannah-Jones, who has said that she will not accept this position without tenure, but also numerous other current and prospective faculty, students and donors because of the BOT’s unashamed racism and discrimination. According to a January/February 2021 article in the Carolina Alumni Review, the university was already struggling to recruit and retain faculty of color as it has a history of expecting more from them as compared to white faculty. If UNC-CH cannot recruit and retain the best talent, if it does not represent and serve ALL North Carolinians, and if it fails to pursue truth and justice, it will lose its status as one of the nation’s top public universities.  

Our university has a history embroiled in slavery, the Jim Crow South, and continued efforts to marginalize and oppress people of color. It is time that we confront that history and do all that is possible to make UNC-CH a place that welcomes, respects, and values scholars regardless of their race or a dislike for their scholarship. In an effort to convince the BOT to follow standard procedures and do what is right, we, the signees of this petition, vow not to donate to our alma mater until the BOT executes its duties in a non-partisan, objective fashion.  

Most sincerely,

The Signees of this petition  

Adeline Soldin    Contact the author of the petition