We noted in a recent quick take the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill hired 1619 Project author Nikole Hannah-Jones.
This story returned to the news on Wednesday because apparently, the school has not given Hannah-Jones tenure.
Thomas Moore reported at The Hill:
UNC-Chapel Hill denies tenure to 1619 Project author Nikole Hannah-JonesThe University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill did not approve tenure for New York Times Magazine journalist and The 1619 Project lead author Nikole Hannah-Jones after conservative groups complained about her hire at the school, NC Policy Watch reported Wednesday.“It’s disappointing, it’s not what we wanted, and I am afraid it will have a chilling effect,” Susan King, dean of UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, told Policy Watch.Hannah-Jones was recruited for the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism which, at the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, is typically a tenured position, NC Policy Watch reported.However, after going through an extensive tenure approval process, the university ultimately offered Hannah-Jones a non-tenured professorship.
The progressive publication Slate offered an explanation for the denial of tenure:
An anonymous trustee told Policy Watch that they could sum up the rationale behind the decision in one word: “Politics.” The word points to a much larger fight going on in the state around public higher education. Policy Watch’s previous reporting on the Hannah-Jones situation found that since her appointment was announced in April of this year, officials at the university had been getting pressure from conservative groups to rescind it. Calling Hannah-Jones “inflammatory” and a “firebrand activist,” an unsigned editorial from one such group declared: “UNC has once again reared its liberal head.”As Policy Watch pointed out, some of these conservative groups had financial ties to powerful GOP activists who have, in recent years, been appointed by the state legislature to the Board of Governors.
Of course. Suddenly, “powerful GOP activists” hold tremendous influence over higher education. Does anyone believe that?
Yamiche Alcindor, who writes for the taxpayer-funded liberal propaganda outlet PBS, just doesn’t understand it.
If it is true that conservative groups are responsible for making this happen, I have only one thing to say.
Congratulations.
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