American Assoc. of University Professors to Investigate Racism at UNC-Chapel Hill Over Hannah-Jones Tenure Drama
“pattern of egregious violations of principles of academic governance and persistent structural racism in the University of North Carolina System”
There are people who actually believe not offering Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure was a sign of racism.
Campus Reform reports:
Committee will investigate ‘structural racism’ at UNC after Nikole Hannah-Jones controversy
The American Association of University Professors announced in a recent statement that they have launched a special committee to investigate “structural racism” at the University of North Carolina.
The AAUP special committee intends to produce a report following the investigation that will discuss the “mishandling” of Nikole Hannah-Jones’ tenure case as well as a “pattern of egregious violations of principles of academic governance and persistent structural racism in the University of North Carolina System.”
Earlier this year, Hannah-Jones — the New York Times journalist who gained a national platform for her “1619 Project” — was offered a position as a Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the University of North Carolina’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
The Board of Trustees initially chose not to take action on her tenure application — a move that generated significant progressive backlash. On June 30, the trustees decided to grant tenure to Hannah-Jones; however, she announced on July 6 that she had turned down the offer in favor of another position at Howard University.
Emails between administrators show that Hannah-Jones was satisfied with her five-year fixed, tenure-track contract — under which she would earn $180,000 per year — before being offered immediate tenure.
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Comments
Structured racism? How about unqualified! She writes the 1619 book and its has been pooh-pood by academics. That’s not racism, it’s scholarship.
I continue to be confused about the facts. Ms. Hannah-Jones was offered an prestigious named chair for a 5-year term without first serving as a non-tenured faculty member at UNC or any other college. The offer was for $180K per year for five years. Presumably, the Knight Chair rotates, and those advocating that she should get tenure did not have a salary line available to back up the request. So, a political battle emerged to the effect that “you should give her tenure and fund her salary for life bacause she is black.” If the agenda item brought to the Board of Trustees just included the 5 year commitment and the contract offered just 5 years, there should not have been any surprises. However, after that vote, a public command emerged to get her tenure, which ultimately succeeded only to have her reject the offer. One suspects that this was scripted out as a face-savings way to address the fact that the Journalism Dept did not have the funds needed to offer Hannan-Jones tenure and that Hannah-Jones needed to leave the controversy with dignity. So, UNC offered her tenure knowing that she had a tenure offer from Howard.
I wish there was a “put your money where your mouth is” rule. Instead of just signing a online petition, the only socially acceptable way to weigh in on the issue should be to write a check to UNC.
I expect that they Nikole Hannah-Jones will be the focus of the investigation, since she is so racist.