Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for The New York Times Magazine, was denied a tenured position at the University of North Carolina after the university’s board of trustees took the highly unusual step of failing to approve the journalism department’s recommendation.
On Wednesday, the decision drew criticism from faculty members who said that the last two people in the position Hannah-Jones will hold were granted tenure upon their appointment.
In late April, the university announced that Hannah-Jones was being appointed to the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media. She will start as a professor in July, while continuing to write for The Times Magazine. Instead of tenure, Hannah-Jones was offered a five-year contract as a professor, with an option for review.