How Chapel Hill Bungled a Star Hire
In the Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure case, leaders settled for less and wound up with nothing.
Rachel Jessen for The Chronicle The Nikole Hannah-Jones Saga July 6, 2021
Declining a faculty position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Nikole Hannah-Jones on Tuesday gave a detailed account of the pain and disappointment she had experienced during a drawn-out tenure process that concluded last week. In a 4,000-word statement, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist took piercing aim at university leaders, who, she said, had failed to show courage when powerful forces lined up against her.
“When leadership had the opportunity to stand up,” Hannah-Jones wrote, “it did not.”
At UNC, the Damage Is Done
No matter what happens to Nikole Hannah-Jones’s tenure, people of color have lost trust in Chapel Hill.
Courtesy of Malinda Maynor Lowery
Malinda Maynor Lowery, a history professor, is leaving the University of North Carolina because of a series of missteps. Riven by Discord June 29, 2021
This week, Erika K. Wilson will officially become a full professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill one of the few Black women to hold that title. But Wilson, who teaches law and public policy, has found it hard to celebrate.
She’s spent the last few weeks fuming that the university has failed to award tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning