When Nikole Hannah-Jones was hired as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Media and Journalism, she was not offered tenure, even though that position was historically tenured. A new report by The Assembly says that a major donor to the college — in fact, the very megadonor whose name the school bears — was a very vocal opponent of Hannah-Jones even being hired.

In 2019, newspaper publisher Walter Hussman Jr., a graduate of the the UNC-Chapel Hill school of journalism, donated $25 million to his alma mater, and as a thank you, the college was named after him and his “statement of core values” that he had long published on the second page of his company’s newspapers was put up on the wall at the college’s entrance.

According to The Assembly, Hussman had strong misgivings about the college hiring Hannah-Jones, and voiced those concerns with university leadership. Four university sources spoke to The Assembly on the condition of anonymity and provided copies of emails that Hussman had sent to various UNC officials.

“I worry about the controversy of tying the UNC journalism school to the 1619 project,” Hussman wrote in an email from last December, arguing that he viewed Hannah-Jones as not “pushing to find the true historical facts” like other historians he praised, but rather “[b]ased on her own words, many will conclude she is trying to push an agenda, and they will assume she is manipulating historical facts to support it.”

Hussman’s “hope and vision” for the college was for it to be “the champion of objective, impartial reporting and separating news and opinion,” he wrote, but he feared “this possible and needless controversy will overshadow it.”

His objections were not enough to prevent her from being hired, but despite faculty recommendations to offer Hannah-Jones tenure, that did not happen:

Despite Hussman’s concerns, [Susan King, the Dean of the UNC Journalism School] continued to pursue Hannah-Jones. After a lengthy faculty and administrative process recommended tenure, Board of Trustees member Chuck Duckett raised questions and asked for more time to get answers. The university instead offered a five-year, fixed-term appointment—without tenure—to Hannah-Jones.

Hussman confirmed the content of his emails when reached for comment, saying that his donation was not made to “influence university policy,” but instead, “we’re trying to promote what we think is good journalism.”

The UNC Hussman School is currently showcasing the hire of Hannah-Jones — herself a UNC alumna — on their homepage, touting her Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Genius Grant.

The decision to offer Hannah-Jones the Knight Chair but without tenure drew condemnation from the National Association of Black Journalists, with association president Dorothy Tucker reaching out to UNC to inquire why she was denied tenure.

Hannah-Jones has retained legal counsel to respond to the UNC Board of Trustees’ decision not to offer her tenure.

“I had no desire to bring turmoil or a political firestorm to the university that I love,” she said in a statement posted to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s website, “but I am obligated to fight back against a wave of anti-democratic suppression that seeks to prohibit the free exchange of ideas, silence Black voices and chill free speech.”

The post UNC Megadonor Objected to Nikole Hannah-Jones’ Hiring, Worried 1619 Project Would Cause ‘Needless Controversy’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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