A Statement from the Organizations’ Leadership Supporting UNC Faculty

CONTACT: Tim Vos, Michigan State University, 2020-21 AEJMC President and Gracie Lawson‐Borders, Howard University, 2020-21 ASJMC President and Jerry Crawford, University of Kansas, AEJMC PF&R Committee Chair | May 24, 2021

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)
Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC)
 
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” – Harry S. Truman

We, the Boards of Directors of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC), write to support the faculty of the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in their call for further explanations from university leaders regarding the university’s failure to award tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones. The foundation of our support is based on reporting that Hannah-Jones had completed the tenure process from the school, external reviewers, and university-level committees with positive recommendations.
 
In fact, according to Susan King, dean of UNC Hussman, Hannah-Jones submitted a (tenure) package that was as well reviewed as any King had ever seen. Hannah-Jones had the full support of Hussman faculty and the unit’s promotion and tenure committee.
 
Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Grant.” She was also awarded AEJMC’s 2019 First Amendment Award, which recognizes professionals with a strong commitment to freedom of the press, and who practice courageous journalism. Hannah-Jones’ credentials and experience led Hussman to offer her the school’s Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism, which is a tenured professorship. Hannah-Jones is a 2003 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill.
 
The tenure process is a cornerstone of a shared governance model, which allows faculty to have a strong voice in academia. The statement by the Hussman faculty and the support of the Hussman administration indicate Hannah-Jones has earned the rights and privileges of tenured faculty members. Reports also indicate that previous Knight chairs at UNC received tenure upon being hired, underscoring questions about disparate treatment of Hannah-Jones.
 
Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, has stated, Hannah-Jones is “eminently qualified for appointment and would urge the trustees of the University of North Carolina to reconsider their decision within the timeframe of our agreement.”
 
We find it troubling that, based on the available evidence, Hannah-Jones is being asked to accept a different appointment than she was offered. The appointment as a Professor of the Practice, with a set five-year term and the option of consideration for tenure at the end of the first year, was described as a “work-around” for perceived political intervention by UNC’s board. This is troubling.
 
AEJMC and ASJMC stand alongside the faculty and administration of Hussman, the UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor, and the Knight Foundation in advocating for Nikole Hannah-Jones to be awarded the tenured Knight Foundation Professorship she has already earned.

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Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is a nonprofit organization comprised of educators, students and practitioners from around the globe. Founded in 1912, by Willard Grosvenor Bleyer, the first president (1912-13) of the American Association of Teachers of Journalism, as it was then known, AEJMC is the oldest and largest alliance of journalism and mass communication educators and administrators at the college level. AEJMC’s mission is to promote the highest possible standards for journalism and mass communication education, to encourage the widest possible range of communication research, to encourage the implementation of a multi-cultural society in the classroom and curriculum, and to defend and maintain freedom of communication in an effort to achieve better professional practice, a better informed public, and wider human understanding.

 

Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC)
ASJMC is a non-profit, educational association composed of some 190 JMC programs at the college level. The majority of the association’s members are in the United States and Canada. ASJMC promotes excellence in journalism and mass communication education. Founded in 1917, ASJMC works to support the purposes of schools of journalism and mass communication in order to achieve the following goals: to foster, encourage and facilitate high standards and effective practices in the process and administration of education for journalism and mass communication in institutions of higher learning; to cooperate with journalism and mass communication organizations in efforts to raise professional standards and promote a public understanding of the role of journalism and mass communication in a democratic society; and to support and participate in the accreditation process of journalism and mass communication units through the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC).

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