BY JOHN K. WILSON
The tenured appointment of Nikole Hannah-Jones was approved by the University of North Carolina trustees a few minutes ago.
This is a victory for academic freedom and for shared governance.
The academic freedom victory is about the importance of tenure to academic freedom. Some people argued that Hannah-Jones didn’t need tenure, that she was always free to speak her mind. However, the reluctance of the trustees to initially grant her tenure showed that her position would always be vulnerable at UNC without the protections of tenure. It’s true that many other faculty across the country are not so fortunate to have tenure and be able to stand up against threats to academic freedom. But that’s an argument for expanding tenure and tenure-like protections.
The shared governance victory is about the extraordinary work it takes to convince the Board of Trustees to reverse itself. Critics of the appointment have argued for various dubious reasons that the faculty should not have chosen Hannah-Jones for the position. But the point is that the faculty should choose professors, and not have their decisions overturned for political reasons by trustees who lack the academic qualifications to make these judgments.
This case also shows that shared governance isn’t just about a policy statement or a structure of committees. Fundamentally, shared governance is about activism by the faculty. It happens when the faculty demands their place in university and refuses to accept unjust seizures of power.
Many people at UNC and around the country stood up against the decision, including the
Chair of the Faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill Mimi Chapman and the UNC Hussman Faculty Statement on Nikole Hannah-Jones. AcademeBlog has featured valuable commentary on the case, including from Hassan Meleny, and Jennifer Ruth on the danger of boards imposing their views on universities.
This victory should be a cause for celebration, but the real celebration should be when universities respect academic freedom and shared governance without the need for public outrage and protest.
An excellent case example of academy, administration and university governance standards systematically penetrated by political corruption.
I fundamentally disagree with the assessment that what happened at UNC is a “victory for academic freedom and shared governance.”
A correct decision was reached in the end. I guess you could call that a “victory.” But, damage was done. Long-lasting damage, both visible and invisible. Now, instead of being the Pulitzer-prize-winning, MacArthur Genius grant awardee and highly acclaimed writer whose has conducted ground-breaking work on the history and consequences of racism and inequality in our country, Nikole Hannah-Jones is also “that woman who ended up with tenure under ‘questionable circumstances’ in a drawn-out and very public spectacle.” That is part of Nikole Hannah-Jones’s story now, thanks to the UNC Board. I don’t pretend to know how that feels but it can’t be very good.
And, here’s what I see when I look more widely at this situation: a Black woman had to fight – and nearly lost – to get something that you have seen go more or less automatically to everyone before her. If that doesn’t feel familiar to you, I encourage you to think about how it feels. If it does feel familiar to you, then you know that these things wear you down. Living with this kind of unfairness takes a heavy toll.
Yes, the UNC Board reached the right decision with their performative, public vote, but that’s only the denouement. The actions that led to the right decision, and all that those actions mirror in academia and American life don’t go away because of a very delayed 9-4 vote.
I think I have a much lower standard for victories, due to the rarity of seeing them. As I wrote, the real victory is when academic freedom isn’t violated at the beginning. But it’s extremely rare for trustees and universities to reverse course, and it shows the power that faculty and supporters of academic freedom can have when they organize and speak out forcefully against injustice. So I’ll take my victories in whatever flawed form they come.