An Open Letter to the UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees Re: Ms. Nikole Hannah- Jones
To the Members of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees,
Last month, a collective of Carolina student leaders and advocates co-authored a letter to Nikole Hannah-Jones in which we denounced the University’s dismissal of anti-racism activism and the Board of Trustee’s prolonged silence in the matter of her tenure case. In this letter, we affirmed the invaluable impact that Ms. Hannah-Jones would have on Carolina’s students given her work with the 1619 Project and her achievements as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and MacArthur Fellow. We also acknowledged the significant hurdles that Ms. Hannah-Jones would inevitably face should she join the University. Our letter spoke to an institutional culture that, operating above the level of even the most senior leadership, prioritizes the past over progress, comfort over challenge, and politics over people. We narrated to Ms. Hannah-Jones the realities of living and learning at a university where excellence is claimed but students, staff and faculty report feeling marginalized and steamrolled. We shared these truths while emphasizing that the decision to join the Carolina community needed to be placed in the hands of Ms. Hannah-Jones, given the overwhelming recommendation by Carolina’s academic and senior leadership for her appointment.
In the weeks since this initial letter, the UNC Graduate and Professional Student Government has watched the Board of Trustees dig its heels in and undermine University processes that exist to maintain academic integrity. Earlier this month, Dr. Lisa Jones—a renowned and sought-after Black chemist at the University of Maryland—declined a faculty position at Carolina in the wake of the Board’s inactions surrounding Ms. Hannah-Jones. At a recent meeting of the Carolina Black Caucus—a coalition of Black students, staff, faculty, administrators, and alumni—70 percent of attendees shared that they are considering leaving the University. The loss of Black excellence at this magnitude would be profound on any university campus, but will be especially felt at an institution where Black faculty make up less than 5 percent of the more than 4,000 tenured faculty. As graduate and professional students, we are profoundly aware that these losses will also have significant ramifications for future generations of student researchers and trainees, who will be deprived of opportunities to learn from diverse scholars, innovators, and leaders. And it is the Board of Trustees alone that will have to answer for these setbacks and the consequences they will have on our institution’s national standing.
As leaders in the Graduate and Professional Student Government, we have a duty to use our elected platforms to defend, elevate and honor Carolina’s students—past, present, and future. The decision to functionally deny Ms. Hannah-Jones a tenured faculty position is a disturbing departure from a long-standing and respected precedent for the hiring of Knight Chairs, and in turn undermines the will of our faculty and the spirit of shared governance. The academic scholarship and freedom of the University must never be vulnerable to external political pressures, but this case has demonstrated that the Board is willing to prioritize such pressures above these pillars.
To this end, we insist that the Board reverse its course and uphold precedents in the faculty hiring process. The Board has a responsibility to formally review and vote in favor of Ms. Hannah-Jones’s appointment as a tenured faculty member, as was recommended by University leadership, and as has been done for previous Knight Chairs. Regardless of Ms. Hannah-Jones’ decision to come to Carolina, respecting the norms of the hiring process is essential to safeguarding the future of our institution.
As student leaders, we will continue to advocate on behalf of the Carolina we strive to be rather than the Carolina we have become. We urge the Board to join us in this effort.
Sincerely,
Neel Swamy, President, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Amanda Smythers, Chief of Staff, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Kate Brandt, VP for Advocacy & Government Affairs, Graduate and Professional Student Government
C Chad Lloyd, VP for Communications, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Michelle Thomas, VP of Diversity and Inclusion, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Julia Nevison, VP of Finance, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Elena Vidrascu, Director of Community Engagement, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Brenda Caldwell, Director of Social Justice, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Rachel Miller-Selzer, Director of Federal Relations, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Jonathan Schlosser, Director of Assessment, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Devin Case-Ruchala, Director of State Relations, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Kendall Winter, 2020-21 Senator, Musicology, and President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Grant Glass, Senator, English and Comparative Literature, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Wayana Dolan, Senator, Department of Geological Sciences, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Jackson Cacioppo, Senator, Chemistry, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Lauren Hawkinson, Senator, Human Movement Science, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Aleah Bailey, Senator, Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program (BBSP), Graduate and Professional Student Government
Irene Newman, Senator, American Studies, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Anastasia Dulskiy, Senator, Environment, Ecology and Energy Program (E3P), Graduate and Professional Student Government
Laurel Booth, Senator, Public Health Leadership, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Maian Adams, 2020-21 Chief of External Relations and Advocacy, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Theodore Nollert, Director of Employment Affairs, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Joseph Richards, Senator, Department of Communication, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Katherine Malinski, Senator, Department of Biology, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Amy Glazier, 2020-21 Senator, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Aimee Deconinck, Senator, Department of Biology, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Rene Iwo, Senator, Department of Sociology, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Sophie Mendell, Senator, Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program (BBSP), Graduate and Professional Student Government
Christine Walsh, Senator, Department of Health Behavior, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Emily Forrest Hutchens, Senator, Department of Health Behavior, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Sarah Sutton, Senator, Department of Chemistry, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Lauren Bates, Senator, Human Movement Science, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Xiaolu Pan, 2020-21 Senator, Pathobiology and Translational Sciences, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Joseph Moscoso, Senator, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Emili Anderson, Senator, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Jade Squires, 2020-21 Senator, School of Information & Library Science, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Zachary Boyce, Senator, School of Law, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Michelle Fikrig, Senator, Department of Art and Art History
Devon Maloney, Senator, Department of Geography, Graduate and Professional Government
Alexandria Huber-Disla, 2020-21 Senator, Public Policy, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Adair McNear, Senator, Environment, Ecology and Energy Program (E3P), Graduate and Professional Student Government
Natalie Harris, Senator, Department of Cell Biology & Physiology, Graduate and Professional Student Government
William Davis, Senator, Department of Mathematics, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Franklin T. Rea, Senator, Department of Mathematics, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Anchal Mehra, Senator, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Graduate and Professional Student Government
Caroline Blount, 2019-2021 Senator, Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures (GSLL), Graduate and Professional Student Government
Berkley Wood, 2020-2021 Senator, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Graduate and Professional Student Government; 2021 Graduate and Professional Student Government Summer Governance Chair
Claire Breen, Senator, Department of Public Policy, Graduate and Professional Student Government