CBC Editorial: Monday, June 21, 2021; Editorial #8678
The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company.
Ten days remain in the month of June.
That is 10 days for the currently composed Board of Trustees for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to do what it has neglected -- act on the request to grant Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
The trustees previously delayed a vote and asked for additional information. In the interim, Hannah-Jones has accepted a five-year contract – without tenure – for the job. Recently, at the request of the university provost’s office, the tenure request was resubmitted.
The current trustees should act on Hannah-Jones’ tenure before the end of June. This board should not avoid its responsibility. Hannah-Jones deserves a vote, up or down, on the tenure request. North Carolinians and those committed to academic freedom should demand it.
Failure to act on, much less grant, the request for tenure has sparked a controversy that has become both the preeminent debate in the nation over academic and intellectual freedom as well as more fodder for the mis-informed partisan outrage over critical race theory.
We have stated earlier that, regardless of how the trustees might act on the tenure request, Hannah-Jones needs to take the job. She should not let the ideologues win. She cannot allow a narrow faction of the state’s political establishment destroy the reputation for higher education excellence and freedom of thought that it has taken a century to build.
By excelling in the classroom she will show those who seek to limit intellectual inquiry that she enables all students – regardless of who they are – to open their minds and welcome dialogue from a variety of perspectives.
After June 30 at least six current trustees leave. Four replacements, selected by the UNC Board of Governors, include two Republican ex-legislators and an executive of a sports betting operation. Two current trustees appointed by the General Assembly with terms expiring this month, have not yet had replacements named. This decision shouldn’t be left to the next board.
Current trustees chair Richard Stevens, whose appointment expires June 30, has a demonstrable life-long commitment to the university. There’s hardly a top UNC campus committee on which he hasn’t played a key role. He should not leave this important task unresolved.
For 231 years, the nation’s oldest public university has served the state as a center for independent intellectual exploration and academic excellence in service of North Carolina’s people. It cannot abdicate that role. The current trustees must act on Hannah-Jones’ tenure request – now the nation’s most-watched issue of academic freedom.
Here are the current members of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees appointed by the UNC Board of Governors and the legislature along with their email addresses as posted on the UNC website.
Richard Y. Stevens, Chair -- richardstevens@unc.edu
Appointed by the legislature, term ends June 30, 2021
R. Gene Davis Jr., Vice Chair -- gene.davis@unc.edu
Appointed by the UNC Board of Governors, term ends June 30, 2023
Teresa Artis Neal, Secretary -- teeartis@unc.edu
Appointed by the UNC Board of Governors, term ends June 30, 2023
David L. Boliek Jr. -- david.boliek@unc.edu
Appointed by the UNC Board of Governors, term ends June 30, 2023
Jefferson W. Brown -- jeffbrown@mvalaw.com
Appointed by the UNC Board of Governors, term ends June 30, 2021
G. Munroe Cobey -- gmcobey@unc.edu
Appointed by the UNC Board of Governors, term ends June 30, 2021
Haywood D. Cochrane, Jr., Immediate Past Chair -- haywoodcochrane@yahoo.com
Appointed by the UNC Board of Governors, term ends June 30, 2021
G. Duckett -- cgd@unc.edu
Appointed by the UNC Board of Governors, term ends June 30, 2021
Kelly Matthews Hopkins -- kmhopkins@unc.edu
Appointed by the legislature. term ends June 30, 2021
Allie Ray McCullen -- mccullenre@aol.com
Appointed by the UNC Board of Governors, term ends June 30, 2023
Ralph W. Meekins Sr. – rmeekins@unc.edu
Appointed by the legislature, term ends June 30, 2023
John P. Preyer -- jppreyer@unc.edu
Appointed by the legislature, term ends June 30, 2023
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