Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones was denied tenure at North Carolina University accepted a 5-year contact for a professorship that usually comes with tenure. However, the UNC Black Caucus says Black faculty and graduate students are reacting to the decision by planning to leave the university.

On June 16 the caucus a membership group for Black faculty, staff, and graduate students at UNC — alleging that “70% of attendees at today’s #unccbc [general body] meeting are considering leaving the university. More than 60% are actively job searching outside of the institution.” One Black former faculty member claims the reason people would want to leave the school comes down to bureaucracy riddled with racism that makes it almost impossible for people of color to achieve inclusion and equality.

“For some Brown and Black staff and faculty, we face White colleagues who work with us, smile in our faces, and behind our backs smear our names, quote untruths to others, dismiss our scholarship and projects, and paint us as “angry” and not the right fit,” wrote former UNC faculty member Deborah Stroman in a piece entitled, Fury and Forgiveness: Confessions of a UNC Black Faculty Alumna.

“This interference in the tenure process puts politics ahead of progress and sends a clear message to UNC faculty that their time and expertise are unvalued,” the caucus of the non-offer of tenure said. Similar setiments were echoed from across the higher learning community.

Hannah-Jones, who is considered  deserving of tenure from her peers and some UNC leadership members. This is just another example of the way Blacks and women are slighted in academia. The National Center for Education Statistics stated that out of 622 professors with tenure at UNC during the 2019-20 school year, only eight were Black women.

“If we lose 70 percent of our Black colleagues, our community will be devastated, and we will all be diminished by it,” said Shayna Hill, chairwoman of the UNC Employee Forum. “How can we build a diverse, inclusive, rich tapestry of ideas and perspectives with so many of our black colleagues leaving?”

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