CHARLOTTE, N.C. — UNC-Chapel Hill is searching for a new dean to lead its journalism school after a summer of being in the national spotlight over issues of politics, money, race, history, academic freedom and journalism itself.
Some are wondering who would want the journalism dean job that Dean Susan King is leaving, given the political and donor influences that dominated the tenure fight over journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. She was scheduled to join the UNC journalism faculty but after a long battle over tenure, she spurned UNC for a Knight Chair at Howard University.
Others see the dean job as an opportunity to move UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media forward.
Charles Whitaker, a professor and dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, said anyone who has worked in academia or is familiar with higher education systems understands these positions are political by nature. That’s not unique to UNC.
“Typically this happens behind the scenes, veiled from the public eye,” Whitaker said. “This just became a very, very public and embarrassing situation for UNC and for everyone involved — trustees, chancellor and donor.”
There are always stakeholders — alumni, students, faculty, donors — who try to have influence over the curriculum and hiring decisions, Whitaker said. A dean’s job is navigating that.
Whitaker said he doesn’t think any candidate is walking into an environment at UNC-CH that is much different than the pressures that deans see at every school of every stripe.
“The question is where do you draw the line on the level of politics that you’re ready to stomach when you step into a role like this?” Whitaker said.
‘We certainly have a lot to offer’
Hannah-Jones was recruited to be the Knight Chair for Race and Investigative Journalism at UNC-CH, a historically tenured position, with the full support of the faculty. But her tenure case was held up by the university’s Board of Trustees and she initially was hired without tenure. During the hiring process, the school’s top donor and namesake, Walter Hussman, also questioned her work on The 1619 Project. The project, for The New York Times, redefines the nation’s history of slavery and won a Pulitzer Prize.
The UNC controversy garnered national attention as students and faculty protested, Hannah-Jones threatened a federal discrimination lawsuit and scholars came to her defense. They argued that the board’s failure to award her tenure was based on race, politics and gender.
After widespread pressure, the board voted to award her tenure. But Hannah-Jones turned down the job and took a similar position at Howard University, a historically Black institution.
Mimi Chapman, chair of the UNC-CH Faculty, said people applying to UNC don’t necessarily understand the full context that they would be entering into in terms of the level of interaction the university has with the state.
“Even many publics don’t have this kind of intensive involvement between state legislative bodies and governing bodies and curriculum on our campus,” Chapman said. “These are fights that do not have to happen at other campuses.”
What sometimes gets lost in all of that is the quality of work that goes on at UNC-CH, she said.
“We certainly have a lot to offer every day in spite of all the challenges,” Chapman said.
Deen Freelon, an associate professor in the Hussman school, said the No. 1 way UNC-CH’s reputation was harmed by the Hannah-Jones controversy was the perception that the campus Board of Trustees might be introducing political considerations in who they decide to vote for tenure.
The second was the “undue influence by our namesake donor in terms of who is hired and offered tenured positions,” he said.
Now, more than ever, faculty and administrators are trying to “assert our independence at our school and make sure hiring decision are made by merit and not external factors,” Freelon said.
While it’s unclear how much pull Hussman really had in the hiring and tenure case for Hannah-Jones, he shared his concerns about her work with top UNC-CH administrators and decisionmakers.
His disapproval ultimately became one of the reasons Hannah-Jones turned down the UNC-CH job. She said she couldn’t maintain her dignity and work in a place named after him.
“I think it’s impossible to think about this hire without thinking about Walter Hussman’s very public and behind-the-scenes roles at trying to overturn the will of the faculty and desire of the faculty and other university bodies to hire her with tenure to our school,” said Daniel Kreiss, a professor in the school.
‘Not a lot of guardrails around the donor influence’
Kreiss said the big question is what Hussman will do to influence the hiring of a new dean. And that’s not hypothetical, he said, because university administrators have not condemned Hussman’s actions in the Hannah-Jones case or explained what is appropriate behavior for donors.
“There’s not a lot of guardrails around the donor influence,” Kreiss said. “And that’s deeply troubling.
“Who would want to come here if there was any inkling that they would have to do a public battle with the named donor to our school?”
Hussman said he “will have no say on whoever the new dean is,” doesn’t have a candidate in mind and trusts that the search committee will be independent.
But as a top donor to the school that bears his name, he is interested and invested in who is selected. Donors and alumni, especially those with journalism experience, should make suggestions and the search committee should consider those candidates, Hussman said.
“There’s nothing wrong with people saying let’s get a good dean and make a suggestion,” he said.
Hussman reiterated that he never pressured UNC-CH leaders in the Hannah-Jones case, despite his repeated correspondence questioning and evaluating her work. He said if someone applies pressure it ought to be exposed.
“I really hope they pick a good dean and do it independently without any pressure applied by anyone,” Hussman said.
Will the pool of candidates be affected?
To some in the field, UNC-CH’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media is considered “a crown jewel,” “an esteemed journalism program” and one that is “strong” and “thriving.”
Under King’s leadership over the past decade, the school has attracted high-caliber faculty, students and research dollars. The recent controversy also unified the faculty, who share a commitment to moving the school forward.
“It’s going to be a very attractive position for a lot of people in our field,” journalism professor Deb Aikat said. “I don’t think we have any fears that not many people would want this job. And people know this is a job not for the faint of heart.”
Faculty members talked about the Hussman school being more diverse than its peer institutions. The school’s full-time faculty is 51% male and 72% white, according to the school’s 2019-20 accreditation self-study.
But seeing what Hannah-Jones, a Black woman, went through “will probably give a number of people color pause when they think about going to UNC,” said Whitaker, of Northwestern. And that could lead to a less diverse group of candidates.
Whitaker said the situation suggests there are donor and trustee influences that make UNC-CH “an inhospitable place for people of color, particularly scholars of color” who may want to do research about the history of inequity, Critical Race Theory and systemic racism.
For Mark Lodato, dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, it wouldn’t lessen his desire to apply for this “top-notch opportunity.”
But this case will force tough conversations and questions from candidates going through the hiring process, he said.
“In many ways, if there’s a silver lining it’s that all the stones have been turned over by now,” Lodato said.
The issues in North Carolina are happening in other states, he said, and the attention this case received brought it up to the forefront here.
Any dean who comes to a journalism and media school has to be up for a fight, according to Kreiss. And they have to articulate “a vision for what journalism and media look like in 2021 given the polarization this country is experiencing, given the movements for racial justice, given extraordinary threats to democracy that we’ve had,” he said.
How will a new dean be selected?
Gary Marchionini, dean of the UNC School of Information and Library Science, is chairing the committee, which is made up of at least 10 members of the UNC-CH community.
The search committee is made up of Hussman professors and others from the UNC community.
In an email to the journalism school, Marchionini said they are planning on getting input from faculty, staff, students, alumni and others. That will include listening sessions, as well as suggestions and comments that will be kept confidential within the committee.
Marchionini encouraged faculty to use their networks to recruit candidates, who will be kept confidential.
“I am confident that the excellence and impact of the Hussman School of Journalism and Media will attract great leadership talent for the Dean search candidate pool,” Marchionini said in a statement to the News & Observer. “The search committee and I are committed to a search that yields an exceptional next leader for the School and for the UNC-CH campus.”
The university is also conducting searches now for a new provost, a dean of the nursing school and a dean of the Gillings School of Public Health.
Ultimately, Freelon said, the journalism dean job is one for a problem-solver.
“People who are good fits burnish the reputation and come and do something to move past this,” Freelon said. “They look at it as an opportunity to make some positive changes.”
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