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Can Athletes Save UNC (Again)? A Reflection on the Hannah-Jones Debacle
It is not unanimous but certainly a consensus that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) student body and faculty fully support Nikole Hannah-Jones’ recent decision to reject the tenured faculty offer of the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism position at UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media. This entire sordid hiring process has become the latest embarrassment for the southern “Public Ivy” that boldly proclaims to be the “university of the people.” Sadly, this mistreatment of a distinguished alumna is another painful reminder of how a lack of transparency, political machinations, and white supremacy, can make for an awful mix of faculty governance and a positive campus climate. This awkwardness is also a prompt for athletics to possibly come to the rescue of a university community exhausted by academic leadership missteps.
UNC is globally recognized for academic and athletics excellence. Although the university is regularly ranked as one of the best public research institutions in the nation with 51 Rhodes Scholars, having garnered more than $1.048 billion in new research awards in fiscal year 2020, and claim to…
