Nikole Hannah-Jones shares additional details of settlement with UNC-Chapel Hill

Following reports last week that UNC-Chapel Hill had reached a settlement with journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones over her battle for tenure at the university last year, Hannah-Jones is now providing more details about what is included — aside from money — in the settlement.

The News & Observer confirmed the settlement Friday, speaking with university Board of Trustees Chair David Boliek, who said the settlement was for less than $75,000 and was approved by Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz.

Hannah-Jones commented on the settlement on Twitter for the first time Tuesday morning, saying that while the university had confirmed the dollar amount of the settlement, the settlement “was about much more” than money.

In her tweets, Hannah-Jones described three key initiatives that are included in the settlement, mostly related to improving diversity and supporting people of color at the university. Hannah-Jones said she and her legal team “took these concessions directly from the asks of student and faculty groups and fought very hard for them.”

The N&O contacted UNC-Chapel Hill media relations Tuesday morning to confirm the details of the settlement Hannah-Jones provided, but the university said they “have no additional information to share at this time.”

The settlement, as described by Hannah-Jones, will require UNC to:

▪ Commit to “training 20 faculty and staff as (paid) search and selection process advisors to help diversify university hiring.”

▪ Post “a position by July 31 for an additional trauma-informed therapist within the Multicultural Health Program, and hiring a qualified applicant for this position.”

▪ Reserve funds “in the Provost’s office to pay for meeting expenses, events and symposia sponsored by the Carolina Black Caucus in the sum of $5,000 per year through June of 2025.”

“We believe that these concessions will help make my alma mater better and help it live up to its promise,” Hannah-Jones wrote in her tweets. “As I said again and again: This was never about me.”

The settlement between Hannah-Jones and the university came after attorneys representing Hannah-Jones, including the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., last year threatened to take legal action, including filing a federal discrimination lawsuit, against UNC-Chapel Hill and its Board of Trustees over the failure to give her tenure.

Boliek told The N&O last week that the settlement reached by the university was to resolve “potential legal action,” and that a formal lawsuit was never filed by Hannah-Jones’ attorneys.

Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist who is known for her work on the New York Times’ 1619 Project, was hired last year as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

Knight Chair positions have historically been tenured at the school, but when Hannah-Jones’ tenure candidacy was first presented to the Board of Trustees in January 2021, they never voted on it, so it was not approved, The N&O previously reported. Hannah-Jones was instead offered a fixed-term contract, with the option of being reviewed for tenure within five years.

The lack of tenure initially offered to Hannah-Jones ignited a national controversy, with hundreds of scholars, journalism professionals, UNC faculty, alumni and students advocating for Hannah-Jones.

Amid the controversy, the Board of Trustees later called a vote on Hannah-Jones’ tenure, voting 9-4 to grant her tenure, but Hannah-Jones declined to come to UNC and instead accepted a position to be an inaugural Knight Chair at Howard University.