Cooper reached out to Nikole Hannah-Jones twice before UNC tenure decision

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Before award-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones made a decision to not accept a tenure offer at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, CBS 17 has learned that Gov. Roy Cooper reached out to her before the university held its Board of Trustees meeting.

According to the governor’s press office, Cooper spoke with Hannah-Jones twice before the trustees meeting and let her know that he hoped tenure would be granted.

Cooper told the UNC alumna that many of her fellow alumni were “proud to stand with her” and believed that she would be an important and valuable addition to the faculty, the governor’s office told CBS 17.

“The decision of Nikole Hannah-Jones is a loss for our university and state. It is but one symptom of a Republican legislative leadership that has broken university governance by appointing mostly ultra-conservative trustees and members of the Board of Governors who toe the legislature’s right-wing line and don’t reflect the diversity of our state,” Cooper said in a statement after Hannah-Jones chose Howard University over UNC. “Our great university’s faculty and students and most North Carolinians value diversity and inclusion and we must change the system so that our appointed university leadership values it too.”

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