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Journalist May Take Legal Action Against UNC Over Tenure Controversy

Nikole Hannah-Jones is an investigative journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for her work on “The 1619 Project” for The New York Times Magazine. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones may take legal action against the University of North Carolina over a controversial decision denying her tenure. 

UNC-Chapel Hill offered Hannah-Jones a tenured position last month as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism. 

The school has since modified its offer to a five-year term with an option for review.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist has drawn criticism from conservatives for her work on the country's history of slavery. 

Now Hannah-Jones is considering legal action against the university and its Board of Trustees.

In an emailed statement to The News & Observer, Jones said she has retained legal counsel to “ensure the academic and journalistic freedom of Black writers,” and to seek redress for the school's actions.

The newspaper reports that a coalition of attorneys has sent a letter to North Carolina lawmakers requesting that they retain all legal records related to Hannah-Jones' hiring, and warned they are considering taking federal action against the university and its Board members.  

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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