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BumRushDaShow

(128,841 posts)
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 08:27 AM Jul 2021

Nikole Hannah-Jones, Ta-Nehisi Coates to join Howard University faculty

Source: Washington Post



Journalists Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates are joining Howard University’s faculty, school officials announced Tuesday in a major recruiting victory for the private institution in the nation’s capital. The surprising development came less than a week after trustees for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill voted to award tenure to Hannah-Jones. Initially, the public university hired her as a professor without the job-protection status. But its board of trustees approved tenure for her on Wednesday, after faculty and students at Chapel Hill protested that she had been mistreated.

In an interview Tuesday on CBS This Morning, Hannah-Jones said she would not join the UNC faculty. Now Hannah-Jones will have tenure at Howard in the new position of Knight Chair in Race and Journalism, starting this summer at the historically Black university in Washington. “I am so incredibly honored to be joining one of the most important and storied educational institutions in our country … ” Hannah-Jones said in a statement. “One of my few regrets is that I did not attend Howard as an undergraduate, and so coming here to teach fulfills a dream I have long carried.”

Hannah-Jones will also found a Center for Journalism and Democracy at Howard. She said it will aim to train journalism students from historically Black schools to “accurately and urgently [cover] the challenges of our democracy with a clarity, skepticism, rigor and historical dexterity that is too often missing from today’s journalism.”

Coates, an award-winning author known for his work on topics including race and white supremacy, will be a writer-in-residence in the university’s College of Arts and Sciences, and hold the Sterling Brown Chair in the English department. He said in an interview he plans to teach a class in creative writing next year. “That really is the community that made me,” Coates said. “I would not be who I am without the faculty at Howard.” Coates also has plans to finish his bachelor’s degree, which he started at Howard in 1993. He hasn’t picked a major but said he’d like to learn more about math, science and economics.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/07/06/howard-nikole-hannah-jones-tanehisi-coates/

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Lonestarblue

(9,971 posts)
1. Excellent!
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 08:32 AM
Jul 2021

Howard students deserve faculty of such high caliber. UNC made a mess of their offer to Hannah-Jones.

CurtEastPoint

(18,639 posts)
2. As a UNC grad, I am ashamed of how they acted but the Repubes have been ruining NC for...
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 08:40 AM
Jul 2021

years. Typical old white fuckers on the Board. UNC's loss.

mnhtnbb

(31,382 posts)
3. I can understand her decision, but
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 10:56 AM
Jul 2021

in the end, the racist, old white guys won. Sure, she'd rather go where she's wanted, but they put her in the position to choose "separate but equal" and she did. I bet those old white guys are slapping each other's backs and congratulating themselves.

This is not the only loss for UNC. There was a well known African American chemistry professor that was being recruited by the Chem Department and when this whole mess with Hannah-Jones surfaced, she backed out.

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article251867998.html

I'm sick of these racist,misogynistic old white Republican dickheads. Pathetic bunch of a$$holes. They are doing to the UNC system what Reagan did to the UC system when he was Governor in California. A$$holes. Fu*kers.

mnhtnbb

(31,382 posts)
13. By what criteria?
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 05:01 PM
Jul 2021

Rankings? UNC is #28 and Howard University is #80 according to US News university rankings. And it's now #3 of public universities according to recent rankings by the Wall Street Journal.

https://chapelboro.com/news/unc/new-ranking-unc-3rd-best-public-university-in-u-s-top-in-south

Diversity? Howard University has 94% African American US students. It is one of the best historically black universities, but is by no means diverse.

She's not coming to UNC, which makes a handful of racist and misogynistic old white guys very happy.

If she's happy going to Howard, then that's good for her, but a definite loss for the flagship UNC campus at Chapel Hill, thanks to a bunch of old white racist dickheads.

mnhtnbb

(31,382 posts)
15. The satisfaction of telling them up yours
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 05:21 PM
Jul 2021

does not equate to somehow changing the reputation and prestige of becoming faculty at a decidedly less prestigious and less diverse university.

As I said, if she's happy, then that's good for her. But we--the citizens of North Carolina, students and faculty at UNC Chapel Hill-- lost out, thanks to a bunch of old white racist dickheads who are supposed to be concerned about advancing the cause of higher education in North Carolina, not destroying it.

onetexan

(13,036 posts)
16. Oh cut the crap w the less prestigious nonsense
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 08:08 PM
Jul 2021

BS that Howard is less prestigious. Kamala Harris graduated from Howard and it is one of the most stories and hallowed schools in the nation.

cbabe

(3,539 posts)
4. Howard Univ is not pure either.
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 11:03 AM
Jul 2021

Phylicis Rashad, newly appointed Dean of Fine Arts, tweeted in support of Bill Cosby's release from prison.

She is the person students would report sexual assaults to.

She needs to resign

BumRushDaShow

(128,841 posts)
5. Rashad has nothing to do with the granting of tenure
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 11:11 AM
Jul 2021

for a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist as a professor.

cbabe

(3,539 posts)
8. perfect example off
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 11:56 AM
Jul 2021

what I call email drift. Your post is off 90degrees from my intent.

To clarify: We are excited by Howard Univ. new appointments.

Except not Rashad. She is openly supporting serial rapist Cosby. And, worse, she is responsible for student sexual assault reports.

That is why she needs to resign. Nothing to do with tenure but central to Howard Univ and ALL its choices.

BumRushDaShow

(128,841 posts)
11. Your post is completely offtopic from the subject of the OP
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 01:00 PM
Jul 2021

which was to note that this journalist, Nikole Hannah-Jones, who happened to have been responsible for the creation of the "1619 Project", which illuminated the history of racism in the U.S. from the time of Jamestown (resulting in her receipt of a Pulitzer), and who opted to accept a position at one of the HBCUs ("Historically Black College & Universities" ) after an unprecedented decision made by UNC that was reversed after a protest of not following their past precedents. In addition, noted writer/commentator - Ta-Nehis Coates also accepted a position at Howard.

What a different employee who is working there has to do with the above-named individuals only underscores an agenda that you apparently have that is irrelevant to the OP topic.

If you have an issue with Rashad, then you can create an OP in GD and have at it.

And as a note, my mother spent her first 2 years in college at Howard U back in the late '40s before transferring to Temple U for her final 2 years.

cbabe

(3,539 posts)
18. Discussing new hired
Wed Jul 7, 2021, 12:09 AM
Jul 2021

means discussing all new hires. Important to know the whole story. So not off topic. End of discussion.

BumRushDaShow

(128,841 posts)
19. No one is discussing Cosby stuff in this thread but you
Wed Jul 7, 2021, 09:01 AM
Jul 2021

I am born, raised and live in Philly where he is from and live not far from his house... and frankly I’ve had enough of him and his ilk as we are drenched in it here. So yes, time for the end of that discussion in this thread because it is off topic.

 

cinematicdiversions

(1,969 posts)
10. They're attack on African American history and intelligence
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 12:52 PM
Jul 2021

By getting rid of the classics department really makes one wonder if they are even interested in educating the current generations.

Calista241

(5,586 posts)
9. While i like that she told UNC to stuff it
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 12:37 PM
Jul 2021

I think she'll have less impact and outreach to new / convertible people with her role at Howard.

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