CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Trustees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have approved a plan to offer tenure to investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones.
Wednesday's 9-4 vote capped weeks of tension that began when a board member halted the process over questions about her teaching credentials.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Report: Tenure offer revoked from slavery project journalist
The board voted to accept the tenure application at a special meeting that included a closed-door session.
The university announced in April that Hannah-Jones would be joining the journalism school faculty in July. But her lawyers announced last week she wouldn't report for work without tenure. She had won a Pulitzer Prize for her work on the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project on America's history of slavery.
In a statement posted on Twitter, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said he supported the decision.
"UNC Trustees did the right thing today by offering tenure to award winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. Our students will benefit from exploring thought-provoking issues and our campus reputation will be enhanced helping us keep and attract a diverse array of acclaimed scientists, researchers, doctors and scholars," Cooper wrote.
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