As Hussman returns to UNC, it’s time for UNC to say goodbye

Three months after the Nikole Hannah-Jones fiasco ended, Walter Hussman Jr. is expected to visit UNC-Chapel Hill on Thursday and Friday for meetings.

The return of the mega-donor whose meddling derailed Hannah-Jones’ taking a tenured professorship at the journalism school that bears his name is being handled delicately. There will be no general meeting with faculty members, many of whom are still bitter about Hussman’s opposition to hiring Hannah-Jones – a Pulitzer-Prize winning Black journalist – as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism.

Faculty member Steven King, who had been asked by Journalism School Dean Susan King to assess whether there could be a meeting between Hussman and faculty members, said in a Monday memo to his colleagues: “For various reasons, I do not feel we are able to assemble a representative panel that could effectively communicate the diverse and passionate views of our Faculty for a meeting this Friday.”

Hussman, a UNC alumnus and publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock, pledged $25 million to the journalism school in 2019. The pledge came with an agreement that the school would be named for him and that a list of what he deems the core values of journalism would be engraved on a wall just inside the school’s entrance.

Last year, The Assembly website reported that he sent emails to UNC administrators saying that hiring Hannah-Jones would create controversy and detract from the journalism school’s mission. He said her work on the New York Times’ “1619 Project,” a special report that brought new attention to the role of slavery in the founding of the nation, had been criticized for factual errors and represented the kind of advocacy journalism he does not support.

Hussman, though returning quietly, is still coming back as the victor. He didn’t want Hannah-Jones at his school and she’s not there. But it’s a hollow victory. Instead of lifting the school, he has divided it.

According to Steven King’s memo, Hussman and the school’s administrators and a few selected faculty are expected to meet Friday to draw “a road map for working through our differences that is agreeable to Faculty and Mr. Hussman.”

It might be best if the road map includes an exit. Hussman has only delivered a small portion of his pledge and $12.5 million of it won’t be paid until he and his wife are deceased. Hussman and UNC should use this juncture to consider cutting their losses. He can keep the remainder of his pledge and UNC’s journalism school can try to restore its reputation.

And the damage isn’t limited to Hussman’s actions. The UNC administration has engaged in a witch hunt by opening an investigation into who leaked information on Hussman’s contract.

Even without the Hannah-Jones controversy, the idea of a UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media is a stretch. Hussman’s support of conservative politicians often falls short of another core value of journalism: “Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”

Last year, The Democrat-Gazette all but endorsed President Trump for reelection. It’s strange to have a journalism school named for a publisher whose newspaper favors Trump. The former president, after all, declared the media the “enemy of the people” and regularly dismissed critical reporting as “fake news.”

Some may argue that journalism should not apply an ideological litmus test to its practitioners or its sponsors. There should be room for all perspectives. That’s true, but a public university that seeks to instill the highest journalistic standards should align with benefactors who respect that diversity and protect the independence of journalism and those who teach it.

Correction: An earlier version of this column incorrectly said that UNC’s journalism school investigated the leak of Walter Hussman Jr.’s pledge agreement. The university’s Development Office announced the investigation.

This story was originally published October 13, 2021 at 5:22 PM with the headline "As Hussman returns to UNC, it’s time for UNC to say goodbye."