UNC-Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees has approved tenure for select faculty after deferring to vote on the issue twice. The move comes after widespread criticism and concern from faculty at the public institution and other North Carolina universities.
The trustees had been delaying the tenure vote since March, but only for faculty in professional schools and the College of Arts and Sciences. In May, the full board met in closed session again to discuss tenure, but decided to only approve appointments in the health sciences.
The selective approval quickly spurred collective action among faculty. Chairs of departments sent letters, UNC’s Faculty Chair Beth Moracco met with several BOT members and Chancellor Lee Roberts, and even outside faculty from sister universities shared their concerns with the UNC System’s Faculty Chair.
Moracco said she’s received more texts, calls, and emails of concern from faculty than she ever has in her two years of being UNC’s faculty chair.
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
“There’s a very well-defined, rigorous process for appointment in tenure and promotion and all those processes were followed up until these cases got before the Board of Trustees,” Moracco said in an interview with WUNC after the latest board vote. “Since it’s such an anomaly and had such serious consequences, there was a lot of concern among the faculty.”
The BOT votes on personnel decisions like tenure in closed session, meaning the meeting is not open to the public. Moracco said she asked the board why they delayed the tenure vote, but did not receive a clear answer.
“I’ve been assured that it’s not a reflection on the quality of the faculty — those kind of big reassurances, but no actual ‘this is why we made this decision,’” Moracco said to faculty at a recent meeting. “Those are not satisfying, because if it is a bigger concern that prompted this how do we avoid it in the future? We can’t prevent something that we don’t know the origins of. “
The board released a statement after they approved the deferred tenure appointments, saying “nothing has changed in the university’s tenure policies.”
“Tenure-track faculty across the University, including those in the College of Arts and Sciences, are eligible for tenure,” the statement continued. “The University administration and Board of Trustees moved these personnel actions forward given the impact the deferral caused on departments. The University will continue to weigh all factors when considering the timing of expenditures given the current fiscal environment.”
On Monday, UNC’s Faculty Executive Committee held a meeting to discuss how they could further show the BOT the harms of its inaction. A big concern is the reputational damage the deferral has and will cause, said psychology professor Viji Sathy.
“It’s not something to make light of, especially for colleagues who are trying to join our community,” Sathy said at the meeting. “This is not easy to come back from, and makes people feel a lack of trust. I mean, it’s easy to destroy trust. It’s really difficult to build it back up again.”
Tenure is the foundation of academic freedom, said Moracco. When faculty’s jobs aren’t tied to a time-limited contract, she said, it allows them to pursue teaching, service, and research without fear of interference. It’s also used as a recruitment tool for talented faculty, and without it, people may be more hesitant to accept a new position.
“These types of actions are demoralizing for faculty and now is not a time to have demoralizing actions coming from folks who should be our allies, coming from inside the house,” Moracco said. “That’s been particularly difficult to grapple with, given all the external threats that we’re facing right now. Faculty are really dedicated and they believe in the mission of public higher education that Carolina has so proudly represented for centuries.”
Many faculty are already worried about leaving their jobs to come to UNC amid federal funding uncertainty, according to radiologic science professor Joy Renner. By deferring tenure decisions, she said, the BOT was essentially signifying to future talent to stay where they are.
“I’m trying to recruit faculty so I can retire,” Renner said at the meeting. “This has just exacerbated people saying ‘well I’m afraid to leave, I’ve got a sure thing right now, I’ve got a home. To make that leap of faith — which they would have done easily in the past, to be able to come to UNC and to come to our program — they’re very reticent about coming now.”
The federal government has already terminated tens of millions of dollars in NIH grants from existing UNC faculty. Multiple FEC members said the tenure delay was also making current faculty question whether they should continue at UNC.
“They’ve lost research funding. They’ve lost a lot of other support. So, this is kind of the piling on effect,” Renner said. “This is not the only hit (to) our tenure-track faculty who had research in progress that have all of a sudden had grants pulled out from under them and the staff that were working for them.”
The day after the UNC FEC meeting, the BOT voted via email to approve tenure for 33 faculty members in professional schools and the College of Arts and Sciences.
Moracco said faculty have told her they are relieved and grateful that the board responded so swiftly to their concerns. However, they still have questions about why the tenure appointments were delayed at all and there’s a lingering concern about the reputational damage the unprecedented inaction has already caused.
This is not the first time UNC’s BOT has been criticized for a tenure decision. Back in 2021, the board refused to approve the tenure appointment of journalist Nikole Hannah Jones, instead offering her a contracted position.
The move garnered nationwide backlash, with critics accusing the board of political overreach. The board later approved Jones’ tenure, but she decided to take a position at Howard University instead.
Moracco said faculty feel those same concerns with the board’s most recent tenure delay.
“Before they even reach that level (tenure appointments) have gone through vetting at the department level, at the school level, at the level of the provost — and to put together a dossier like this takes months and months and months,” Moracco said. “It is a well-vetted process that has worked for decades and that we have a lot of confidence in. And so the concern … is that there’s been kind of either external pressure or politicization of this process and the decision-making.”
In the future, Moracco said, faculty hope the board will provide more communication behind their decisions.
WUNC partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
