Reporter Joe Killian discusses UNC-CH, Nikole Hannah-Jones and the Ida B. Wells Society’s funding

The Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting was housed at UNC-Chapel Hill's Carroll Hall. The society’s move to Morehouse College was publicly announced in February. (Photo: Clayton Henkel) The school year for colleges and universities has come to an end, but that’s done nothing to stop the steady drumbeat of big stories and policy controversies that continue to emerge in the world of higher education. Recently NC Newsline investigative reporter Joe Killian sat down for a special extended conversation in which we discussed two of them. In part one of our interview, we explored Joe’s exclusive reporting on the perplexing failure of administrators at UNC-Chapel Hill to release funding pledged to a program that helps develop minority journalists known as the Ida B. Wells Society. Last December, the Society informed UNC it would be moving to Morehouse College in Atlanta, but as Joe reported this past Monday, UNC has been moving at a glacial pace to release and forward millions of dollars it held for the Society – a failure that – to the enormous frustration of the group’s leaders – has forced the cancellation of some important programming designed to aid young journalists. In part two of our conversation, we tackled another big story from the world of higher education: a new draft proposal for the future of the UNC System from the Governor’s Commission on the Governance of Public Universities in North Carolina. The bipartisan commission was established last year by Gov. Roy Cooper in hopes of calming some of the stormy political seas that have overtaken higher education in our state. Read Joe’s original reporting on UNC-CH and the Ida B. Wells Society’s funding.