Last week, writer Sara Pequeño broke the news that Dr. Lisa Jones, a prominent Black woman chemist currently teaching at the University of Maryland, declined an invitation to teach at UNC-Chapel Hill.

UNC had been trying to recruit Jones for two years, and Jones said in a letter to faculty in the university’s chemistry department that she found the news that the acclaimed journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones was denied tenure “very disheartening” and that she could not accept a position at a university where such a decision is allowed to stand. Our readers had lots of thoughts. 

 “UNC has been bought and paid for by one single donor who gets exactly what he paid for. Too bad the board of trustees lacks integrity and courage,” wrote reader Lynne Saulsbury on Facebook. 

“As a ‘prestigious’ public university, UNC’s leadership has sure been a huge disappointment over the last decade … the ‘Silent Sam’ controversy, their response to COVID, and now the tenure incident,” wrote Facebook commenter Jeffrey David Zacko-Smith. “And anyone who critiques any of it is immediately attacked by the rabid alumni who don’t think their alma mater can do anything wrong. As a professor for 15 years, a university is supposed to be a bastion of ideas and critical thinking, but the reality is something different. Sad.” 

“Um… not all their alumni,” wrote commenter Alistair George in response.

“Some of us are rabidly progressive, others like me are just humane, apolitical and reasonable. Either way we’re sickened by our conservative trustees failing to honor our long-established traditions as an avant-garde institution of societal advancement and defender of civil liberties.” 

Facebook commenter John Hammond ties the Hannah-Jones crucible to other high-profile debacles the state has garnered national attention for in recent years. 

 “The board of Governors come from the same ilk that gave NC HB2 disaster,” John wrote. 

And reader Donna Aldridge gets at the heart of the issue. 

“Racism is a lifetime commitment to ignorance,” Donna wrote on our Facebook page.