Right before we went to print this week, the news broke that journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones declined UNC’s offer for a tenured position as Knight Chair in favor of a position at Howard University as founder of the new Center for Democracy and Journalism alongside the award-winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Our writer Sara Pequeño was there at the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees meeting last week where the trustees (finally!) voted 9-4 in favor of awarding tenure to Hannah-Jones. A lot happened during that three-hour, closed-door meeting, including UNC Campus Police forcibly removing students from the Carolina Inn. And while some of the comments on Sara’s story from our Facebook page got out of hand, other readers weighed in to offer their thoughts and ask the hard questions.

 “How can voters, citizens and alumni vote to remove those four [trustees]?” asked commenter Tacy Newell. 

“Getting our state legislature out of GOP hands will be a good start,” Sabrina Miracoli responded. 

“Great news! People were forced to give someone worthy the respect they are due and they gave in and did so (well, just enough of them did so to make it happen),” wrote commenter Jeffrey David Zacko-Smith.

“Giving someone something they didn’t earn or deserve is not the solution,” ventured Jason Williams.

“By that, we’ll assume you mean those four trustees’ positions on the Board,” Mark Ellis wrote in response to Jason.

“Oh, honey, did Nikole take your Pulitzer? Or was it your Macarthur genius grant?,” quipped Lauren Faber, in response. 

We also wrote about a state Senate committee’s approval of a bill that would legalize medical marijuana in North Carolina. Readers aren’t happy about it, but not for the reasons you may expect.

“this bill is just about the worst possible way to legalize,” wrote Facebook commenter David Straughan. “the number of conditions for which people can be prescribed is extremely limited and arbitrary. it is going to create even more of a two-tiered legal system for people who use this plant.”

We’ll continue to follow SB 711 as it moves through the General Assembly. 

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