Photo: Rachel Jessen

The official accounting will record the vote as 9 in favor and 4 against, but that won’t begin to tell the story of what happened this week when the board of trustees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill voted to award tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones. 

The politics surrounding Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and lead author of The New York Times Magazine‘s politically charged “1619 Project,” make her tenure case about much more than procedure. Students, professors, alumni, and community members have come to see this drawn-out tenure approval process as emblematic of a polarized national moment in which race is inescapably central.

Driven by a strong purpose to help people change their lives, Cynthia Teniente-Matson brings a unique perspective to her role as president of Texas A&M University-San Antonio. As a first-generation college graduate, she knows firsthand the challenges these students face—and the supports they need to succeed.

On this podcast, Teniente-Matson reflects on what inspired her higher education journey and career—plus how she tackles disparities on her own campus.

Photo: Max Herman

In Chicago's Little Village, high school senior Leonel Gonzalez can't sleep. He's troubled by stubborn what ifs. What if one of the panic attacks that dogged him during the COVID era creeps up on him at college? What if he didn't pick the right school? What if he fails to graduate and go to college at all?

In Chicago and across the country, there is growing evidence that this pandemic-fueled year has hit Black and Latino boys—young men like Gonzalez—harder than other students. But in this period of upheaval, educators and advocates also see a critical moment of opportunity to rethink how schools serve boys of color.