Between Recent Political Controversies and Long-Standing Education Histories

A handful of the most challenging ones began appearing at almost the same time. Since the end of 2019, schools, colleges, and universities have been swept up in heated debates over how to handle the intractable global pandemic. The controversy polarized schools in the US and abroad, and it complicated Hannah-Jones's bid for a tenured position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.2 Adding to these challenging public debates came a political and media frenzy over critical race theory. At a time when state support for higher education continues a multi-decade pattern of decline in the US, the rationale for establishing public universities explored in this study returns our attention to the many purposes of public institutions.