The UNC System has officially adopted a policy to force all state university professors to publicly post their syllabi.
System President Peter Hans approved the policy measure Friday evening, which didn’t require a vote from the UNC Board of Governors. The new regulation was posted on the System’s website without a public announcement and while all campuses are on winter break.
The decision puts North Carolina in league with other Southern states like Florida, Georgia, and Texas; two of which legislatively mandate syllabi to be public records.
The UNC System's new syllabi policy not only requires the documents to be public records, but universities must also create a "readily searchable online platform" to display them.
All syllabi must include learning outcomes, a grading scale, and all course materials students are required to buy. Professors must also include a statement saying their courses engage in "diverse scholarly perspectives" and that accompanying readings are not endorsements. They are, however, allowed to leave out when a class is scheduled and what building it will be held in.
This policy goes into effect on Jan. 15, but universities aren't required to publicly post syllabi or offer the online platform until fall 2026.
Hans had already announced his decision to make syllabi public records a week in advance through an op-ed in the News & Observer. He said the move would provide greater transparency for students and the general public, as well as clear up any confusion among the 16-university System.
Before now, a spokesperson told WUNC that the syllabus regulations were a “campus level issue” that fell outside of its open records policy. That campus autonomy assessment began to shift after conservative groups started making syllabi requests – and universities reached opposing decisions on how to fulfill them.
Earlier this year, UNC-Chapel Hill sided with faculty, deciding that course materials belong to them and are protected by intellectual property rights. UNC Greensboro, however, made faculty turn in all of their syllabi to fulfill any records requests.
"Having a consistent rule on syllabi transparency, instead of 16 campuses coming up with different rules, helps ensure that everyone is on the same page and similarly committed heading into each new semester,” Hans said in the op-ed.
Still, faculty members from across the UNC System tried to convince Hans to change his mind before his decision was finalized.
About a dozen attempted to deliver a petition to his office days after the op-ed. More than 2,800 faculty, staff, students, and other campus community members signed the document – demanding Hans protect academic freedom.
One of those signatories is Michael Palm, the president of UNC-Chapel Hill's AAUP Chapter. He spoke to WUNC shortly before the petition drop-off.
"Transparency, accountability accessibility – these are important aspects of a public university system, but that's not what this is about," Palm said. "This is about capitulating to pressure at the state level and at the federal level to scrutinize faculty and intimidate faculty who are teaching unpopular subjects right now."
A public records request from The Oversight Project put UNC-Chapel Hill at the epicenter of the syllabi public records debate in North Carolina this summer.
The organization, which is a spin-off of the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, requested course materials from 74 UNC-Chapel Hill classes. This included syllabi, lecture slides, and presentation materials that contained words like diversity, equity, and inclusion; LGBTQ+; and systems of oppression.
Mike Howell, The Oversight Project's president, told WUNC in September that his goal is to ultimately get DEI teachings or what he calls "garbage out of colleges and universities."
"One of the ends will be the public can scrutinize whether their taxpayer dollars are going toward promulgating hard-left, Marxists, racist teachings at public universities," Howell said. "I think there's a lot of people in North Carolina and across the country that would take issue to that."
Faculty say pressure from outside forces is why they petitioned Hans to protect their rights to choose how and when to disseminate syllabi.
"There are people who do not have good intentions or do not have productive or scholarly or educational desires when looking at syllabi," said Ajamu Dillahunt-Holloway, a history professor at NC State. "They're more interested in attacking faculty and more so attacking ideas that maybe they have not fully engaged with themselves."
In his op-ed, Hans said the UNC System will do everything it can to "safeguard faculty and staff who may be subject to threats or intimidation simply for doing their jobs."
Hans has yet to share details about what those measures will look like, and turned down a request from WUNC for an interview to explain what safety measures the UNC System may enact.
WUNC partners with Open Campus and NC Local on higher education coverage.
