AAUP NC

What is happening?

• AAUP NC members recently learned of closed-door UNC System decisions to radically change existing policy regulations related to course syllabi and public records. 

• We expect public reporting on this issue to be published at any moment. We wanted to share the news with members and take collective action as soon as possible.

What do UNC System administrators seem to be proposing?

• UNC System administrators are planning to create a single, searchable repository of all university and college syllabi; they are determining that syllabi are no longer the intellectual property of instructors, but belong to the university.

How would these changes impact instruction in the UNC System?

• Extremists like those in the Oversight Project have stated their desire to use public syllabi to ideologically restrict instruction and to target instructors.

• Multiple classes in NC have been interrupted by intruders this semester, prompting classroom evacuations; this policy would open students and instructors up to more harassment.

How else would these changes impact students?

• Creating a single, searchable repository for all university and college course syllabi would not benefit students. Students already have access to course descriptions in course catalogs and schedules of classes; instructors already share draft syllabi with students before the beginning of a term.

• Instructors frequently adapt course materials before the beginning of a semester, responding to new discoveries or recent debates in their fields; students may have false expectations for a course if they make decisions based on syllabi months before a course begins.

• Courses and instructors will likely face escalating threats and harassment with the UNC System’s change in policy regulation, severely impacting classroom teaching and learning.

• If instructors are compelled to limit their instruction to avoid extremist threats and harassment, then students’ free inquiry will be stifled.

What can we do?

• We are calling on anyone in the broader community to sign our petition demanding that UNC System administrators abandon this dangerous policy change.

• If you work or learn in the UNC System, bring questions and concerns directly to your campus leaders. These policy regulations would violate statements and commitments made by many university leaders this semester; these changes would create more threats and harassment for them to manage on their campuses.

• If you are a faculty member, academic professional, or graduate student, you can join our movement to create the public and private colleges and universities that our communities deserve. If your campus has an AAUP chapter, you can join the local organizing.