UNC system president orders all class syllabuses to be published as public records

altmin

altmin

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In an opinion piece in the News & Observer, UNC System President Peter Hans confirmed on Thursday that all syllabuses will be deemed public records. On Wednesday, The Daily Tar Heel first obtained and reported on a drafted UNC System policy that would redefine syllabuses across its 16 constituent universities, requiring their accessibility to the public and denying their status as copyrighted materials.

This comes after a slew of faculty and instructor pushback to the drafted policy obtained by The DTH, which stipulates that all System universities must create a public, online database for all course syllabuses beginning in the 2026-27 academic year. But Hans wrote that he has made a final decision:
 
heel79 said:
Why?
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As it is a part of the course materials it’s arguably work product and intellectual property. Those who have a right to it are enrolled students. Why should it be available for public consumption? It offers little value outside of revealing course organization and grading/attendance policies. Should lecture notes be made available? Should grade distributions for each course be a matter of public record?
 
BlooVooDoo said:
As it is a part of the course materials it’s arguably work product and intellectual property. Those who have a right to it are enrolled students. Why should it be available for public consumption? It offers little value outside of revealing course organization and grading/attendance policies. Should lecture notes be made available? Should grade distributions for each course be a matter of public record?
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Thanks.
 
No big deal...

All the profs need to do is not print words like DEI, LGBTQ, anti-racism, democracy, voting rights, slavery, Jim Crow, or other words the Heritage Foundation finds offensive in their syllabus , and they probably won't have to be overly worried about death threats to them or their family.
 
This will change the nature of the syllabus I foresee.

And while I've not seen anything about it in the news...I believe that all the system schools are being required to switch to Canvas as their LMS. That will, I suspect, mean that all of the material posted there will be viewable by administrators. I reckon that was always the case but there was some degree of rigamarol involved in accessing an individual instructor's LMS previously. The streamlining/leveling of everything to Canvas will make that much easier for Big Brother BOG.
 
uncmba said:
If I were a Professor, I'd have the simplest syllabus. Not a peep that could get me fired.

History of American Civilization:
Day 1 1755-1775
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I have a syllabus from a world civ class at Carolina, 1978. It is one page, front and back.

Today a syllabus will run 10 to 12 pages.
 
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