Syllabi for all courses in the UNC System will now be considered public records and soon must be made available online, under a rule issued Friday by system President Peter Hans.
The regulation finalizes a proposal from system officials that had been circulated among faculty leaders for feedback this month. The final version includes some changes, such as a new requirement that syllabi include a disclaimer that the inclusion of an assigned reading in a course does not imply an endorsement of the material by the professor—a change that stemmed from feedback from members of the system’s Faculty Assembly, chair Wade Maki said. (Syllabi must list materials that students are required to purchase, but they do not have to include other readings.)
The final rule also moves up the timeline by which professors must post their syllabi publicly, requiring them to do so no later than one week before the course starts. The draft would have given them until several weeks into the semester. Campuses will have until the start of the 2026-27 academic year to create searchable, online platforms where the documents will be available to the public.
Per the UNC System policy manual, regulations are signed only by the system president and do not require approval from the Board of Governors.
System officials have said the policy will increase student success by equipping them with information about courses and provide greater transparency from the state’s public universities—something Hans says is needed given the lack of trust many people have in higher education.
“For public universities like ours, I’m convinced that more transparency is the right response to greater scrutiny,” Hans wrote in a News & Observer op-ed after news outlets, including The Assembly, reported on the draft policy. “Spending time in a real classroom, seeing students and professors working earnestly toward understanding and dialogue, is a great antidote to the cynicism and performative outrage of social media. And getting an honest, realistic look at how our faculty are trying to reach an anxious generation with depth and rigor should inspire more confidence in our public universities.”
The move comes amid a heated debate over syllabi and their availability to the public. Several states, including Florida, Georgia, Ohio, and Indiana, moved to make syllabi public this year, either through new laws or changes in university policy.
The issue reached the UNC System this summer when the Oversight Project, an offshoot of the conservative Heritage Foundation, filed a request for syllabi from nearly 75 courses at UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as all syllabi and course materials containing keywords such as “diversity and inclusion,” “transgender,” and “implicit bias.” While UNC-CH declined to release the records without the permission of faculty, UNC Greensboro complied with a similar request for syllabi at that campus—a discrepancy system leaders sought to address by enacting a standard policy on the issue.
Critics of making syllabi public say the move will put professors at risk, personally and professionally, especially if they teach subjects or content that might be considered controversial. Some faculty also worry about the increased workload the policy will create, while others say it would infringe on their intellectual property rights. The policy defines syllabi as “directed works” for which universities, not faculty, own the copyrights.
The rule does not require professors’ names to be listed in their syllabi, nor the time or location of their courses. Some faculty remain concerned, though. The North Carolina chapter of the Association of American University Professors argued in an email on Friday that “course names and existing campus information is plenty to piece together professors, classrooms, and other vulnerable pieces of information.” A petition against the policy circulated by the group gained nearly 2,800 signatures.
Hans has acknowledged the risks, writing in his op-ed that it “will mean hearing feedback and criticism from people who may disagree with what’s being taught or how it’s being presented.” He added: “We will do everything we can to safeguard faculty and staff who may be subject to threats or intimidation simply for doing their jobs.”
The policy takes effect January 15.