UNC President: All course syllabi will be made public to promote transparency amid scrutiny

Public university syllabi should be public records, and that will be the official policy of the UNC System.

We are living through an age of dangerously low trust in some of society’s most important institutions. While support for North Carolina’s public universities remains strong and bipartisan, confidence in higher education generally has dropped in recent years, driven by concerns about value and a perception that some colleges and universities have drifted from their core mission.

In that environment, it’s critical that we stand behind our work. I am enormously proud of the breadth and quality of teaching that takes place across our public universities. It’s a workaday miracle that North Carolinians of every possible background get the chance to study alongside dedicated scholars who are devoted to their disciplines and to our public mission. Every day in this state, in fields from art history to zoology, students are choosing to follow their curiosity and ambition so they can be sharper, more capable human beings.

Those student choices should be informed by a clear understanding of the academic work being asked of them. One of the important principles that separates higher education from high school is that students are there because they want to be, pursuing subjects and interests they’ve freely selected. 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.

My own path through the world was deeply shaped by UNC historians and other professors who knew how to translate their scholarship in a way that resonated with a first-generation college student from a small mountain town. I still remember opening the syllabus for my first American history class, feeling equal parts daunted and excited by the work ahead. I remember reading texts that profoundly challenged my worldview, that forced me to think in new ways and get better at knowing and articulating my own beliefs.

There were plenty of difficult and controversial topics on some of my undergrad syllabi, and I’m sure the same is true today. Higher education has always been a contentious business, and people have always had a keen interest in what gets taught. That’s a good and healthy thing in a society that takes higher education seriously and cares about the quality and rigor of its universities.

There is no question that making course syllabi publicly available will mean hearing feedback and criticism from people who may disagree with what’s being taught or how it’s being presented. That’s a normal fact of life at a public institution, and we should expect a vibrant and open society to have debates that extend beyond the walls of campus.

It’s awful that we live in a time when healthy discussion too often descends into outright harassment. We will do everything we can to safeguard faculty and staff who may be subject to threats or intimidation simply for doing their jobs. Across the country, we’ve seen everyone from elected officials to local public servants subjected to online vitriol when conflict entrepreneurs turn isolated snippets into misleading clickbait. This hasn’t been good for the tenor of our public life, and it certainly hasn’t been good for the culture of free inquiry on college campuses.

When the UNC System conducted a comprehensive study of student attitudes about free expression a few years ago, we found that many students hesitate to share their honest views not because they’re worried about what professors might think but because they fear the blowback of social media and online instigators. A culture of digital surveillance and the prospect for local discussions to become viral controversies is one of the many, many downsides of online life that we’re all working to mitigate.

For public universities like ours, I’m convinced that more transparency is the right response to greater scrutiny. 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.

This is not an easy age to be defending complexity and nuance in public life. But that’s the job of universities, and I am confident we’re up for it.

Peter Hans is president of the University of North Carolina System.