DEFENDING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY ● PROTECTING FACULTY RIGHTS
UNC-Chapel Hill wanted to secretly record lectures. Faculty said no—and won
In February of this year, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill leadership drafted a classroom recording policy that would allow administrators to record classes without a professor’s consent or knowledge. The draft policy permitted recordings to be made if authorized in writing by senior administrators, ostensibly for purposes like investigating alleged policy violations or “any other lawful purpose.”
The impetus for the policy stemmed from previous incidents in which administrators had secretly recorded a professor’s lectures without his permission. In particular, the university secretly captured several class sessions of a business school professor, which later became part of employment disputes and legal action.
Faculty, led by UNC-Chapel Hill’s AAUP chapter and the North Carolina AAUP State Conference, strongly opposed the policy because it undermined academic freedom, classroom autonomy, and privacy. AAUP/AFT also argued that allowing secret recordings by administrators would have a chilling effect on instruction and open discussion, discouraging candid exchange and undermining trust between instructors and students. AAUP also highlighted that the policy was drafted without meaningful consultation with faculty governance bodies, representing a violation of shared governance norms.
The AAUP/AFT-led pushback was successful. On February 27 UNC–Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts announced he would be reversing the proposed policy. “The whole idea was to create clarity and reassurance,” Roberts said during a Faculty Senate meeting. “That policy clearly has not achieved that aim.” The AAUP called the chancellor’s reversal “a victory for all who care about higher education in North Carolina and beyond. This policy would’ve created a Big Brother atmosphere in the classroom that would stifle the free exchange of ideas, chill student discussion, and suppress the requisite willingness to ask questions and take intellectual risks,” said AAUP President Todd Wolfson. “Unethical surveillance policies have no place in higher education.”
It’s worth noting that North Carolina is home to the fastest-growing AAUP state conference in the nation. Just like members of AAUP here in South Carolina, North Carolina AAUP members are automatically affiliated nationally with the 1.8 million member American Federation of Teachers, a member of AFL-CIO.
I urge you to continue to engage with AAUP, both regionally as well as nationally. If you are a member of AAUP National, please join by going here. Please remember to reach out should you have questions or concerns that fall under the broad banners of shared governance and academic freedom. Additionally, reach out to your new colleagues and urge them to get in touch with AAUP/AFT-CCU by going to our website.
In Solidarity – Joseph Fitsanakis, PhD, President AAUP/AFT-CCU
AAUP-CCU 