Letter to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill about its policy permitting secret recording in classrooms

Lee H. Roberts, Chancellor

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

 

James W. Dean, Jr., Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

 

Paul Newton, Vice Chancellor and General Counsel
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

 

Dear Chancellor Roberts, Provost Dean, and General Counsel Newton:

 

We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our deep concern about the recently announced policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) that permits the university to record classes without providing notice to, or obtaining consent from, the instructor. The threat of secret surveillance of the classroom by administrators is likely to suppress the free exchange of ideas, deter engagement with sensitive or difficult topics, and undermine nearly all of the social aspects of learning, including faculty-student and student-student interactions. This policy thus constitutes a dire threat to academic freedom and freedom of speech at UNC-Chapel Hill and harms the university’s intellectual and educational missions. 

 

MESA was founded in 1966 to promote scholarship and teaching on the Middle East and North Africa. The preeminent organization in the field, the Association publishes the prestigious International Journal of Middle East Studies and has nearly 2,800 members worldwide. MESA is committed to ensuring academic freedom and freedom of expression, both within the region and in connection with the study of the region in North America and outside of North America.

 

The UNC-Chapel Hill administration recently published a new Classroom Recordings Policy went into effect on 16 February 2026. The policy specifies the nature and use of classroom recordings; who has the authority to record classes; notice and transparency requirements governing such recordings; and ownership and use of, and access to, such recordings. Most worryingly, it notes that the university may

 

record a class or access existing classroom recordings without the permission or knowledge of the instructor being recorded for the following purposes:

We are gravely concerned that the effect of the Classroom Recordings Policy, if it remains in place, will be to suppress the study of controversial topics at UNC-Chapel Hill. Allowing the administration to surreptitiously record what goes on in the classroom will almost certainly have a chilling effect on what instructors at your institution teach, how they teach it, and how they interact with their students. The threat of potential surveillance will also very likely harm student engagement. As Middle East studies scholars representing a range of disciplines, we are particularly attuned to the manifold pressures to restrict, repress, and sanction speech related to, for example, Israel and Palestine, US policy in the Middle East, and other topics that regularly merit treatment in our classrooms. Academic freedom in the classroom means that instructors may take a range of approaches for addressing such sensitive topics with students. Teaching faculty, due to their subject matter expertise and pedagogical training, are best equipped to read the “temperature” in the room, channel disagreement into productive learning opportunities, push students toward critical, independent thinking, and encourage empathy in interactions that unfold over the course of a semester. There are many established avenues in place – i.e. annual reviews, student evaluations, and student complaint channels – for ensuring instructors are responsibly and effectively carrying out their duties. Introducing the threat of secret surveillance by administrators adds no value to this existing infrastructure, and comes with enormous costs.

 

It seems that your administration is well aware of the potential reputational harm this policy creates for UNC-Chapel Hill, as it has insisted (for example, in a message from the Chair of the Faculty dated 13 February 2026) that professors will only be recorded secretly in “extraordinary circumstances” or on “exceedingly rare” occasions. However, the fact that this policy was drafted after a faculty member had already been secretly recorded – resulting in his non-reappointment – does not inspire confidence regarding how the administration will implement this policy. 

 

While this policy does require the university to “publish an annual report documenting: The number of requests made to record or access classroom recordings without notice; The number of requests approved; and The number of recordings actually made or accessed under this provision,” and to make this report available to “the Faculty Council and other relevant governance bodies,” this requirement provides neither adequate “accountability and oversight” nor proper mechanisms for faculty and/or students to contest perceived abuses of the policy.

 

We therefore call on UNC-Chapel Hill to uphold the founding principles embodied in its motto lux, libertas – “light and liberty” – in the venue that is most central to its mission, the classroom, by immediately rescinding its policy permitting secret recording, which severely compromises the academic freedom and freedom of speech of your faculty and students. 

 

We look forward to your response.

 

Sincerely,

 

Ussama Makdisi

MESA President

Professor, University of California, Berkeley 

 

Judith E. Tucker
Chair, Committee on Academic Freedom
Professor Emerita, Georgetown University

 

cc:

 

Farida Shaheed

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education