Conservative Group Files Lawsuit Against UNC-Chapel Hill Over Course Material Access

Defending Education, a national conservative education advocacy group, has filed a lawsuit against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The organization alleges that the university failed to comply with the North Carolina Public Records Act by not providing specific instructional materials for 29 courses offered during the fall 2026 semester.

The lawsuit was submitted this week to the Orange County Superior Court. In its complaint, the group claims that UNC-Chapel Hill did not properly respond to two separate public records requests made in October. These requests sought documents and materials used in a variety of academic disciplines, including African American studies, history, political science, sociology, and women’s and gender studies.

Among the courses listed in the legal filing are titles such as “Defining Blackness,” “Black Feminism,” “Feminism and Political Theory,” “Critical Food Studies,” and “Slavery and the University.” The complaint does not specify why these particular 29 courses were chosen for review, though the group has been contacted for an explanation regarding their selection criteria.

The legal dispute centers on two specific requests. The first, filed on October 16, asked for materials from 19 courses. A second request, submitted on October 23, sought documents for an additional 10 courses. According to the lawsuit, the university closed both requests without providing the full set of requested documents. Instead, officials directed the group to Simple Syllabus, an online platform where faculty members typically post course outlines.

Defending Education argues that the Simple Syllabus platform is insufficient because it does not contain all the instructional content used in the classes. The original requests also included demands for reading assignments, detailed course plans, materials shared via email, and documents posted on Canvas, which is the university’s primary learning management system. The complaint notes that while university policy requires faculty to use Simple Syllabus, it limits the scope of information that must be included there, such as only requiring the listing of purchased materials while allowing other resources to be distributed through different channels.

Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and senior legal fellow at Defending Education, stated that the university’s actions prevent taxpayers from understanding the content being taught at public institutions. She criticized the university’s handling of the records production in a statement, describing it as a “sleight-of-hand” that allowed the school to shirk its statutory obligations under state law. Perry emphasized that taxpayers have a right to know what their funding supports at North Carolina’s higher education institutions.

Defending Education was founded in 2021 and describes its mission as promoting transparency, free speech, and parental rights in both K-12 and higher education settings. The organization asserts that the university failed to conduct a reasonable search for the requested records, including those maintained by individual instructors or stored on university digital systems.

As of this week, UNC-Chapel Hill had not issued an immediate response to media inquiries regarding the lawsuit. This legal action marks a new development in a broader trend of conservative groups scrutinizing university curricula in the state and across the country. Last year, The Oversight Project, a group affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, requested materials from 74 UNC-Chapel Hill classes focused on diversity, race, and gender. The university denied that earlier request, citing faculty intellectual property rights.

The current case highlights ongoing tensions between public universities and advocacy groups regarding the accessibility of academic materials to the public. The outcome of the Orange County Superior Court case may set a precedent for how state institutions handle future requests for detailed course content and instructional documents.