The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s board of trustees is again being accused of violating the state’s open meetings laws, including during conversations about the hiring of football coach Bill Belichick. The accusations were made in a new lawsuit by a former provost who says board members conducted public business in closed sessions, electronically without notice and on auto-deleting platforms.
Chris Clemens, the university’s executive vice chancellor and provost until he resigned in May, filed the lawsuit in Orange County on Monday. His attorney, David McKenzie, sued the board for violating open meetings laws last year.
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The board settled that complaint, paying McKenzie $25,000 for legal fees and having the board’s then-chairman, John Preyer, read a statement affirming the board’s commitment to compliance with the law at a public meeting.
The new lawsuit accuses the board of “systematically hiding matters of grave public concern behind closed doors: invoking closed session for reasons not authorized by statute, conducting deliberations electronically without proper notice or public access; and deliberately communicating about public business on autodeleting platforms such as Signal to evade records retention and public inspection.”
Public bodies are permitted to go into closed session for specific reasons under North Carolina law, including to prevent the disclosure of information that is confidential and to consider the qualifications of a candidate.
Clemens alleged that he was subject to a retaliation campaign after briefing deans on a tenure discussion that took place in a closed session in March. He claimed that the closed session discussion veered far from its stated purpose on tenure approvals and into a broader discussion about the value and costs of tenure — “subjects that must be addressed in open session,” the lawsuit says.
Those discussions with the deans were part of his duties, the complaint says.
The complaint alleges that Preyer, after being notified of Clemens comments through Signal, an instant-messaging service that deletes text messages after they are read. The lawsuit claims that Preyer used text messages and the app to build consensus for a vote of no confidence in Clemens. Clemens was asked to resign in late March by “UNC leadership” the lawsuit says.
The board delayed votes on conferring tenure for several meetings before eventually approving tenure recommendations for 33 faculty members. Board members discussed in public sessions some of their objections to the tenure system, including the financial obligations it places on the university.
The lawsuit names UNC and trustees Preyer, William Allen, Richard Allison, Patrick Ballantine, James Blaine, Robert Bryan, Perrin Jones, Vimal Kolappa, Marty Kotis, Jennifer Lloyd, Ralph Meekins, Vinay Patel, Malcolm Turner and Ramsey White.
UNC declined comment on the lawsuit. Board chair Malcolm Turner issued a statement.
"The former Provost’s baseless assault on this volunteer Board and how it conducts its business stands in stark contrast to the widely recognized excellence the University has achieved under this Board’s leadership," Turner wrote in his statement. "His allegations are disappointing and inaccurate, not to mention a waste of taxpayer dollars, for which this former officer of the University shows no regard. His claims will not withstand scrutiny."
In a statement to WRAL, Kotis wrote: "Like Machiavelli in exile, he’s rewriting the story to cast himself as a victim turned savior — a classic move when power is lost. His original hiring stirred controversy, and with a review already underway at the School of Civic Life and Leadership, the timing of this lawsuit looks more like a calculated play than a principled stand.”
Meekins issued a statement to WRAL. "While I am not going to comment on the lawsuit, considering some of the statements recently made by another member of our Board to the press, I will say this: Chris Clemens is a smart, good and decent man. The issues involved in the lawsuit will be resolved by the Courts or worked out by the parties and there is no need to attempt to disparage one another in the process."
Clemens declined to comment. He remains a professor at UNC after resigning from his job as provost, had been a supporter of the School of Civic Life and Leadership — a new effort by UNC’s Republican-led trustees to bring more conservative professors to campus.
But the school has gotten off to a rocky start, and his resignation from the university's top economic post came as that new school continues to be in turmoil, with several professors quitting or being fired. Earlier this month UNC ordered a separate review of that school but outside legal counsel.
The lawsuit asks the court to stop the board from using self-deleting apps, declare that conducting deliberations through text violates open meetings law, and order mandatory training for the board.
Clemens’ own hiring as provost in 2021 also appeared to violate state open records laws, WRAL reported at the time. The secretive process to approve him for the job came amid pressure from professors on campus who viewed it as politically motivated. The head of the faculty at the time wrote an op-ed for The Daily Tar Heel that said the chancellor was “under significant pressure to make a particular choice.
The board, in 2021, made national headlines when it initially denied tenure to journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. The decision was eventually reversed, but Hannah-Jones declined the offer. The school eventually settled with Hannah-Jones, who filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the university, for less than $75,000.
‘Pattern’ of violations alleged
The complaint alleges that the board misused closed sessions at least three previous times since November 2023, all related to discussions about UNC athletics, including a Dec. 12 “emergency meeting” to approve the contract of new football coach Bill Belichick.
The complaint says the “perfunctory return to open session for a rubber-stamp vote demonstrates that substantive deliberations occurred in secret.”
It says that a November 2023 closed session included a discussion about UNC’s status in the Atlantic Coast Conference and a comparison with financial outcomes of moving to the Southeastern Conference or the Big Ten. And it highlights a May 2024 closed session meeting about conference realignment. Those discussions, the complaint alleges, belong in open session.
“There is no statutory exemption that permits closing discussion of institutional affiliations and budget planning,” the complaint said.
UNC System President Peter Hans in January stripped some authority from the UNC Board of Trustees after the messy hire of Belichick. In a letter to the Preyer, Hans wrote: “instances continue to occur where members of the board appear to act independently of their campus’s administration in matters squarely within the responsibility of the chancellor.”
Preyer has been credited with playing a significant role in the hiring of Belichick, who signed a five-year, $50-million contract with UNC.
“I also don’t think that we would have hired our new football coach without your efforts, and I want to applaud you for your vision and your pushing us to think outside the box and pursue excellence on the gridiron,” trustee Jim Blaine said in July at Preyer’s last meeting as chair. “And we all hope that pays off.”
A senior official at UNC told WRAL during the hiring process that it had been prolonged by actions of some of the members of the Board of Trustees.