UNC professor's contract not renewed after University recorded classes without notice

Larry Chavis' contract at UNC was not renewed after his classes were recorded and reviewed without his knowledge during the University’s 2024 spring semester. The clinical professor of strategy and entrepreneurship has worked at the Kenan-Flagler Business School for 18 years.

When Chavis received an email about his classes being recorded without his knowledge due to “concerning class content” about two months ago, he took to LinkedIn.

In his post, containing an image of the April 22 letter, Chavis wrote that he was shaken for the first time in his career and that students knew that he had a unique teaching approach.

“I always try to speak the truth even if those truths are uncomfortable,” Chavis wrote. “Lessons grow out of those uncomfortable truths. I pray I’ll still have a job at the end of this process.”

The recordings

The letter, signed by Christian Lundblad — the Richard "Dick" Levin distinguished professor of finance and the senior associate dean for faculty and research — said that the Office of Business Program recorded and reviewed Chavis’ classes sessions on four dates in April using the Panopto camera in the room, which can be used by professors to record lectures to allow students to view them on a later date.

Lundblad wrote in the letter that notifying professors is not required to record classes and that the office does record classes without notice in response to concerns raised by students.

When The DTH reached out to Lundblad for comment, UNC Media Relations Manager Beth Lutz responded in an email that no one at the University was available to be interviewed about the situation on two separate occasions.

Under the Panopto terms of use section on Kenan-Flagler’s IT policies website, “individual classes are only recorded with the expressed permission of Faculty and they opt-in by approving the request form.”

North Carolina is one of 37 states, and the District of Columbia, that has “one party consent” recording laws, meaning that only one party, which can be the person recording, needs to consent to recording a situation.

Lutz wrote in an email to The DTH that Provost Chris Clemens “expressed support for developing a filming policy” in a Faculty Executive Council Meeting on May 20.

When asked about N.C. laws in relation to recording rules, Lutz wrote that UNC does not have a formal filming policy, but follows applicable laws, writing that the Kenan-Flagler IT policies were created to provide guidelines about recording classes for student distribution.

Along with writing that the University can only share the public human resources information for an employee, Lutz confirmed that Chavis' contract ended June 30, 2024 and was not renewed.

Chavis confirmed with The DTH that his contract would not be renewed. He wrote that there was no reason given.

“There was no mention of the recordings or that whole process,” Chavis wrote. “So I actually do not know why I was let go.”

Background and response

Soon after his original post about the situation, Chavis posted a document on LinkedIn containing his emails with Kenan-Flagler Dean Mary Margaret Frank. Chavis wrote in the post that he thought the administration’s concerns likely stemmed from him using an email exchange between him and Frank as a class example of how not to build an inclusive environment in an organization.

Chavis had sent Frank an email in February after an in-person meeting, saying that he didn’t feel he was able to convey how tenuous his position had become.

“In addition to my compensation being below new assistant professors and now some teaching professors, my contract was recently reduced to one year,” Chavis wrote. “That makes one nervous when budgets are an issue.”

Based on information from the UNC Salary Database, which is updated on a quarterly basis, Kenan-Flagler employs 27 assistant professors who each earn an average of $229,784 each year. Of the assistant professors, 17 were compensated at a higher annual rate than Chavis, ranging from about 1 year to around 9 years of employment at UNC’s business school.

In a LinkedIn post approximately three months ago, Chavis wrote about his salary, saying that he was compensated over 50 percent less compared to the average, including summer bonuses, of the 50 highest-paid professors at the business school.

“Things there were solid for a long time, but my research was a little different, and eventually, I told the truth a little too often and too publicly,” Chavis wrote. “Then I woke up to realize that whoever sets my salary thinks I'm half as valuable as my peers.”

Chavis wrote about his education, credentials and teaching awards, saying that pay should be based on how individuals impact an organization.

“Our school leaders estimate that I have 47.78% of the impact of a highly-paid professor,” Chavis wrote. “I call BS.”

Evaluations

Chavis’ May 2024 teaching evaluation by the business school said that the Office of the Undergraduate Business Program received reports from students in the class Business 611: International Development about class content, conduct, safety concerns and fear of retaliation. The evaluation was not signed by anyone.

The report wrote that Chavis taught a revised syllabus of his 2018 course — changing the course's nature from one on international development to one on Indigenous Issues — without authorized University approval. It wrote that Chavis asked about changing the course and when a request for a new syllabus was initiated, he did not respond for review and approval.

In his May 20 email response to the evaluation, Chavis said that adding a focus to the course to include Indigenous issues was approved in the summer of 2019, attaching an email exchange detailing the process. Chavis also attached emails where he sent a copy of the syllabus in preparation for the 2021 spring course. 

The Kenan-Flagler evaluation then wrote that there were private student complaints saying that content in the course was being replaced with how Chavis had been "wronged" by the business school. 

Toward the end of the semester, the 42 students in Chavis' Business 611 class were asked to fill out the Spring 2024 course evaluation. He later posted his May 20 email response along with the Spring 2024 course evaluation with his students' statements regarding the class on his LinkedIn page. 

One student wrote in their evaluation that they thought the course content should be redone and felt that it did not contribute to their business school learning, saying that they felt uncomfortable in the class because of Chavis’ opinions on race and inequality. They said that the issues between Chavis, other professors and administrators needed to be resolved so that Chavis could continue to teach.

"I learned a lot about minority populations across the globe but never got to learn any other aspect of international development. I enrolled in this course because I am interested in pursuing a career in international business, but this class did not live up to my expectations at all. I think if Professor Chavis continues to teach this course it should be renamed at Kenan Flagler or he should not teach it through the business school," the student wrote.

The student course evaluations, with an overall response rate of 23 out of 42 students, included statistics that 86.95 percent of students agreed or strongly agreed that the course “covered material that is relevant to the business world,” with two students, equivalent to 8.70 percent, neither agreeing or disagreeing, and one student, or 4.35 percent, strongly disagreeing.

In response to if the “instructor created a learning environment that made students feel included and valued,” 95.66 percent of students who completed the evaluation agreed or strongly agreed, with one student marking that they strongly disagreed.

When asked to respond with strengths of the class in the course evaluation, students spoke about the nature of the class.

“I have never taken a course like 611. It was strange, uncomfortable, and revolutionary,” one student wrote. “This course was a very much needed change of pace from the extremely corporate classes that I have taken in the B-School. Larry's enthusiasm and bizarreness add to the magical atmosphere that is 611.”

Students also wrote about exploring new topics and ideas in the class.

“Professor Chavis made this one of the most informative courses I've ever taken at Carolina,” another student noted on their evaluation. “I was forced to think about social issues from a different, economic, perspective and it truly made me challenge some of the ideologies that I didn't realize were false or harmful. I think every business student should [take] International Development to learn about how we can use our business knowledge to build up other countries without letting harmful stereotypes or predisposed notions get in the way.”

The UNC teaching evaluation also wrote that during class, Chavis said he was going to “burn this b*tch down,” writing that he was speaking about the business school building and that the comment made students feel “physically unsafe.” The evaluation said that students were concerned for potential retribution or retaliation of comments they would make in class.

Chavis said in his email response that he included a 2023 student evaluation comment about him saying “burn this b*tch down,” in his introduction to the class. Chavis added that he “didn’t try to hide that quote from students.”

In a LinkedIn post around one month ago, Chavis said that he thought he started using the phrase after hearing a speech, titled “How Can We Win,” from activist Kimberly Jones, saying that she described how the social contract with African Americans has been repeatedly broken, causing occasional eruptions of violence.

“That said, I don't think anyone believes that Kimberly or I were about to burn anything down,” Chavis wrote.

One student commenter said that they had never met “a more disorganized and racist professor” in their life, saying that Chavis was the worst professor he had ever taken a class with.

“[He] told us about how he was going to take down a sign (which is a crime), and then told us one day that he was going to 'burn this b*tch down' with regard to the business school building. If these course evaluations mean anything at all (and I'm not sure they do), he should be fired immediately. He is extremely unprofessional. This class and this professor are an abject failure,” the student wrote.

Chavis wrote in his response to the evaluation that the student did not mention that the sign was one that read “Sons of Confederate Veterans.” 

“[The student] had an ax to grind. Now, you have taken that student’s misdirection and put it into my official record,” Chavis said.

The Kenan-Flagler evaluation also said that many students did like Chavis’ classes, but that he also regularly received negative student evaluations, including only negative comments in the evaluation.

In his response , Chavis wrote that this was unfair, saying that the business school took some of the worst evaluations and put them in the record.

“Can I ask if you have ever taken the worst comments from someone’s course evaluations and used them in a report?” Chavis wrote, including various positive evaluations he has received in his response.

Chavis’ history

Soon before receiving and posting the letter from Lundblad, around two to three months ago, Chavis posted on LinkedIn about the upcoming UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School alumni weekend.

“I care deeply about this place, its students, its staff, and its faculty," Chavis wrote. "I try to silently accept its shortcomings, but I believe in [the] great potential of this school and this state.”

While he has worked at UNC, Chavis has not shied away from speaking out about the University, describing himself as an “outspoken critic” of Kenan Flagler in a 2022 op-ed he wrote that was published by The DTH regarding choosing a new dean of UNC's business school.

Chavis has been open about his opinions on inclusivity efforts, specifically at UNC, drawing from his own experiences as an Indigenous person, as a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and his experience with ADHD. Chavis also often spoke openly on LinkedIn and in class about his support for the LGBTQ+ community, diversity equity and inclusion services and criticisms he receives from others.

In a LinkedIn post about a year ago, Chavis said that a student reached out to him in an effort to help him be more "distinguished," with Chavis saying that he did not want to be regarded that way.

"I think carefully about what I post and what I wear to class," Chavis wrote. "I’m trying to challenge norms about how leaders should look and act. I also want the most marginalized among us to feel the most comfortable when I’m around."

Around three weeks ago, Chavis posted on LinkedIn that he was sorting through a new reality and had to figure out what was next for him.

"I’ll just say now that life is hard. Harder professionally than it has ever been or that I could have ever imagined. I’ll bounce back, but a few tears will flow first," Chavis wrote.

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