Former UNC professor Larry Chavis files legal complaint against UNC-CH and UNC Board of Governors under First Amendment violation

On Thursday, former UNC Kenan-Flagler business school Clinical Professor Larry Chavis filed a complaint to begin a lawsuit against UNC-Chapel Hill and the UNC System Board of Governors for relief and damages around his termination from the University, citing “unlawful and unconstitutional employment practices” in allegations of a First Amendment violation.

In the complaint, Chavis alleges that his termination was retaliatory, with the document discussing his history “challenging UNC’s lack of faculty diversity and its prior discriminatory conduct toward him, including pay disparities between Chavis and faculty members of other races.” Chavis is seeking economic damages, lost benefits and legal costs.

Chavis, who was operating on a one-year contract from 2023-24 was notified of his contract ending in a June 10 letter from Kenan-Flagler Dean Mary Margaret Frank that Chavis shared on his LinkedIn account Monday morning.

"More than anything, I have always wanted to be part of a team. Part of a community,” Chavis wrote in one LinkedIn post Monday morning. “Both the rejection and the financial uncertainty can be overwhelming at times. I feel nauseous even as I type this, and my fingers can barely move. Fortunately, my family, my therapist, my psychiatrist and the support of many of you have helped me keep moving forward.”

According to the complaint, four months previously, Associate Dean for Faculty and Research Christian Lundblad told Chavis that his contract would be renewed, writing that he was told it would be a multiyear contract in the future.

“So how do we get from a promise that your contract is going to be renewed, will be renewed, for two years, to now we're going to terminate your contract,” Chavis’ attorney Artur Davis said.

The document described some of Chavis’ history with UNC Administration, discussing a 2021 Equal Opportunity and Compliance office investigation into his treatment at Kenan-Flagler. It stated that findings recommended expanding recruitment of racial minorities, there were no conclusions about Chavis' specific complaints, detailing racial discrimination in regards to Chavis being denied advancement in the school. 

The complaint also discussed Chavis’ 2022 application for assistant dean in the undergraduate Business Department, writing that Shimul Melwani, the program's associate dean, “admonished Chavis that he was unacceptable because his views were too controversial.”

The document stated that as Chavis gathered more of an outspoken profile, his financial compensation "began to stall.”

Based on information from the UNC Salary Database, UNC’s business school employs 27 assistant professors who each earn an average of $229,784 each year. As stated in the lawsuit and found in the database, of the assistant professors, 17 were compensated at a higher annual rate than Chavis, ranging from around 1 to 9 years of employment at Kenan-Flagler.

When discussing Chavis’ class being recorded without his knowledge last semester, the complaint stated that the recording of his class may “run afoul” of North Carolina’s one-party consent recording law, requiring one party to consent to a recording, which can include the person recording.

Davis said that Chavis did not consent to the recording, saying that the class did not have the authority to consent on behalf of others.

“[Recording a professor without the professor's consent] is a classic act that can deter criticism of discrimination, and that's what this lawsuit alleges, among other things, that the recording of his classroom itself can be an adverse action under the First Amendment and the other statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1981,” Davis said. 

The complaint also included a reference to the BOG’s removal of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy this May, describing Chavis as “one of its most fervent advocates of racial equity.”

Davis said that when organizations take a “conscious step backward” that there can be other consequences.

“We believe that it's hard to escape the conclusion that the decision to terminate Larry Chavis has nothing to do with this backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion,” Davis said. “We believe that Professor Chavis was a casualty of the political climate that right now is very much alive in the state of North Carolina and at the University of North Carolina, a climate that, in effect, says policies that were once broadly accepted are now controversial and now deemed to be unlawful.”

The complaint wrote that Chavis' exercise of free speech “was a substantial factor in his termination,” ending with a request to a trial by jury on all issues.

The Daily Tar Heel is awaiting comment from UNC, the UNC Board of Governors and the University's Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office at the time of publication.

In a separate LinkedIn post on Monday morning, Chavis shared the legal documentation surrounding the complaint.

“Sometimes, in order to move forward, individually and collectively, we have to look backward,” Chavis wrote.

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