CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCN) – A new lawsuit accuses the UNC Board of Trustees of “systematically hiding matters of grave public concern,” which includes approving the hire of new football coach Bill Belichick in an illegal closed session in December.
Former UNC Provost Chris Clemens filed the suit on Monday, claiming that university leadership forced him to resign from his position after he expressed concerns regarding tenure debates in closed sessions.
Clemens, who stepped down in May earlier this year, argued that trustees displayed a pattern of illegally using the closed-door portions of their regularly scheduled meetings. He referenced these incidents as violations of North Carolina’s open meetings and public records laws.
The lawsuit specifically cites a Board of Trustees meeting in March 2025. According to the complaint, the board entered a closed session to deliberate on the tenure of several faculty members. However, once in closed session, Clemens said the board did not discuss individual cases, but rather debated the value of tenure as a concept before electing to delay voting on all the cases in question.
“The closed session at issue was unlawful because the Board used the personnel exemption to conduct a policy debate on the existential value and global costs of tenure—subjects that must be addressed in open session,” the lawsuit stated.
He also alleged that trustees conducted deliberations “without proper notice or public access” and utilized auto-deleting messaging apps such as Signal “to evade records retention and public inspection.”
The suit also cited several examples related to UNC athletics, highlighting three meetings as a larger pattern of “closed session violations.”
In November 2023, the lawsuit states that the Board entered closed session to debate UNC and its membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference, differentiating the “potential financial outcomes with SEC or Big Ten membership.” The suit states that these discussions are “policy matters that belong in open session.”
The Board then met again in May 2024, utilizing closed session to address conference realignment strategy and athletics department finances, the lawsuit alleges.
“There is no statutory exemption that permits closing discussion of institutional affiliations and budget planning,” the lawsuit stated.
Concerning Belichick’s hiring, the Board called an emergency meeting with “minimal notice” to approve his 5-year, $50 million contract, according to the complaint. The lawsuit argues that Belichick’s “compensation package and entire hiring was already public,” so there was not a proper subject for a closed session.
Meanwhile, the complaint states that unlike the tenure discussions, the Board did not apply any 30-year financial “net present cost” analysis to Belichick’s deal. It also states that while trustees claimed tenure commitments were too expensive and needed to be debated in secret, they approved Belichick’s deal quickly and without the same scrutiny — even though it carried similarly massive financial implications.
CBS 17 reached out to UNC officials regarding the lawsuit, and a university spokesperson responded with the following statement:
“We’re aware of the litigation and are reviewing it closely. As this is an active legal matter, the University will not provide comment while the case is pending.”
The entire complaint can be read below: