Georgia professors fear harassment as agency moves to make syllabuses public

The motion approved by the USG Board of Regents in May states that the public syllabus must include the course’s required readings, “key learning objectives” and a course description. The policy is being partially implemented this semester, starting with core courses and all courses offered by colleges of education. By next fall, every class offered by USG schools — which totals more than 160,000 — must have its syllabus online.

At a Board of Regents meeting Tuesday, USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue said the intention is to increase honesty, truthfulness and transparency. He emphasized that university presidents will be held accountable to make sure that each course syllabus posted online accurately reflects what is being taught in the course. “I think they heard me clearly, because I didn’t mumble,” said Perdue.

Credit: Jason Armesto

Credit: Jason Armesto

University of North Georgia professor Matthew Boedy appreciates the push for more transparency. “I think that letting students know beforehand what it is they’re signing up for is very helpful,” said Boedy, president of the Georgia chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

His concern is bad-faith actors who may do keyword searches, seeking out controversial terms or authors and then harassing professors for teaching them. “I think this is a massive treasure trove for people that are wanting to attack higher education,” he said.

Credit: Contributed

Credit: Contributed

Greenberg suggested that the course syllabus be made available strictly to parents and students. Otherwise, he said, “I can see professors perhaps self-censoring, perhaps not putting on their syllabi the kind of information that would trigger outrage mobs or would trigger calls for termination.”

Professor Tim Cain, who researches academic freedom at the University of Georgia, said several of his colleagues routinely receive death threats from people who disagree with their academic work. By posting syllabuses online without full context, “We’re creating the conditions that make that more possible,” he said.

Threats and smear campaigns can dissuade professors from teaching some material. “If I’m deciding to put on my syllabus certain things that have the potential to cause people to attack me for no good reason, I don’t want to put my family through that, so I’m not going to assign X reading,” said Cain.

The Georgia policy comes as the Trump administration has been aggressive in pushing colleges and schools to remove courses and classroom content that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. And it follows the adoption of similar measures in other Republican-controlled states, including Florida, Indiana, Texas and Utah.

Georgia’s version will also require that schools publish components of faculty credentials and professional accomplishments. The USG is expected to issue guidance to schools “regarding the minimum expectations” for those components, according to Tuesday’s agenda.

The mandates come years after a separate mandate raised alarm bells for Georgia faculty. In 2021, the USG revised its post-tenure review process, saying the update would help better measure student success. But critics said the changes would make it easier to fire professors. The national AAUP released a report that determined the USG had “effectively abolished tenure in Georgia’s public colleges and universities.” Months later, the organization censured the USG. The Georgia system said it was disappointed the AAUP “chose to ignore USG’s long-standing commitment to academic freedom and due process.”

Part of a college education, said Cain, is that students improve their critical thinking skills by wrestling with ideas they may not ultimately agree with. “If we’re being told we can’t assign anything controversial, for example, then we can’t educate students,” he said.