Dear Colleagues,
As App State’s General Counsel and Vice Chancellor of Institutional Integrity, one of my goals is to ensure you have information necessary to remain compliant with current laws and policies that affect university employees.
In light of recent reports of videos of employees at UNC constituent institutions discussing their university’s compliance with UNC System Policy 300.8.5: Equality within the University of North Carolina, I wanted to address App State’s ongoing compliance with this policy.
App State holds a strong commitment to student success, freedom of expression, academic freedom, nondiscrimination, dignity, and inclusion — standards outlined in the policy. We are committed to ensuring all individuals — regardless of background, belief, viewpoint, ability, or culture — are invited, included, and treated equally. You can find additional information about the policy and our compliance efforts on this website.
Should you have questions or receive inquiries from individuals you don’t recognize asking for commentary or advice about the policy, or if you would like to meet with someone from my office to further discuss App State’s compliance efforts, please contact me at ogc@appstate.edu.
In closing, I wanted to share some practical guidance:
- Faculty and staff are not authorized as university spokespersons and should not make public comments or take official, public positions about university policies or operations.
- Be thoughtful when speaking in public and private settings, whether on campus or off, to ensure your personal views are not conveyed in a manner that could be construed as official university positions or are assessed as university efforts to circumvent law or policy. It is important to speak with discretion, intention, and precision.
- Remember that North Carolina’s Public Records Act makes university-related communications, including emails and text messages, accessible to the public. Additional information about public records is available on the legal topics section of the Office of General Counsel website.
- If your personal social media account indicates your affiliation with the university, it is recommended that you also include a statement to the effect of “opinions expressed here are my own,” so it is clear you are not representing an official university position.
- While to date, only a small number of undercover videos have surfaced and none have covered any interviews or activity at App State, we recognize the potential for additional activity. Please forward media inquiries to University Communications at ucomm@appstate.edu.
I look forward to meeting you at upcoming events. In the meantime, I hope you will consider the entire General Counsel and Institutional Integrity team a resource to you.
Kristen S. Bonatz
General Counsel and Vice Chancellor of Institutional Integrity