CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The UNC Board of Trustees is accused of “systematically hiding matters of grave public concern,” in a new lawsuit. The lawsuit includes the hiring of football coach Bill Belichick in an illegal closed session last December.

The lawsuit is headed by former UNC Provost Chris Clemens. He claimed he was forced to resign from his position after expressing concern about tenure debates in closed sessions.

He said trustees had a pattern of illegally using closed-door portions of their meetings and that it goes against North Carolina’s open meetings and public records law.

The lawsuit cites a meeting from March 2025 where the board entered a closed session to deliberate the tenure of several faculty members. Once in the closed session, Clemens alleged that the board debated t

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