General Counsel FAQs and Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the role of the Office of the General Counsel?

What is the role of the Office of the General Counsel (OGC)?

The basic responsibility of the Office of General Counsel is to provide comprehensive legal advice and assistance to UNC Pembroke. The Office of General Counsel provides these services on University matters to the Board of Trustees of UNC Pembroke, the principal administrators of the University, and through them, to the faculty, staff, and student government of UNC Pembroke.

The Office of General Counsel advises the University concerning the legal implications of proposed policies and actions, counsels the University as to compliance with state and federal laws and administrative regulations, drafts or reviews University contracts, and coordinates legal aspects of the University’s real, personal, and intellectual property interests.
Does OGC provide general guidance on legal issues related to the University and higher education?
Does the Office of the General Counsel provide general guidance on legal issues related to the University and higher education?

Yes. OGC can provide general guidance for members of the University community on a number of legal issues, including:
- contracts
- copyright law
- FERPA
- insurance
- interview and search committee guidelines
- planning field trips
- UNCP policies and regulations
- public records and open meetings
- state competition with private business
- classroom policies and practices
Does OGC work with other external agencies?

Does the Office of the General Counsel work with other external agencies?

Yes. OGC represents the University to a variety of external regulatory and law enforcement agencies, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. This function requires responding to inquiries, charges, or complaints registered by or with such organizations, usually through conducting internal investigations, marshaling evidence, and developing and articulating University positions and responses in consultation with appropriate University Administrators. The General Counsel is also the primary liaison between UNC Pembroke and the Office of the North Carolina Attorney General and the Division of Legal Affairs within the UNC Office of the President.
Will OGC represent me on a personal matter?
How long do I need to retain University Records?

The UNC System Office regulates how long UNC Pembroke must retain records. The length of time a certain record must be retained depends on a few factors. To help you determine how long records must be retained before disposition is allowed, use this helpful website with a schedule:

UNC System Office | Records Retention

For more information, please contact the Office of the General Counsel at 910.775.4593 or email us at legal@uncp.edu

Free Speech is a cherished right for Americans. Our First Amendment right encourages open and honest dialogue which is a core feature of Higher Education and integral to the core values of UNCP, namely "the creation, exploration, evaluation, and articulation of ideas." Therefore, it is important to know the best way of using our First Amendment and the legal limitations a campus uses to govern expression. Here is a quick list of what a campus can and can't do:

A Campus can't...	A Campus can...
A campus can’t censor or punish speech merely because a person or group considers it offensive or hateful.	A campus can censor or punish speech that meets the legal criteria for harassment, true threats, or other speech acts unprotected by the First Amendment.
A campus can’t prevent protestors from having a meaningful opportunity to get their views across in an effective way.	A campus can impose time, place, and manner restrictions on protests for the purpose of preventing protestors from disrupting the normal work of the campus, including the educational environment and administrative operations.
A campus can’t impose content-based speech restrictions in dormitories.	A campus can impose content-neutral restrictions in dormitories designed to ensure a supportive living environment for students.
A campus can’t censor or punish some speakers, but not others, for putting up handbills, writing messages in chalk, or engaging in similar acts of expression.	A campus can create general content-neutral regulations governing on-campus expression.
A campus can’t engage in content-based discrimination against faculty, students, or other speakers or writers who seek to express themselves outside the professional educational context.	A campus can engage in content-based evaluation of faculty and students who are operating within the professional educational context, as long as this evaluation is based on professional standards or peer assessments of the quality of scholarship or teaching.
Colleges and universities should not impose requirements that faculty provide “trigger warnings” before presenting or assigning material that might be offensive or upsetting to students.	Faculty members may choose to provide students warnings before presenting material that might be offensive or upsetting to them.
Campuses can’t use the concept of “safe spaces” to censor the expression of ideas considered too offensive for students to hear.	Campuses can create “safe spaces” in educational settings that ensure that individuals feel free to express the widest array of viewpoints, and can support student efforts to self-organize in ways that reflect shared interests and experiences.
A campus can’t prohibit students or faculty from using words that some consider to be examples of “microaggressions.”	A campus can sensitize students and faculty to the impact that certain words may have, as part of an effort to create a respectful work and learning environment.
A campus cannot deny recognition to a student organization or impose sanctions against it for the views or ideas expressed by the organization, its members, or its speakers.	A campus can ensure that all student organizations, as a condition for recognition and receipt of funding, be open to all students, and can impose sanctions on student organizations for conduct if it is not protected by principles of freedom of speech.
Colleges and universities can’t punish speech over the internet on the ground that it is offensive.	Colleges and universities can punish speech over the internet and social media that otherwise is not protected, such as true threats and harassment or speech inconsistent with professional standards.
A campus should not expect university administrators to comment on or condemn every campus speech act that some person considers offensive.	A campus should expect university administrators to speak out against especially egregious speech acts and, most important, encourage the university community to make its own decisions about what speech acts deserve praise or condemnation.

Chemerinsky, Erwin and Howard Gillman. Free Speech on Campus. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017. (Chapter 5, “What Campuses Can and Can’t Do,” pp. 111-152)

How do I conduct a survey?

Surveys are helpful research tools that can be effectively used to collect feedback, opinions, and information from a large population. UNCP uses a surveying tool called Qualtrics to create, distribute, and analyze surveys. Although surveys are useful and UNCP provides tools for faculty, staff, and students to conduct survey research, there can be some drawbacks to surveys and procedural barriers that researchers must consider. It is always good to begin by asking experienced researchers where to begin. Also, UNCP has a guide: Guide for Administrating Surveys at UNCP.
Can I show a film to my class or student organization?

In general, you cannot show films from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime or other individual streaming services to your class or student organization.

Video streaming service licenses generally restrict use of their content only to individuals, households or informal gatherings of friends. In other words, you can watch one of their shows together with a group of friends, but you cannot show it as part of a class or as part of a student organization event.

Our Library has databases for you to search films which UNCP has Public Performance Rights (PPR). If the film you want to show is not available there, then the rights can be purchased through services such as "Swank."

For further reading, here is the law regarding this Public Performance Rights. According to the copyright laws set forth in Title 17 of the U.S. Code:

“Publication” is the distribution of copies or phonorecords of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending. The offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display, constitutes publication. A public performance or display of a work does not of itself constitute publication.

To perform or display a work “publicly” means—

(1) to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered; or

(2) to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or display of the work to a place specified by clause (1) or to the public, by means of any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places and at the same time or at different times.

Showing a film to your friends or family in your home legal and showing a film in a face-to-face class is covered under Fair Use. However, showing a film to a group or organization outside the structure of a class may require public performance rights.

Resources

About OGC's Website

The materials and information on the Office of the General Counsel website are presented for informational and general guidance purposes only and should not be relied upon as direct legal advice. The information on this website will be revised from time to time as appropriate, but references to law or policy may not always be current.

Please contact the Office of the General Counsel for specific legal advice related to the University.

Acknowledgement: Thanks to the UNC Charlotte Office of the General Counsel for allowing us to adapt portions of their website for UNCP's Office of the General Counsel.