In this Martin Center policy brief, "Scholastic Gag Orders: NDAs, Mandatory Arbitration, and the Legal Threat to Academics," Stephen Baskerville explores how non-disparagement agreements (NDAs) and mandatory arbitration (MA) provide a veil of legally enforced secrecy, shielding administrations from negative publicity, professional…

This report concerns actions taken by the administration of Spalding University to terminate the appointment of tenured professor of social work Erlene Grise-Owens after she criticized the administration's handling of an incident involving a student who brought a gun to a campus parking lot. The social work school's chair immediately alerted…

This report concerns actions taken by the administration of University of Nebraska-Lincoln to suspend lecturer, Courtney Lawton from her teaching responsibilities--initially, for stated safety concerns. Lawton is a sixth-year doctoral student with a part-time appointment as lecturer for the 2017-18 academic year. She received threats after a video…

St. Edward's University is a private, four-year institution affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church that traces its beginnings to 1877, when the Congregation of Holy Cross, an order of French missionaries, founded St. Edward's Academy on farmland south of Austin, Texas. St. Edward's received its charter as a college in 1885 and as a university…

This report concerns actions taken by the administration of the Community College of Aurora, during the fourth week of the fall 2016 semester, to terminate the appointment of part-time instructor of philosophy, Nathanial Bork, without affordance of academic due process. Mr. Bork was dismissed after conveying his intention to send to the college's…

After being involuntarily transferred from a suburban middle school near his home to an urban school facing many challenges, this case describes a series of events that led to a veteran teacher's termination. Upon claiming he was wrongfully terminated, the case narrative ends just prior to the teacher's hearing before the board of education, where…