Victory at Purdue: NDAs Dropped

Big news: Purdue Global announced yesterday that it will immediately stop requiring faculty members to sign nondisclosure agreements. It also rescinded any previously signed agreements.

This is a huge victory. It removes a threat to the academic freedom of those currently employed by Purdue Global, and may serve as a bulwark against the use of these agreements by other academic institutions.

Purdue Global’s announcement comes in response to a public outcry that followed upon the work by the Indiana Conference of the AAUP and the national AAUP to expose its use of NDAs; thousands of AAUP members and supporters signed our petition demanding the end of the practice. The victory demonstrates that when faculty join together they have a powerful voice to protect academic freedom, shared governance, and higher education for the common good.

Purdue Global has not yet announced an end to another shameful practice, the use of forced arbitration agreements for students. Tell Purdue the forced arbitration must stop.

Add your name now and keep the pressure on.

Today is a step in the right direction, and we hope that Purdue Global will continue to make more positive changes in response to the concerns that we and others have raised as it transitions from a for-profit institution to one that benefits the public.

The AAUP
P.S. You can read coverage of the story in Inside Higher Ed here.