‘Scholastic Gag Orders’ Non-disparagement agreements and mandatory arbitration clauses are being increasingly used, most notably by private Christian colleges, as a cudgel to silence controversial professors and force them to leave campus quietly, according to a new policy paper. Retired professor and author Stephen Baskerville writes in a January 2021 policy paper for the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal that such “mechanisms enable institutions to conceal unethical conduct that would bring public condemnation upon them.” “Both conservatives and liberals consider their use unethical because they protect administrators from legal liability and criticism while leaving scholars in legal jeopardy and possibly even at risk of criminal punishments,” the paper argues.