Members of the board of trustees were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements (NDA) ahead of their upcoming meeting, according to an anonymous faculty member who received confirmation from a trustee and another faculty member.

Signing NDAs is an annual requirement for trustees, Merrie Snead, associate director of communications, said in a comment. Snead would not give the date of the upcoming board meeting, saying the university doesn’t share information about board meetings.

An NDA is a legally binding contract that forbids parties from sharing information. NDAs often forbid the involved parties from mentioning the NDAs existence or whether they have signed one. Legal consequences of breaking an NDA are often severe.

“This is so wrong. We’re a university community. We should all be talking,” the faculty member, who was granted anonymity due to fear of retaliation by administrators, said.

Student trustee Imre Szijarto, a PhD candidate in sociology at the New School for Social Research, said in an emailed comment to the New School Free Press that he could not share information about board meetings. Szijarto did not confirm or deny if he was asked to sign an NDA.

“In my view, any and all attempts to limit the transparency of the restructuring process go against the spirit of shared governance and are incompatible with the values this institution has historically stood for,” Szijarto said.

The discovery comes as the university’s controversial restructuring plan gains significant media attention, including by the New School Free Press, which regularly tracks and breaks developments, including stories involving trustees.

Faculty, staff, and students say TNS administrators have not been transparent throughout the plan, which is meant to stabilize the university’s escalating financial crisis — an operating deficit projected by administrators in November to be $48 million. The plan includes cuts to majors, minors, classes, and faculty, administrators, and staff.

Szijarto also shared his general feelings about restructuring.

“It is my personal view that the current ‘restructuring’ is an attack on critical social inquiry,” Szijarto said, “and that it threatens to hollow out everything that makes this university unique and important.”

Linda E. Rappaport, chair of the board of trustees, did not reply to a request for comment. Franci J. Blassberg, vice chair of the board of trustees, did not reply to a request for comment.

The decision to have trustees sign NDAs comes from the board’s governance committee, Snead said. The governance committee consults with Rappaport and University Secretary Susan Sawyer, who also works as the senior vice president of the university, the chief of staff to the university president, and special counsel at the university.

“While a duty of confidentiality is inherent in a trustee’s fiduciary responsibility, it is also best practice for trustees to affirm this obligation in writing annually,” Amy Malsin, former vice president of university communications, said in a comment.