Confidential Information/Trade Secrets

All records, i.e., curricula, syllabi, intellectual properties, and files of the University are the property of the University and considered confidential. Confidential information includes, but is not limited to, trade secrets; financial data; sales and/or marketing information; customer names and addresses and their buying habits and special needs; customers’ and their employees’ personal and financial data; data regarding potential customers and patrons; pricing and/or hourly rates; bidding and cost information; confidential personnel records or information relating to other Employees (excluding information Employees may choose to disclose about themselves); product data; supplier data; business plans; budgets; marketing data; information regarding the skills and compensation of Employees; data concerning methods, forms, and contracts used by the University; non-public information relating to legal affairs of the University; and any documents generated by the University or by any Employee in the course of their employment.

Additionally, the University’s trade secrets and confidential Information do not include any information that: (1) concerns an Employee’s own compensation, benefits, and other terms of employment, (2) is already in the public domain or becomes available to the public through no breach by Employee of this Policy or related Agreement; (3) was lawfully in the Employee’s possession prior to disclosure to the University; (4) is lawfully disclosed to an Employee by a third party without any obligations of confidentiality attaching to such disclosure; or (5) is developed by an Employee entirely on their own time without the University’s equipment, supplies, or facilities and does not relate at the time of conception to the University’s business or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of the University.

Employees are prohibited from copying or disclosing any file or record for purposes unrelated to University business, except as otherwise provided herein. As an Employee of the University, an Employee may not disclose any Confidential or Trade Secret Information of the University to any other person during or following employment with the University, except as otherwise provided herein. Employees may not make use of any Confidential or Trade Secret Information of the University for their personal benefit or for the benefit of any person, University, company, corporation, partnership, or entity other than the University under any circumstance during or after their employment. Employees may not, either during or after the term of their relationship with the University, utilize any Confidential or Trade Secret or any other information concerning the University or its actual or proposed business or operations in any manner or for any purpose which is directly or indirectly competitive with the University and its business or operations. This includes, but is not limited to,
disclosure or publication in any print media, social media, or Internet website.

Employees are hereby notified pursuant to the Defend Trade Secrets Act: (1) An individual shall not be held criminally or civilly liable under any federal or state trade secret law for the disclosure of a trade secret that (A) is made (i) in confidence to a federal, state, or local government official, either directly or indirectly, or to an attorney; and (ii) solely for the purpose of reporting or investigating a suspected violation of law; or (B) is made in a complaint or other document filed in a lawsuit or other proceeding, if such filing is made under seal. (2) An individual who files a lawsuit for retaliation by an employer for reporting a suspected violation of law may disclose the trade secret to the attorney of the individual and use the trade secret information in the court proceeding, if the individual (A) files any document containing the trade secret under seal; and (B) does not disclose the trade secret, except pursuant to court order.

All inquiries by telephone, mail, or other requests for information about current or former Employees or any information about the University’s business should be immediately directed to the President/CEO.