A North Carolina State professor said that the university’s recently announced deal with the National Security Agency “helps to normalize the behavior of the surveillance state” and contradicts the school’s values.

Writing in the News & Observer, Prof. Michael Schwalbe said, “By aiding an agency whose contempt for civil liberties is a matter of public record, N.C. State says, in effect, ‘All that is no big deal. Spying on U.S. citizens is the new normal. Get used to it.’”

N.C. State won a $60 million federal contract to partner with the NSA on a new center dedicated to researching the challenges of collecting, sorting and storing massive amounts of computer data.

“Unlike other institutions in our society that serve private interests in power or profit, public universities should serve the common good, and this can happen only if universities remain bastions of openness, honesty, free speech and truth-seeking. The nefarious practices of agencies such as the NSA and CIA belie these values.”