-- Alabama State University's new president told this week she did not have a lawyer when she signed an employment contract that bars her from living with an unmarried romantic partner.
But she also said she does not mind the provision.
"I do live alone, so it was not problematic for me," she told Inside Higher Ed.
As , Boyd -- an ASU alum and 33-year veteran of Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory -- will take charge of ASU next month.
Her employment contract, obtained this week by AL.com, requires her to live in the president's home on campus during her tenure. It also bars her from cohabiting that university-owned residence with any romantic partner who is not her husband.
It does allow members of her immediate family to reside in the home with her though.
Boyd is the first female president of the historically black university.
Despite Boyd's willingness to live with the provision, Raymond Cotton, a Washington attorney with expertise in presidential contracts, .
The U.S. Supreme Court has issued multiple rulings that prevent governments from interfering in people's personal lives in such a manner, Cotton said.
"I don t know of any state that has the right to invade someone s residence even if the state owns that residence," Cotton told Inside Higher Ed.
"To convey that residence and dictate what kind of romantic relationship you can have in that facility I mean, she s not in prison."
Boyd takes charge of the university in the midst of an ongoing forensic audit ordered by the governor's office to investigate charges of financial wrongdoing made by the school's previous president.