COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State University is requiring its roughly 150 alumni clubs and societies to keep mum when it comes to disparaging comments about the school, or risk losing money and other perks it provides them.

The move comes two years after the school fired its marching band director because of an internal investigation that found a “sexualized culture” in the band, prompting one of its most visible alumni groups to speak out publicly against the university and offer the fired employee legal help.

The university says the band controversy isn’t connected to the alumni group changes, which it says are stemming from a process that began months before Jonathan Waters’ firing in 2014. All but a handful of clubs have signed on, Andy Gurd, the university’s chief operating officer, said in an interview.

“Of course, individual members have every right to speak their minds as private citizens,” Gurd said. “But when representing the university as officers of officially sanctioned organizations, they are serving as ambassadors for Ohio State, and the charter simply requires that they do so in alignment with Ohio State values and priorities.”

Such disparagement clauses are standard in trademark agreements, and they can require users of logos and other perks to give up some free speech protections, experts said.

Still, Gary Leppla, a band alumnus and attorney for the TBDBITL Alumni Club — representing alumni of what fans know as The Best Damn Band in the Land — said he was “shocked and disappointed” when the club’s board of governors agreed last week to bring the proposal to its full membership.

“We might not be allowed to march, we might not be allowed to carry on, we might be disassociated with the university unless we take this loyalty oath,” Leppla said.

The group, whose members provide hundreds of public concerts each year, existed even before the university alumni association. It is independently incorporated, has its own logo and owns the “TBDBITL” trademark.