When I was in college, I thought it extremely counter-intuitive (not to mention obnoxious) when credit card companies came to campus to solicit students.

Visa and American Express would come and set up their tables with free pens and lanyards and — if you signed up for a credit card that day — you’d have the chance to win a 4-day cruise with 15 pages of fine print attached to your “vacation.”

Why did my college allow these companies try to distract students en route to the cafeteria?

Was the university completely unaware that most 18-to-22 year olds already have a credit card — and if they don’t, they should probably sign up for one connected with their financial institution?

And not because they were incentivized by free pens or that 4-day cruise?

Was my school blind to the serious problem that had developed in the last several years regarding credit card debt among individuals in our age group?

Imagine my horror when I stumbled upon an article about the latest group to invade campuses across the country…

Big Oil.

BP, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, and Chevron are making grants to universities to underwrite energy research.

Move over, Visa.

Big Oil is setting up shop at universities. And they’re getting more than a table in the student center…

Buzz from a recent report released by the Center for American Progress this week looked at the funding from oil companies in the last ten years at nearly ten top American universities.

One of the report’s researches explained, “Our analysis found that Big Oil and other large energy firms are exercising quite a bit of influence and control over these universities’ operations.”

The report maintains that there is reason to be concerned that this research has been “hijacked or excessively controlled” by the oil companies who funded it.

The report describes much of the ‘energy research’ as “potentially compromised.”

Now, just what does “potentially compromised” mean?

Researchers found that in many cases across at least a dozen universities, the oil companies were the major voice in distinguishing who sat on the boards allocating grant money for research, and were not shy about doing little to avoid conflicts of interest.

Not one of the 10 Big Oil agreements called for regulation of financial conflicts of interest on university research selection committees and governing boards.

Not a single one of the 10 research alliance agreements required impartial, scientific peer review procedures for the evaluation of research proposals or awarding of funding.

In most cases examined by the report, the universities allowed Big Oil to assume control of academic governing bodies. In fact several of the grant contracts required the funding company have full governing control in the research process.

What’s more, once the energy research was conducted and results compiled, the oil companies had control to determine just what information was released, to whom, and in what arena.

Implicit in the contracts between the universities and the oil companies was the award to the funding companies of up-front, exclusive commercial rights to academic findings.

The contracts included weak protections for faculty that would allow them to share research findings with other universities; several of the alliance agreements permitted exceptional delays in publication of results.

The results of the Center for American Progress report were gathered based on grant money allocated to schools in several states:  UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Colorado School of Mines, UC Boulder, Colorado State University, Arizona State University, Iowa State University, Texas A&M, University of Texas at Austin, Rice University in Texas, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

As if Big Oil didn’t have enough of a presence on the Hill…

It seems even the integrity of academic research can be swayed with a fat check.

And I don’t completely blame the universities… Money for research is hard to come by these days. Dollars for energy research in government departments is waning, let alone universities.

But I find it daunting that Big Oil is willing to go to such lengths to ensure their place in our country’s energy future… and that universities allow such bias material to pass as bona fide research — research that people will read as credible, believing that oil must play a major role in our energy outlook, further stifling funding and research for, and the expansion of, the alternative energy sector.

One of the researchers who authored the report said it best:

“The balance between Big Oil’s commercial interests and the university’s commitment to independent academic research, high-quality science, and academic freedom seems to have tilted in favor of Big Oil.”

What else are we allowing to be tilted in favor of Big Oil?

Similar Posts:

• The eternal question: Credit or debit?
• Credit card delinquencies still near record low levels
• Q&A: When is closing a credit card account a good idea?
• How to progress with credit card debt eliminating
• Credit card holders getting more comfortable with mobile apps
• We know what we owe — except for credit card debt
• California Community College to Produce More Clean Energy than it Uses