Rising Tensions with Yale Justice Endowment Coalition reach a boiling point and Yale Responds
After years of fighting with the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition over divestment away from fossil fuels, Yale is fed up with the one-sided debate on climate issues. Starting Spring 2023, a new certificate will be offered to Yale undergraduate students called “Petroleum Studies.”
The certificate aims to diversify current discussion by providing students with the skills to encourage strategic emissions creation and create a fast-track pipeline into Yale’s current drilling and fracking subsidiary companies.
The certificate will consist of six total interdisciplinary courses, four of which are required: 1) Effective Fracking Techniques 2) Questioning Climate Change Activism 3) A Close Reading of Emission Restriction Laws and 4) Introduction to the Modern Middle East.
To satisfy the two remaining elective requirements, Yale students may choose from a vast selection of existing courses, including EPS 274 Fossil Fuels and World Energy, GLBL 342 Studies in Grand Strategy I, and ECON 361 Corporate Finance. Students majoring in Environmental Studies or Art History are ineligible to pursue a Petroleum Studies Certificate.
The search for a Director of Undergraduate studies is still ongoing with prospective candidates including Ben Van Beurden (Yale ‘78, Former Shell CEO), Jason Marshall (Yale ‘67, Head of Fracking at Chevron), and Billy McNulty (coal miner from Eastern Wyoming).
When asked about the new major, an anonymous student in Berkeley college stated, “It’s about damn time! Oil makes the world go round. Before, I was going to be a Global Affairs major with an Energy Studies Certificate, but this is much more my style.”
The second student we consulted was not as excited, “Are you guys joking? NO! I am not ok with that at all. Drilling and fracking is exactly the opposite of what the world needs right now. We need to put an end to oil!” When asked if they drive a car at home, they enthusiastically answered “Of course!” and that they love going on long road trips with their friends.
The new controversial Petroleum Studies Certificate offering comes in the wake of the Yale administration’s rejection of a previous proposal for a similar certificate titled “Effectively Invading Oil Producing Countries for their Natural Resources to satisfy American Consumption Studies,” which Yale administrators agreed was too insensitive to certain demographics of the undergraduate student body.
There will be an information session for interested students in Woolsey Auditorium on Friday October 29th at 5:00 PM for interested students. As of now, 473 students are pre-registered.
