To the editor,

The latest edition of Binghamton University Magazine features an article entitled “The Oilman’s Paradox,” which discusses 1978 alumnus and natural gas driller Matt Telfer’s role in funding a faculty position in the geology department over the next three years. While a successful alumnus giving back to his alma mater may seem admirable, a closer look reveals that this is not an act of university pride but rather an attempt by a fracking CEO to “train students to think.”

As many students have come to know, Binghamton University is in the heart of the Marcellus Shale region of New York. Gas companies have fought for three years to start the process of fracking here. Through public outcry about disturbing public health revelations, though, New Yorkers have been successful in preventing fracking. The status of fracking is still in limbo in New York. It is therefore in gas company CEOs’ interest to persuade Binghamton University students to ignore the flammable and toxic tap water, groundwater contamination and huge social and infrastructure costs associated with fracking.

Higher education was built on the principle of academic freedom. This is a principle which I hope our university will uphold. To have a gas company executive fund an academic position at Binghamton University would directly conflict with this ideal. Binghamton is an area of crucial importance for gas companies, and the opinions of students could easily sway the decision to frack one way or the other. A similarly funded “Shale Gas Research Institute” at the University at Buffalo was shut down only several weeks ago due to the “cloud of uncertainty” created over its work, according to the State University Board of Trustees president.

In order for this university to maintain its role as a place of academic freedom and objective thinking, we must resist privately funded teaching positions serving only as a mouthpiece for the natural gas industry and remain a university that has real science and the public interest as its core values.

Sara Alpert
Binghamton University Senior
NYPIRG Intern