Trisha Gupta is from Houston, Texas. She is a rising sophomore at Rice University, where she is triple majoring in Economics, Social Policy Analysis, and Managerial Studies, with a minor in Business. She hopes to pursue nonprofit work or a job with startups or startup accelerators after graduation.

Rice University publicizes its progressive values, yet can't seem to stop compromising them each year when it comes time for the Career Expo. Despite public commitments to transitioning completely to renewable energy by 2050 and becoming carbon-neutral by 2030, the administration continues to take money and endorsements from some of the worst polluters in our nation. Annually, we see companies like Exxon, Chevron, and BP sponsor our Career Expo, one of the singular biggest events on campus. It's greatly disappointing to see the university offer lip service of commitments to environmental goals, without publicized measures of progress that students could use to hold the university accountable to these commitments, and then become complicit in the decidedly non-sustainable actions of large oil and gas companies.

Not only does Rice University take money and sponsorships from these large oil and gas companies, but it also only promotes their environmental divisions when it comes to green jobs. Unfortunately, there are many green-focused startups in Houston that are not seeing the publicity they deserve. They don't have the opportunities to come to Rice's campus and recruit, and thus the connections are never made between Rice students who genuinely are interested in sustainability and companies that are entirely sustainable.

As students, we should work to hold our university accountable to the values that it promotes. It's unfair for a university to claim that it is committed to sustainability, yet partner with companies that don't act sustainably and promote their 'green divisions' at the expense of other genuinely 'green' companies.