A chemistry professor at Southeastern Louisiana University was recently removed from her position after reporting on unhealthy levels of pollution in Lake Maurepas, located 50 miles west of Tulane University’s campus. Her removal from the project is revealing of a bigger issue in Louisiana higher education: the influence of the oil industry. 

Fereshteh Emami and her team discovered “alarming” levels of heavy metals, microplastics and other chemicals in Lake Maurepas, which is slated to be the site for Air Products’ upcoming carbon dioxide injection project, a move that may drive more toxic metals into the lake. 

Shortly after the team shared their findings publicly, Emami was sidelined from the project with little explanation. Plans to film a university-sponsored documentary on her findings were cancelled, and she received an email that told her to obtain approval from Southeastern’s communication department before speaking to the media going forward.

The removal is only one example in the overwhelming body of evidence that proves the Louisiana petrochemical industry’s clamp on state politics, and now, academia. 

A similar incident occurred at Tulane’s Environmental Law Clinic a month before Emami’s findings were publicized: Kimberley Terrell, research scientist and former director of community engagement, resigned from the university’s law clinic, citing a breach of academic freedom. 

Terrell had been investigating national employment equity, accompanied by a case study in Louisiana. Her research uncovered an overrepresentation of people of color in lower-paying jobs and an underrepresentation in higher-paying jobs. Terrell found that the petrochemical industry offered a disproportionately low number of jobs to Louisiana residents in impacted communities, and instead sourced labor from regions farther away from the plants.

After the April 2025 publication of Terrell’s research, clinic staff received an email stating that “elected officials and major donors have cited the clinic as an impediment to them lending their support to the university generally and this project specifically.” The email also included what Terrell called a “complete gag order.” 

In essence, officials and donors were threatening to pull their support for Tulane’s projects if the Environmental Law Clinic kept publishing unflattering findings. This research is necessary in defending impacted communities against the petrochemical industry. 

Following Terrell’s resignation, Emami’s removal underscores the fragility of academic freedom when it challenges Louisiana’s oil industry.

Academic freedom is “the freedom of teachers and students to teach, study, and pursue knowledge and research without unreasonable interference or restriction from law, institutional regulations, or public pressure.” 

Based on this definition, the publication of Terrell and Emami’s findings is directly protected under the principles of academic freedom. As academic institutions, both Southeastern Louisiana and Tulane have a responsibility to protect the integrity of academia, uphold objective research findings and give their researchers the freedom to investigate topics of intellectual concern. 

As a university, Tulane has accepted money from the oil industry and through coalition grants with major petroleum companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil and BP. As climate change solidifies its spot at the top of the world’s priorities, Tulane should continue efforts to divest from the oil industry and source research funding from alternative, ethical sources.