All Science Technology Engineering and Math fields have increased significantly in diversity with women and people of color graduating with advanced degrees across STEM majors. The notable anomaly is geoscience. Dead last in diversity for over 40 years, with moderate enrollment, it is not an exciting popular major like medicine, engineering and tech. If Geoscience isn’t attracting students who pursue high reward STEM careers, why not? The money points to Big Oil’s influence in academic curriculum. In 2024, the think tank Data for Progress revealed 27 public universities accepted $677 million over a decade from six fossil fuel giants in exchange for influence over academic curriculum and research. Because the think tank was using the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to financial records, they cannot look at private universities who are not required to disclose. This means the top universities—Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, MIT, and others—are not reporting financial gifts from big oil. The actual figure likely surpasses $100 million annually in the US alone from oil companies directly to academic departments. This combination of a long money trail met by slow innovation is reflected in the low diversity. Why would $100 million from big oil at the collegiate level lead to slower innovation at the professional level? Since the fossil fuel industry can influence academic curriculum and research, they can stall innovation by directing resources to research that only supports the status quo. So, diverse students take geoscience, but move onto other majors. Students report being encouraged to find new majors when they question some of the fundamental laws that seem ripe for innovation. No other STEM discourages innovation in their students.