The University of Utah provides higher education in a wide range of fields. However, STEM is the U’s largest commodity, with STEM fields comprising the most popular majors. The U is recognized as a tier-1 research University featuring STEM departments that rank top 3 in the nation and garner over $700 million dollars in annual research funding. 

This STEM-forward approach mirrors local trends. With the rapid tech-world transition from Silicon Valley to Silicon Slopes, Utah’s largest industries have shifted to STEM fields. The U has taken advantage of the tech-industry influx, rapidly expanding programs like mining and engineering.

Many of these industries, which are heavily promoted by the U, raise ethical concerns. STEM students compete over internships in extremely morally questionable fields such as war profiteering.

The U must require adequate ethics courses and offer alternative opportunities for its STEM students, so they have the chance to make the world a better place rather than co-sign its destruction. Students who hope for a career in these fields should heavily consider the impact they want to have on this world. 

War Profiteering

In 2023, the U joined 47G, a group of companies that plan on making Utah what they call, “the nation’s premier ecosystem for aerospace and defense companies.” 47G’s membership is composed of multiple war-profiteering companies, some of which have committed numerous human rights violations.

The Student University Development Opportunity, or SUDO, program offers student employment opportunities with these war-profiteering companies. Among these is Northrop Grumman, a Virginia weapons manufacturer that opened a headquarters in Utah in 2019.

An internal company letter to shareholders urging Northrop Grumman to adopt a human rights policy was published in May 2019. The letter discusses technologies created by Northrop Grumman that have been sent in weapons packages to Israel, making the company complicit in war crimes, including the illegal genocidal blockade of Gaza.

Northrop Grumman technologies are also used in the militarization of our southern border. The defense contractor also has worked with the Department of Homeland Security to create biometric surveillance technology used to track people in public places without their knowledge or consent. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said that this technology, which disproportionately monitors people of color, might “deter people from exercising their First Amendment protected rights to speak, assemble and associate.”

As of 2025, the U has paid at least $300,000 disclosed dollars to 47G, including a $50,000 annual membership fee and the $100,000 cost of co-sponsoring a 2024 summit. 

In 2022, Northrop Grumman provided the U with $90,000 in grants. The U boasted about over a dozen students holding internship positions at the defense contracting company. That same year, Northrop Grumman bombs killed 17 Palestinian civilians in Operation Breaking Dawn.

A university engaging in business with the orchestrators of mass murder is deplorable. Attending an institution that is funded by these investments is the first step in cultivating workplaces where human rights violations are acceptable.

It should not be normalized for universities or students to work with corporations that are renowned for their prominent roles in mass atrocities. Working with war profiteers in any capacity is a career path that should not be respected, let alone promoted.

High Pressures 

I spoke to U STEM students about the pressures they face when it comes to internships. Every student emphasized how critical these positions are to their careers. 

Mechanical engineering student Renner Jones said it’s much harder to get a job after graduation with no internship experience. 

“Pretty much every single company you talk to wants to see two to three years of experience,” Jones said.

The U offers lab jobs for STEM students to build some of this experience. However, the pay for these positions can look like close to nothing compared to how much defense companies offer the same students. Most undergraduate lab positions offer just $12.50 an hour in the form of a stipend. The average Northrop Grumman intern pay is $25.77.

A Stark Lack of Ethics 

Many programs at the U that feed into companies that carry out war crimes and state-sanctioned violence have a severe lack of course requirements that would educate students on the global impact of their career choices. 

Fall of 2024 was the first time that the mechanical engineering program required an ethics credit — Applied Ethics and Professionalism. The engineering students who I spoke with did not find this course useful. 

“We take one class; I don’t think it’s going to change your perspective,” Jones said. “You’re going to need so much more work.” 

Madeline Cook is an electrical engineering major who recently accepted an internship with an affiliation to Northrop Grumman, L3Harris. 

“A lot of people go into it for an interest in the subject matter,” Cook said. “When you’re an engineer, you work on such small pieces that it’s hard to see the big picture.”  

Cook is in the LEAP program, so she takes a broader range of classes, which she feels has been valuable.

“I’m taking a technical writing class right now, and one of the professors mentioned that the further you climb up the corporate ladder, the more you lose soft skills, like collaboration, teamwork and overall compassion,” Cook said. “That resonated with me.” 

The U is doing STEM students a massive injustice by devaluing the humanities. We need more ethical engineers and sustainable scientists to mitigate widespread war and environmental disasters. 

Students have a moral obligation to consider the greater good of humanity before signing up to build weapons that are used to end lives and decimate cities. These career paths are extremely dark, and it’s time for that reality to be confronted rather than justified. 

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@literallylizzyg