Students rally against Trump’s pipeline orders outside South Building

Alarmed by President Donald Trump’s executive orders to support construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline, student environmental leaders organized a call-out on the steps of South Building Thursday.

One leader, senior Morgan Zemaitis, acknowledged that protests against both pipelines have been building for a while.

“It’s not just about energy and people’s jobs — it’s about people’s lives and water and air,” she said.

Zemaitis said students were encouraged to call their local representatives as well as companies that are involved with the construction of the pipelines.

“Basically, it’s a whole bunch of students who want to respond,” she said. “A lot of us weren’t previously involved in this kind of stuff, but now we have to act.”

Sophomore Emma Hennen, who is on the environmental affairs committee of student government, said she believes the time is right for students to speak up.

“We think that student activism and the desire to do something is really high right now, and we want to do something with that,” Hennen said.

“We’ve always had these long-standing concerns and a desire to do something about them, but now the student body might too.”

Hennen said she and her fellow students were protesting the rerouting of the Dakota Access Pipeline because they believe that simply moving it will not resolve the issue it poses.

“We think it’s an infringement on the rights of the people within those states, especially the Native Americans in those states, and we think that it will have extremely negative impacts on the environment,” she said.

Junior Samuel Silverstein said he felt moved to attend after studying Native American history. He said he doesn’t know very much about politics or the effectiveness of activism, but he hopes his speaking out can help.

“I’m in a class on Native American history and we’ve been discussing the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline,” he said.

“In the context of Native American history, I realized that it’s part of a history of human rights violations that are based on race and ethnicity. I decided to take responsibility as an American citizen and use whatever small amount of influence I have to try and stop the construction.”

Zemaitis and her fellow organizers said more people came to the call-out than expected.

“I think this speaks to the volume of what’s needed in terms of activism in our community and all the issues that are still to come for the environment and the nation,” she said.

university@dailytarheel.com