Author: Emmy Hughes

Two University professors—Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Jim Greenwood and Professor of Astronomy and Integrative Sciences Bill Herbst—have received a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) totaling $550,000. The grant will help Herbst and Greenwood fund their research, specifically a joint-program entitled “Experimental simulations of chondrule formation by radiative heating of hot planetesimals.”

As the title indicates, the program focuses on research in chondrule formation. Chondrules are spherical mineral balls of melted igneous rock that are present in meteors, often known as chondrites. According to Herbst, they are also remnants of a time dating back close to the origin of the solar system.

“[Chondrules] are among our oldest fossil records of the solar system,” Herbst wrote in an email to The Argus. “They formed before the Earth and other planets did. They preserve clues to the origins of our planet and solar system. But they have remained mysterious for decades. Our work will hopefully peel back some of the mystery about them and help us understand how they fit into the picture of the origin of the Earth and planets.”

Chondrules are primarily composed of silicate minerals and can be surrounded by crystalline or glassy feldspar. While much is known about their composition, questions remain about their formation, including the original energy source and the precursor materials. In order to form, chondrules require intense heating and then rapid cooling, which is a process difficult to identify in the early solar system. Herbst and Greenwood’s research will focus on identifying the origin of at least some chondrules.

Their theory, called the “flyby model,” proposes a potential origin.

“The flyby model is conceptually very simple,” Herbst explained. “If there are hot planetesimals in the early solar system, bubbling over with lava and volcanoes and erupting stuff, then anything close-by will get heated. If the right kind of pre-meteorite rock [flies] by at the right time it could be just like putting it in an oven and ‘sintering’ it into a solid—something that is done commercially in furnaces on Earth and that we will simulate in a furnace in Exley. The precise products that arise from this process can be used to tell a lot about what heated the rocks, how they were orbiting and what conditions were like in the asteroid belt, where the meteorites formed, billions of years ago.”

The NASA grant will help pay for a post-doctoral fellow who will work with Herbst and Greenwood. The fellow, working specifically in Greenwood’s lab in the Exley Science Center, will reproduce chondrules in order to identify potential conditions for their origins.

The grant itself was a sizable undertaking on the part of Herbst and Greenwood.

“It takes literally months to write [grants like this one],” Herbst noted. “NASA imposes all sorts of requirements on the grant that you must meet. It is then evaluated by a panel of experts and competes in a pool for limited amounts of government money. The success rate for grants in our general area has recently been only 15-20 [percent] because relatively little money is committed to this area. Naturally, Jim and I were absolutely delighted to learn that the grant was funded.”

University students studying science have received generous donations from NASA in the past.

While Herbst and Greenwood are professors in two different fields, they are united in this project, which grew out of the Planetary Sciences Program. This program is a joint venture on the parts of the Earth and Environmental Sciences and Astronomy Departments, and offers a minor for undergraduate students as well as a graduate student program.

Herbst notes that this is another example of the values of interdisciplinary programs.

“The research grew out of this collaborative, interdisciplinary program, and it is a great example of how such an approach to science—which is widespread at Wesleyan (e.g. the CIS program) can work,” he said. “I’m sure that without the interdisciplinary approach that we bring to science (and other fields) at Wesleyan, this research would never have developed in the way it did.”

In the end, Herbst and Greenwood will be conducting research in a fairly mysterious and very interesting field of cosmochemistry.

“It is all pretty exciting to us!” Herbst said.

The Wesleyan Refugee Project (WRP), a campus organization that raises awareness for the worldwide refugee crisis and aims to support individual refugees, hosted an online silent auction between April 4 and April 10. The auction raised money for an online company called Paper Airplanes, which connects college students in the United States with Syrian refugees, and is one of the organizations with which the WRP works.

This is the second semester the WRP has hosted a silent auction. With 65 items available for bidding, the auction took place entirely online, run though the website “32 Auctions.” Items ranged from pieces of jewelry to handmade art to food (“Batch of Cookies,” “Batch of Brownies,” and “Batch of Cupcakes” were all items available for bidding). In a category called “Specialty Services,” the auction offered a range of options, from sailing lessons to portrait photography to gift cards. The most popular item was “A Portrait of Your Pets by Lydia Tonkanow,” with 22 bids, while rides to locations such as Bradley Airport were also popular for bidding. In all, at the date of publication, the auction raised $400 out of its $600 goal.

Joshua Su ’17 was featured in multiple items available for bidding, notably one called “Dinner with Josh Su” as well as “Haircut by Josh Su.” Both were labeled as “priceless” under value, and “Dinner with Josh Su” had a bid at $10.50 at the date of publication. Su notes his eagerness to participate in the auction.

“I got involved because my dear friend Cheryl [Hagan ’17] is very involved and it has always been something I supported,” he wrote in an email to the Argus. “I knew there were ways and services I can provide (I had done haircuts where people, mostly friends donated to a charity of their choice) so I naturally offered what I could.”

Su added that he felt fundraisers, like this one in particular, served a worthy purpose.

“This is not just a fundraiser but also raises the [public relations] and the issue and needs that Paper Airplanes and the WRP are trying to meet,” he explained. “[A]nd I think getting people to talk about it and be motivated to actually do actionable things has been a way that the silent auction has been important.”

The site page for the auction describes its goal.

“All of the proceeds collected from this event will be donated to Paper Airplanes—a program that remotely connects American college students and Syrian refugees for English tutoring,” he said. “They are fundraising to pay for TOEFL and IELTS tests, critical English tests for their Syrian students who want to attend university or seek employment opportunities. In the face of recent political opposition and uncertainty, these efforts are critical and we must show our support.”

The Paper Airplanes website describes its mission in two bullet points: providing digital assistance to “conflict-affected communities” and fostering “cross-cultural relationships” between students and tutors. They have four distinct programs: English, which helps to provide English tutoring through a digital classroom; Turkish, which works to provide Syrian refugees in Turkey with knowledge of the language; Women in Tech, which helps to teach women coding; and Youth Exchange, which connects United States high school classes with Syrian refugee high school classes.

Casey Smith ’17, one of the founders of the Wesleyan Refugee Project, notes that Paper Airplanes is just one of a multitude of projects on which the campus organization is working. She also explained that despite the Trump administration’s anti-Muslim and anti-refugee laws, the WRP is continuing to do the work it has done in the past.

“The issues are changing and how people are talking about them are changing, but we’ve pretty much been able to keep doing the same work in the community,” she explained. “So, we still have eight volunteers going every week to IRIS [Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services] for a few hours to work with our clients there, in New Haven. We’ve been volunteering for them for three years, and it’s still going really well, [we’re still] doing the same work. We work on Energy Assistance applications, and so basically that just means our volunteers help various people with paperwork, getting all their forms together to apply for energy subsidies, and that’s been going really well. Then we also still work with the International Refugee Assistance Project, which provides legal services to refugees trying to come to the U.S….And even if that program were to end, I think we would still try to help people get as much documentation as we can, just because the idea is at some point, the U.S. will keep resettling those people, hopefully.”

Julia Morrison ’17 leads IRIS, and noted some of the work they’ve been doing.

“At IRIS, we help refugees apply for energy assistance, so we fill out forms, governmental forms, that will allow them to apply for and often receive some amount of monetary assistance that will pay for heating and electricity,” she said. “We go there twice a work, and work with two wonderful case managers.”

Smith also explained that with all the various projects, which have a total of between 50-60 volunteers, meetings are project-based.

“We don’t really have WRP-wide meetings because there’s a lot of different stuff people are doing, and so people just meet in their separate projects,” she said. “It’s all about delegating.”

The WRP has a variety of events and fundraisers coming up, including a panel about Yemen and a documentary screening, as well as a photography exhibit located in the CFA green.

If you would like to get involved in the Wesleyan Refugee Project, check out their Facebook page or email Smith at cksmith@wesleyan.edu.

In response to the election of Donald Trump as the 45th U.S. president, the Wesleyan Democrats (WesDems) are hosting a succession of political speakers in a series called “Resistance in the Age of Trump.” This series aims to demonstrate the steps current Democrats in office are taking to oppose the Trump administration, in addition to informing the University and Middletown communities of actions they too can take. On April 1, the series opened with Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro as its first speaker, addressing a full audience in the University’s Public Affairs Center.

After an introduction from state representative and Wesleyan alumnus Matt Lesser ’10 and WesDems president Simon Korn ’17, Rosa DeLauro took to the podium—though over the course of the talk she spent little time behind it, preferring instead to walk around the floor. She opened the talk with a call to action, noting the necessity for persistent efforts on the part of the nation’s public.

“There’s such a need for your drive and your energy right now,” DeLauro said. “The way I characterize it, it’s really dangerous times, perilous times. So your engagement and involvement…is really critically important.”

Moving on to note the importance of paying attention to the multifaceted dimensions of certain issues, DeLauro entreated students to stay informed in order to ensure their voices are heard.

“It’s important to understand the nuances of the various debates that are occurring in the Congress, the fine points of those debates,” DeLauro said. “To the extent that you find an area that you’re particularly interested in, follow that, because it’s not always what you read in the paper or what you hear on the news, et cetera. It’s much more granular than that in terms of what the outcomes are and can be in these events. As I said, these are a difficult few months. We are in uncharted waters.”

DeLauro then moved into a discussion about the Affordable Care Act, explaining the dynamics surrounding the Trump Administration’s attempt, and subsequent failure, to repeal it. She brought up multiple perspectives on the issue, noting first the unity of the Democratic National Party in regard to preserving the Affordable Care Act, and the important role the public paid in keeping the bill afloat.

“I believe that the reason why that bill was pulled, and they had such a failure, was because of the American people,” she said. “The marches, the phone calls, the letters, the communication. The overwhelming communication, to people, not just in their offices in Washington, but in their district offices. It was overwhelming.”

DeLauro transitioned into a criticism of a number of people Trump chose to put into office, namely Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruit.

“Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education,” DeLauro said. “Wow. I don’t know what to say…She does not believe in public education… And talk about separation of church and state, she has a major tie with religious institutions, and I went through 16 years of Catholic education, but this is not public education, which is 90 percent of our kids. She does not believe in making sure that they are provided for. So we will do the same thing; I’m watching the administration as closely as I can.”

Likewise, DeLauro noted the negative consequences of the Trump administration’s decision to place Scott Pruitt as the administrator of the EPA. DeLauro mentioned that Pruitt had sued the EPA over a dozen times, and that not only does he not believe climate change is caused by humans, but he also rescinded executive orders from the Obama administration that protected the environment and curbed emissions.

“They’ve got the wrong priorities,” she said. “We’ve got to protect scientists and researchers.”

After finishing her talk with another call to action, in which she stressed the necessity of political involvement, DeLauro took questions from the audience. Théo Storella ’20 posed a question concerning hope for moving forward efforts on prominent issues under this administration.

“Resistance is really good to keep things from moving backwards, and that’s great, but for these issues like healthcare and the environment and stuff like that, we not only need to keep ourselves from moving back, we’ve got to go forward,” he said. “So if we don’t have the house of representatives, would you say there’s kind of a degree of hopelessness in that?”

DeLauro replied by explaining the necessity of first fighting Republicans on their efforts to dismantle both healthcare and environmental laws, and then from there, Democrats furthering efforts in both. She explained the importance of the 2018 elections in getting things turned around, as well as mentioned the importance of ensuring the Affordable Care Act was not repealed. She noted that no matter what, one should not lose hope.

“I never talk about hopelessness, I got to tell you that, I never go there,” she said. “I can’t go there.”

Korn and board member Alexandra Prendergast ’20 both thought it to be a successful and extremely relevant event.

“This is one of the components of our plan to become a focal point for the resistance against the Trump administration on campus,” Korn explained. “It’s about asking people who have experiences with resisting presidential administrations, the Trump administration specifically, [and] making a difference in the face of long odds, or making a difference in the face of any kind of odds. How we, as Wesleyan students, who live in a liberal district, who by and large come from liberal districts, can make a difference.”

Prendergast shared in Korn’s sentiment as to the importance of bringing speakers to the University.

“This year, we’re seeing a lot more political activism nationwide than we have in many, many years, and so I think it’s extremely important as Wesleyan democrats that we engage with the community here on campus and elsewhere to try and get people active and involved in politics,” she said.

Despite the heavy topic, DeLauro’s speech and Q&A session was ultimately hopeful.

“People cannot get tired of engaging on these issues,” she said. “You’ve got to overwhelm the system.”

Like other forms of rhetoric, verbal efforts to promote environmental sustainability are rooted in human nature. In a society that desperately needs to engage in more sustainable practices, environmentalists and activists must ask themselves how best to persuade the public to participate in practices that are environmentally beneficial, or at least less detrimental. It is a dilemma, like other dilemmas of public persuasion, that is rooted in the question: how do we get people to care?

Traditionally, most climate rhetoric has centered around people’s sense of morality, justice, and ethics. While these arguments are fair and hold water, I believe there is another method of rhetoric that may receive a heightened degree of response: a human-centered one that appeals to a person’s sense of selfishness and, to an extent, right to exist in a prolific world.

I am not naturally a cynical person, but I do have one slightly disparaging (though nonetheless observable) belief: humans are innately selfish. Though selfishness is usually considered a negative trait, it is a universal one, whether that manifests in large ways or small. This is not to say that compassion and empathy do not exist; they do, to an enormous and powerful extent. However, I’d like to note that selfishness, too, plays an equally, if not more, powerful role.

The rhetoric of climate change does too little to appeal to the sense of selfishness that is fundamental to humanity. Rather, climate and sustainability rhetoric appeals to a sense of goodwill or guilt, with phrases like “Save the coral reefs!” and “Save the polar bears!” being some of the first that come to mind when considering the reasons to combat climate change. These phrases, though of course rooted in truth and a need for action, present humans as the ones who must do the saving of other creatures, rather than a species also at risk. Likewise, the species to which they refer are very much removed from the lives of most ordinary people. How many of us have seen a polar bear in the wild, or frequented a dying coral reef?

Instead, we must shift our vision from a need to swoop in and save other creatures to a need to also save ourselves. If, environmentally, we continue to move in the direction that we are currently heading, the earth will reach a tipping point, crossing a boundary from which we will not return in over the course of our species’ existence. Average temperatures will increase drastically, and the climate will shift to a degree that is nearly impossible to predict. But these changes have the potential to affect humans to a massive extent. Entire neighborhoods will be flooded and destroyed due to rising waters and increased storm intensity. Devastating hurricanes like the ones that have ripped through the East Coast will become more frequent and more intense. And this is just in the short term. In the long term, climate change has the potential to, in the most extreme case, wipe out the human race. Therefore, when we talk about the effects of climate change, when we say that we must “save the planet,” rather we should be saying “save humanity.” Not only because this style of rhetoric will motivate more people, but because the future of humanity is increasingly at risk, as we make our planet more and more unlivable for our species.

On a similar note, the attention to non-human animals that pervades climate rhetoric also diverts attention from the many communities of lower socioeconomic standing that have already been severely affected by climate events. A prime example is post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, in which the poorer communities suffered greatly from flooding. And many places, including the predominantly Black neighborhood of the Ninth Ward, remain severely damaged and largely abandoned. And yet, a decade after Katrina, little attention is paid to this community, with much more diverted to endangered animals and, more simply, the non-human “Earth.”

In spite of what is previously written, I do not intend to argue that we should ignore the continued destruction of non-human habitats, or that we should divert attention from pressing concerns of environmental degradation affecting plants and animals more than humans. There are thousands of species much more at risk from the impacts of climate change and hundreds currently endangered or extinct due to human interference, like, of course, coral reefs and polar bears. Efforts to protect the environment for non-human plants and animals are incredibly important, incredibly necessary, and in many ways more so than anthropocentric concerns.

We should, rather, include ourselves in the mix of species at risk, recognize that humans are not exempt from the impacts of climate change. We are as much a part of, and dependent upon, this environment as any other species, as much as we try to distinguish ourselves as disconnected from nature. This acknowledgement of dependence ensures that within rhetoric of saving the environment, it is clear that we are not angelic beings swooping in to save “nature,” but simply making the necessary actions to save our home and ourselves.

But the largest reason behind the need to shift climate rhetoric from “save the earth” to “save ourselves” is this: the earth, as a living planet, is going to be okay. Despite the rhetoric, the planet will weather climate change as it has weathered massive fluctuations in climate in the past. While in this case, the reason behind the climate fluctuation is quite different, as it is caused singularly by one species, there will still be plants and animals that thrive in changing environmental conditions. The environment, while perhaps taking a very different form to the one we know today, will soldier on.

This planet has undergone five major mass extinctions in the past: The Ordovician-Silurian, the Late Devonian, the Permian, the Triassic-Jurassic, and the Cretaceous-Tertiary. The Permian Mass Extinction, also known as “The Great Dying,” marks the most extreme example. 250 million years ago, 96 percent of life on earth went extinct, potentially due to colossal climate change. All life on earth today is descended from that surviving four percent. It is a percentage almost impossible to compute, almost impossible to imagine that life persevered and ballooned into the diversity of species we have today. And yet here we are, billions of years after the origin of life on this planet, in an extraordinarily ecologically diverse world. Thanks to diverse genetic pools of many species, life will persevere even with rising temperatures and sea levels and increased storms, floods, and droughts. The environment, or some form of environment, will survive. It may not, however, include humans.

Culturally, humanity is taken to be eternal, endless, excepted from the rules of nature and evolution under which other, far less advanced species operate. In other words, we fancy ourselves eternal, and the earth temporary. While in reality both are ephemeral, it is also true the earth will far outlast humanity, as will life. We are not, by a long shot, the most resilient species on this planet. While we are excellent at adapting, we are not excellent at surviving through massive floods and tsunamis, living in droughts and extreme heat.

Thus, we must make efforts to shift the language around climate change to one that throws humans in the mix, recognizing the need to save humanity as more pressing and more true than the need to save the planet. Not only must we see ourselves as very much immersed in and dependent upon this environment, but we must realize that our future as a species relies upon our ability to recognize that we are more vulnerable than we think.

The University’s Davison Health Center will now be offering menstrual products at a reduced cost to students due to a proposition from the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA). The pilot program is the culmination of the work of students interested in ensuring these health products are available at a reasonable price and in an accessible location.

The initiative was spearheaded by Angel Riddle ’19, who started the project on in the fall of 2016. According to WSA member Livia Wallick ’20, who took over the endeavor when Riddle moved on to other work, the program owes its origin to a post in the WesAdmits Facebook group.

“There was a post in WesAdmits a while ago [in which] someone was kind of ranting about how there weren’t any free menstrual products in bathrooms, and how it’s a really natural process that a lot of people go through,” explained Wallick. “We provide soap and paper towels and everything like that, but not menstrual products. So [Riddle] came up with the initiative to work on this, and get in contact with the health center and some companies to see if we could [provide products] for free, but it ended up being really expensive, so we came up with the idea of purchasing menstrual products at cost and then selling them at cost.”

According to Wallick, this idea has been in the works since the spring of 2016, when the WSA passed a resolution voicing support for access to menstrual products as a human right. While Riddle put the initiative into action, Wallick, along with Student Life Committee chair Lizzie Shackney ’17, helped it come to fruition.

“We’ve been concerned about accessibility–both financial and physical, like being stranded in Usdan without access to anything–for a while, and this is the solution we were able to come up with alongside Davison and Student Affairs,” Shackney explained in an email to The Argus. “Products in Weshop and in-store are expensive and getting off campus to buy what you need is not a sustainable solution.”

Wallick described that much of her role in the undertaking was simply writing emails to administration members to promote involvement in the project. According to Wallick, Director of Davison Health Center Joyce Walter played a seminal role in ensuring the products were available to students.

“I am part of the Student Affairs Advisory Committee (SAAC) and the WSA proposed the idea of providing menstrual products for students,” Walter wrote in an email to The Argus. “The Health Center orders many supplies and I reviewed inventory through our vendors and found bulk products which are very inexpensive to distribute. The Health Center sells other medical supplies so it seems natural to offer menstrual products.”

University Students received a campus-wide email detailing the distribution of products at Davison Health Center on Feb. 10.

“The Health Center has purchased bulk supplies of Naturelle regular absorbency tampons and Maxithins individually wrapped sanitary pads,” the email reads. “Supplies will be available 6 days a week when the Health Center is open. The cost is $2.00 for 15 tampons and $2.00 for 10 maxi-pads, and students can pay by cash or charge to their student account.”

Before purchasing menstrual products, students must fill out a form that details which products they would prefer and the amount they would like to purchase.

“Students interested in purchasing should complete the form and bring it to the reception desk at the Health Center,” Walter explained. “We have bags ready for distribution of each product.”

Though this is a step forward in terms of the provision of menstrual products to the student body, there is the potential for future steps, according to Walter.

“We are starting the pilot program this week with the WSA student announcement,” Walter explained. “It is the hope of SAAC to find funding to distribute in other large venues on campus.”

Shackney echoed the same sentiments.

“If there’s a lot of demand for products, I’m sure we’ll expand—we’ve talked about finding ways to provide products in Usdan, Olin, and Exley as well, so I think that’s the next move,” she said.

Though the pilot program is still young, Wallick is excited for the direction this venture will take.

“Right now, I think this is a really great step in the right direction, having affordable menstrual products,” she explained. “I think it’s something that’s important to do at Wes because more than half of the student population menstruates, and most people who menstruate in their lifetime have been caught in a situation where they’re uncomfortable or been caught unaware by their period, so this alleviates some of that stress and lets students and faculty and staff at Wesleyan live their best lives.”

The Red Warrior Society and Mothers Against Meth Alliance (MAMA), on their ongoing “Ride for Resistance” tour of the East Coast to promote and protect indigenous rights, stopped in Hartford on Monday, Feb. 7. Hosted at the Unitarian Universalist Church, the event featured seasoned indigenous protesters who shared their experiences fighting for their rights to clean water and land. The Red Warrior Society and MAMA, working in conjunction, are heavily involved in protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Over the course of the evening, the speakers gave their stories as well as called members of the audience, which included several University students, to action.

MAMA founder Julie Richards opened the night with some backstory on how she became involved with the efforts to protect indigenous rights, and the origin of MAMA. Her story is a tumultuous one, beginning in her childhood and still unfolding now.

Richards explained that her mother was a single parent of four. As a child, she was abused by her mother’s boyfriend, which led to emotional problems later in life. When she went to high school, Richards explained that she struggled with self-esteem issues and alcohol usage.

“I began to drink, I started having ugly feelings about myself and I hated myself,” said Richards. “I started drinking and using drugs. I started having hateful feelings toward my mom.

Richards explained that she became involved with an older man and became pregnant at 15. She went on to note that despite the responsibilities of single-parenthood, she still wanted to go back to school. With the help of her mother and brothers, she graduated high school, and then went to college. There, she met another older man, with whom she had another daughter.

“I ended up getting married to him, and he turned out to be very abusive,” Richards said. “I was married to him for 17 years and the last time we met he almost killed me, so I ended up divorcing him after 17 years.

After this period in her life, Richards said she again turned to alcohol.

“I lost everything,” Richards said. “I lost my house, I lost my kids. Just everything I had. And, you know, one day I woke up and said, ‘I don’t want this life, I want a better life, I want my kids back.’ So I quit drinking; I went back to the Lakota way of life. I started attending ceremonies. I started sun dancing. I’ve been sober now for ten years; I’ve got my children back.”

Despite these many leaps forward, Richards explained that things in her life were not entirely healed.

“Six years ago, my oldest daughter became addicted to meth,” she said. “I tried to get her help but there was nowhere to get her help.”

This prompted the origin of MAMA, Richards’ meth awareness and resistance organization that has close ties to the Red Warrior Society. Meth usage, Richards notes, is a serious problem in indigenous communities, and it has been given little attention.

“I started doing meth awareness, education with the kids, the local apartments right behind my house,” Richards said. “I thought, I better educate about the dangers of this before they see it, before one of their friends introduces it to them, so I started doing meth awareness and education.”

“The people are all scared of the meth dealers, but I’m not,” she said.“I’m not scared of them. So I started stalking them.”

Richards explained that her attempts to eradicate meth usage in her area stem from a distrust of the police and a deep desire for change. Richards does not fight solely against meth, however, and has been actively involved in Red Warrior Society for some time. Her work spans across multiple issues affecting indigenous people, from meth to water and land rights and protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. She gives credit to her great grandmother for her will to fight.

“[My great grandmother] fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, right alongside her husband and her sons,” she said. “And her husband was killed, but she was a survivor. She fought so that I could be here today, you know. That’s why I fight so hard.”

The next to speak was Victor Puertas, who too has been heavily involved in protests, including many against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“The water and land is being taken away from indigenous nations,” Puertas began. “But when those indigenous nations rise up, they’re being targeted, they’re being called violent, they’re being attacked, they’re being assaulted.”

Puertas described the Red Warrior Society, which is a nonviolent group of individuals dedicated to ending the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which they claim will contaminate drinking water and disrupt indigenous lands. The pipeline’s construction, thought stalled, has recently been backed by the new Trump Administration.

“Who we are and represent, is a small part of what is called ‘Red Warrior Camp’ and what we call now ‘Red Warrior Society,’” Puertas explained. “The Red Warrior Society wants to spread its message of unity and solidarity.”

He went on to describe the detrimental effects of the construction of the pipeline.

“A pipeline doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it really is,” he said. “A pipeline is one of the most destructive projects you can even think about. Every single pipeline leaks. In five to ten years, you’re going to have leaks that go to the water. Also, for indigenous people, if you build things like that, you’re basically assaulting our land, destroying our land. ”

He noted that protesters remain persistently peaceful, while police will use freezing water, pepper spray, tear gas and even dogs to force them to leave protests and to deter their efforts. With videos of police spraying protestors with tear gas or water playing on the screen next to him, Puertas told the audience of his experiences protesting.

“How many of you people here have heard about the dog attacks on the water protectors?” he asked of the audience. “It happens to a lot of people. It happens to me, it happens to elders, it happens to sisters.”

The University’s Fossil Fuel Divest group, which is dedicated to protesting University investment in fossil fuels and thereby protecting people and the environment, provided vans for students to attend the event. Mina Klein ’17, an active member of the Fossil Fuel Divest, is among those who were in attendance.

“Even though DAPL is still in the news, it is certainly not receiving the same level of public scrutiny and media attention as it was right before construction was paused and before the inauguration,” Klein wrote in an email to The Argus. “There are so many things that deserve and require energy and attention right now, but that doesn’t mean that Standing Rock and pipelines and the oppression of indigenous sovereignty will go away. So that’s why I think it is important to attend NoDAPL events broadly speaking.”

Despite the many obstacles protesters face, Puertas noted that he is thoroughly impressed with the level of bravery and dedication he has seen.

“I’ve never seen so much courage in people, let me tell you that,” he said. “I’ve never seen so much.”