Dakota Access Pipeline

BNP Paribas — the parent company of UC Berkeley’s official bank, Bank of the West — owns more than $1 million in shares from two private prison companies that are contracted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to operate immigration detention facilities.

“Hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go!” These are the words that a group of roughly 20 student protesters chanted as they toted a makeshift pipeline and marched through campus March 12, advocating for the divestment of UC endowment funds from fossil fuel companies.

Two Standing Rock activists, Chase Iron Eyes and Daniel Sheehan, held a discussion at La Peña Cultural Center on Friday about the current state of the movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline, or DAPL.

The Berkeley City Council unanimously passed a plan to divest from Wells Fargo at their regular meeting Tuesday night.

A petition named “DIVE$T from Wells Fargo” on Change.org has been made, calling for the city to discontinue its financial affairs with Wells Fargo Bank.

Berkeley City Council passed the city staff recommendation on the funding allocation for community agencies in the upcoming financial year, among other items at its Tuesday meeting.

Since the beginning of April, students have had a reason to approach the Cesar Chavez Student Center besides simply visiting the Cal 1 Card Office. Over spring break, a dozen students painted a colorful mural representing the theme of social justice in the breezeway that leads from Lower Sproul Plaza up to the Berkeley Art Studio and Sather Gate.

Fossil Free Cal, a nonregistered student organization on campus, staged a sit-in inside Sproul Hall on Monday to voice its demand for the university to divest completely from fossil fuel companies by 2025.

UC Chief Investment Officer Jagdeep Singh Bachher announced at the Tuesday meeting of the UC Investments Subcommittee the university’s decision to divest from Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics, two companies that own part of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Nearly two months after former president Barack Obama’s administration halted construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, President Donald Trump has reinstated it, prompting many campus community members to criticize the University of California for its investment in DAPL’s construction.