Nov 25 2009 The Battalion Print by The Battalion

thebattalion ● wednesday,

november 25, 2009

● serving

texas a&m since 1893

Bonfire traffic closes Hwy. 6 Matt Woolbright Courtney Crosby — SPECIAL TO THE BATTALION

The 2009 student bonfire burns. The 2009 stack was 45 feet tall with five tiers, the largest being 32 feet tall.

Honoring the 12 Students made 12 miniature bonfires and put them around the student bonfire to represent the 12 students who died in the 1999 Bonfire collapse. The bonfires were lit at the same time as student bonfire.

The Battalion Just before 8 p.m. Tuesday many Aggies and other fans traveling to see the off-campus student bonfire burn heard a news flash across Candy 95.1’s radio waves. “The Department of Public Safety is telling drivers heading to student bonfire to turn around and go home.” The statement, from the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Highway 6 and Old San Antonio Road were “parking lots.” They said anyone heading to bonfire would face massive delays and not see the event. DPS said the small back roads sur-

rounding the site were not designed, nor capable of handling the volume of traffic. “It was very frustrating being turned around on OSR, so close to bonfire,” said Brandon Earman, a senior construction science major who worked on bonfire. “But I’m also happy that so many Aggies went out and are able to experience bonfire this year.” Officials in charge of the student activity said people attempting to walk the remaining distance to see the event were not allowed on property to see the burn. Freshman biomedical science major

Brittany Brown said she was looking forward to seeing the burn and was sad she missed such a special burn. “It’s so disappointing to get turned away and miss my first bonfire as a student, especially since it’s been a decade since the fall,” Brown said. Freshman Josh Jones, a political science major, worked to build the student bonfire but was forced to turn around, even though he left two hours before the event was to begin. “It’s such a big letdown and feels like a waste of sweat and time to miss out on bonfire burning,” he said. Senior agricultural systems management major Andres Gonzalez Jr.,

worked on bonfire and said going to burn isn’t everything to him. “In six years of building bonfire this is only the second time I’ve been to burn,” Gonzalez said. “Bonfire to me isn’t about burning it, but about building it, we only burn it to make room for next year.” Earman, who is a staff member of The Battalion, was disappointed about missing burn, but was looking forward to next year. “Even though I put hours of hard work and sweat into it and won’t be able to see my labors burn, I’m looking forward to seeing what bonfire 2010 will bring.”

Renewing a

Thanksgivingtradition 2009 marks 116th meeting between 2 rivals Kyle Cunningham | The Battalion

he Lone Star Showdown. The Backyard Brawl. No matter what it’s called, everyone in the state knows of the Texas – Texas A&M rivalry. From its inception in 1894 to today, the rivalry has gained national recognition and intensity with every game that is played. The series, which Texas leads 74-36-5, is the third-most played rivalry in NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision history. “This is one of the greatest traditions of all time,” head coach Mike Sherman said. “This state looks forward to this game every single year. It’s a very special game.” The first game ever played between the two Texas institutions was in 1894, when the Aggies traveled over to Clark Field in Austin. It was not only the Aggies’ first matchup with the Longhorns, but their first game of college football ever that was sponsored by A&M. Their inexperience was evident in the score, as the Osa Okundaye — THE BATTALION

Graduate students advance to IT management finals

No more red light cameras Red light cameras in College Station are gone for good. “Effective today at 3:00 pm (CST) intersection safety cameras have been turned off and no further violations will be issued,” said American Trafﬁc Solutions Vice President George J. Hittner on Nov. 24. The decision comes after a Nov. 3 election in which a referendum proposing to make red light camera citations unenforceable passed with 52 percent of the vote. The election was called after a petition started in summer 2008 received close to 1000 signatures, over 25 percent of the College Station electorate. Jim Ash, the College Station citizen who started the petition, said he fully supports the decision. “It’s been a year-long project and in many ways I can hardly believe it’s over,” Ash said. “Today I’m happy, but today I’m sad that it took this much effort for the citizens to be heard.” Julie Rambin, staff writer

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See History on page 4

Travis Lawson

J.D. Swiger — THE BATTALION

Elephant Walk festivities kicked off at Spence Park Tuesday with an opportunity to take pictures with live elephants.

Where elephants never forget Ann Littmann The Battalion Spence Park was filled with music, the sound of laughter and the trumpeting of elephants on the morning of Elephant Walk, but the mood turned somber when it came time for the class of 2010 to relinquish their position as the leaders of Texas A&M. It was an emotional afternoon for many seniors as they gathered by the Twelfth Man statue to step off for one last walk around the Texas A&M campus. At 2:10 p.m., members of the class of 2010 embarked on a journey down memory lane. The group walked around campus, stopping at Fish Pond, the Lawrence Sullivan Ross Statue, the Corps Quadrangle and the Bon-

fire Memorial to participate in yells and look back on all of the good and bad times experienced at Texas A&M. “I’m remembering all the friends I made here at Texas A&M,” said senior education major Beth Wimberly. “My fiancé, Matt, proposed to me under the Century Tree. That is a very special memory.” Elephant Walk brings a sense of unity to a class size of several thousand, said senior education major Jennifer Bone. “Our class is so big and it’s not often that we get to do things together,” Bone said. “It is so awesome that everyone turns out for this event and that we are united.” See E-Walk on page 4

The Battalion Texas A&M University graduate students won the regional “International Case Competition on the Strategic Value of I.T. Management” and will advance to world finals in Las Vegas, Nev. The competition combines different technology and business problems that each team must research and solve. The graduate team, which consists of Lakshminarayanan Subramanian and Beth Lipton for management information systems studies and Bedanta Talukdar for industrial engineering studies, won the Case Competition at the Mays Business School in October. The victory made the team eligible to compete in the Southwest regional in Tuscan, Ariz. The team secured another win in Tucson placing them among 11 other teams from all over the world that will compete in the finals. “We secured the first place and got excellent feedback from the panel of judges on our presentation and solution,” Subramanian said. The team beat the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Arizona, and Oklahoma University in Arizona to claim the regional victory. Each team is presented with a case to solve and then a twist at the end.

“It was an extremely challenging experience with respect to the amount of research we had to do in the limited time span,” Subramanian said. The Aggie team said it was a joy to be the group representing the University and were excited they gave a good showing. “We felt honored to represent Texas A&M in a regional competition and win it,” Subramanian said. “We are very happy to give something back to the school which has done so much for us.” Talukdar said she couldn’t wait to face the 11 other teams at the finals in May. She was honored to give back to Aggieland. “The honor of representing Texas A&M in the regional round at Arizona was something I will cherish,” Talukdar said. “I am really excited about representing the University in the global finals at Las Vegas and we hope to do well there.” Lipton said the competing teams were made up of students with a lot more experience than them so having success was uplifting. “A lot of the other teams were made up of MBA students so we were very proud to be victorious over them,” Lipton said. “The three of us together, we all kind of keep each other in balance. I think we make a really good team.”

11/24/09 11:05 PM