The Battalion - Jan. 30, 2020 by The Battalion

SILVER TAPS Silver Taps will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 10:30 p.m. in Academic Plaza. Honorees include Roberto “Beto” Acosta, Andrew Evan Brightwell, Lela Justeen Burney, Wesley Donald Sanders and Maegan Ellen Sanders. The Battalion will publish its tribute articles in the Thursday, Feb. 6 edition.

PROVIDED

Soft + Salted cookies are sold for $3 each.

Homemade sweets with a dash of salt

Gatekeepers of Northgate

Business student pursues passion for baking, brings new flavors to B-CS

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

Oceanography junior Matt Hafer is one of the bouncers at O’Bannon’s Taphouse.

By Alek Benavides @alekbenavides Sarah Momin, a supply chain management senior, was dissatisfied with her cookie options in Aggieland, so she decided to take matters into her own hands and make them herself. Momin created her own cookie business, Soft + Salted, to bake for Aggies with a sweet tooth. Momin operates her business through its Instagram page, @softandsaltedtx, where she releases order forms and announces new cookie flavors. Cookies are sold for $3 each. Momin said she was given the inspiration to create a cookie business because she could never find a bakery in College Station that satisfied her cravings. “I wanted to feel satisfied when I ate it,” Momin said. “Since I couldn’t find a place around me that made cookies the way I liked them, I decided to start making them myself … with high-quality ingredients.” Momin drew inspiration from her time with her family to drive her new business forward. Because she was born into a large family, Momin said her fondest memories occurred in the kitchen. “I loved baking things for my family, I love seeing that eye-rolling reaction they get when I see them eat something I created for them,” Momin said. “I want to share my passion with DIVERSITY ON PG. 2

Bouncers in College Station bar district share unique experiences from their most memorable night shifts By Hollis Mills @sillohsllim

here’s a commonality to the craft of bouncing on Northgate: stand tall, say little and keep a balled-set of knuckles tucked away for safekeeping. For Blake Strieder, that routine was shot to hell the day he needed to creep behind a 6-foot, 250-pound veteran who overstayed his welcome in Dry Bean Saloon. “He was pretty lit up to put it lightly,” Strieder said. “I knew it, [the] bartender knew it, and he was like, ‘Okay, I’ll give him a drink, but after that one drink we have to cut him off after that, that’s it.’” As the first and last face seen when entering the bar, a bouncer sets the tone for any establishment. They are firm advocates of the golden rule: every doorman can easily be a best friend, provided they have no rea-

son to use someone’s head to open a door. The threat of confrontation comes with the title, and Strieder said his run-in last fall was as tense as things can get for a doorman. “The guy proceeds to say, ‘No, I paid for two drinks,’” Strieder said. “We had this whole argument where the bartender was like, ‘No, you only paid for one, and I can’t allow you to have that second drink.’ The guy wouldn’t let it go.” Working his way down the narrow bar to the spot of an impending eruption, Strieder said his weeknights spent carding “townies” and graduate students had usually been very easygoing. That Tuesday was not one of those nights. “Dude,” Strieder said. “Yeah, he was 60. Yeah, he was really drunk. But it would’ve been a hell of a fight to take him down. It got to the point where my bartender was like, ‘We can either give you a refund or figure something else out,’ and there was this moment where there was a standoff between us. “So he looks at the other door guy, looks at my bartender and was just like ‘f--- it,’ and grabs his stuff and walks straight out. Never had a physical altercation, but that was by far the closest I’ve ever been.” At O’Bannon’s Taphouse, George Dickey does a little bit of everything. If he is not handing out pints of stout, then he’s survey-

ing the floor, keeping a lookout for any patrons performing what he calls the “Mortal Kombat Dance” — swaying back and forth before spilling a stream of homemade Guinness onto the hardwood floor. With his share of time spent at the door, Dickey said he had seen the good, the bad and the downright unbelievable. “The weirdest [interaction] was when I got called an a------ because I took a guy’s fake ID,” Dickey said. “I said, ‘Yeah, I’m sorry you can’t come in. TABC [Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission] rules’ and what-not.” Misery loves company, but in the case of Dickey’s underage schemer, it just wanted him. “I guess he was with his sister or some friends of his who were all of age, but they said, ‘tough luck,’” Dickey said. “They came inside and partied for a couple of hours, and he was just wandering the streets drunk and underage by himself.” There is an insult to injury, and then there is what happened to this kid outside of O’Bannons. “Then by the end of the night, this girl who was supposed to be his DD [designated driver] decided she was going to hook up with some dude and said, ‘You’re a grown BOUNCER ON PG. 2

A&M named diversity champion University awarded for growth of inclusion within campus resources By Khadeeja Umana @khadeeja_umana

Kaylee Cogbill — THE BATTALION

Texas A&M is one of the recipients of the HEED award for 2019.

Texas A&M received national recognition for its growing efforts to improve diversity and inclusion on campus. A&M is one of 94 recipients of the 2019 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award, according to the INSIGHT Into Diversity website. The College of Veterinary Medicine was also awarded the 2019 Health Services HEED award, receiving the honor for the third consecutive time. The diversity magazine looks at national colleges and universities’ commitment to diversity and inclusion through an application that collects the institution’s data

NOW! www.blinn.edu

Spring 12 Week Courses Beginning Feb. 17

blinnbound@blinn.edu

on programs, initiatives, and student and faculty recruitment and outreach. The undergraduate and graduate student employees in the Office for Diversity are the ambassadors and representatives for the campus community, A&M Director for Assessment and Diversity Initiatives Jennifer McGee Reyes said. “The mission for the Office for Diversity is to implement and coordinate Texas A&M’s diversity plan,” Reyes said. “We provide leadership and support to the academic and administrative units, as they really do the meaningful work that happens in everybody’s classes, organizations and departments.” A&M and the Office for Diversity understands diversity and inclusion are embedded in academic and institutional excellence, Reyes said. “We take very seriously our work about COOKIES ON PG. 2

Courses that fit your schedule. Tuition that fits your budget.