THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2023 STUDENT MEDIA
Honoring the life and legacy of George F. Bass
Baseball suffers unexpected loss against Lamar
BASS ON PAGE 2
BASEBALL ON PAGE 6
Reality of student homelessness
One game behind
By Kalin Kerr JOUR203 Contributor
thoughts, sophomore guard Wade Taylor IV said. “One of the dudes on the bench said, ‘Thank you for the ring last year in the tournament,’” Taylor said. “That stuck with me the whole game… Just to come out in front of our amazing fans, shout out to the 12th Man, and get the win for them and our team is huge.” Statistically, Tennessee is the most intense defensive team in the nation. The Volunteers rank first in the nation in holding their opponents to a 35.8% field goal percentage, first in holding their opponents to a 24.9% 3-point
Since 2021, more college students are reporting housing insecurity like couch surfing, homelessness or not being able to meet rent or mortgage requirements, according to a #RealCollegeSurvey report. Between inflation and lease restrictions, more and more students are struggling, according to the report. Texas A&M students are faced with the same issues occurring across the nation. One such student at A&M is university studies junior Jeremy “Jay” Rodriguez. Given his own struggle with housing, Rodriguez said many students have trouble asking for assistance. “Homelessness is kind of embarrassing, so I would imagine that those struggling are probably ashamed of it or embarrassed to speak up and speak out,” Rodriguez said. While staying on his friend’s couch for a whole semester, Rodriguez learned to swallow his pride and ask for help. Rodriguez said, by the grace of God, he is no longer homeless and now lives in an apartment, being able to pursue his education wholeheartedly instead of struggling with homelessness. “It was tough living out of my car,” Rodriguez said. “I had a duffle bag with eight outfits [and] two pairs of shoes.” With a hard upbringing living in a single-parent household, Rodriguez said he doubted he would ever attend college. When he graduated in the top 10% of his class, his counselor encouraged him to attend a university. However, entering his freshman year at A&M, Rodriguez said he saw college as a party scene and started to hit rock bottom. “I failed all of my first semester classes and literally Q-dropped all of them,” Rodriguez said.
BASKETBALL ON PG. 6
HOUSING ON PG. 4
Ishika Samant — THE BATTALION
Sophomore G Wade Taylor IV (4) celebrates after shooting two free throws with three seconds left on the clock pushing the score up to 68-63 during a game vs. Tennessee at Reed Arena on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023.
After win, A&M trails Alabama for No. 1 spot in conference By Grant Gaspard @grant_gaspard With an attendance of 12,989, Reed Arena came up a little over 1,000 people short of breaking the attendance record of 14,036 that was set last season on Jan. 19, 2022, against Kentucky. According to the frequency counter in his head, Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said
this was the loudest game he has ever coached in the maroon and white — and black — arena. “I don’t think it’s close,” Williams said about the magnitude of the environment compared to other games. “I think the closest one would be Arkansas last Wednesday and the next closest one would’ve been Auburn. We are so appreciative [of the 12th Man].” On Feb. 25, Texas A&M basketball hosted No. 11 Tennessee for a rematch of the SEC title game that took place on March 13, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. To some athletes on the orange and white roster, this game still marinated in their
Misses in MIS: Moving toward gender balance Upcoming conference provides connections, job opportunities By Sneha Bhale @SnehaBhale Beginning 23 years ago, the annual Women in Technology Conference helps female management information systems, or MIS, students network with professionals, advance their career and collaborate with like-minded peers. This year’s conference will be held at the Student Recreation Center, or Rec, through the Annex, on Feb. 23 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. This year’s theme is “We can do it!” and the conference is open to everyone, offering networking opportunities with professionals, free professional headshots, prizes, provided food and the chance to meet Reveille X. This conference encourages women to enroll in the MIS program as the field is primarily composed of males. According to Forbes, five of the most powerful tech companies in the world — Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Goo-
gle and Microsoft — average a workforce of only 34.4% women. This initiative promotes females going into corporate workplaces, Director of the Center for the Management of Information Systems Della Whitcomb said. “In terms of the ratio of female students to male students, females certainly are still a minority, but the numbers have increased significantly,” Whitcomb said. For many, this conference has been instrumental for networking in a comfortable environment, management information systems graduate student Girija Iyer said. “The best part of the conference was that there were three female leaders in IT and other related industries, and these leaders express their life journeys, their experiences and inspire women like me to prepare for a life like that in the coming years,” Iyer said. Students will arrive around 8:30 a.m. and breakfast is provided. Everyone is assigned different tables with different table numbers where they rotate tables. This allows everyone to engage with each other and network, Iyer said. Some activities include: speed networking, speed mixers, giveaways and interactive games. Two scholarships were also given out
at the conference last year and each student was provided with gifts and prizes from the sponsors. The tables had professionals and sponsors to represent their companies and network with the students in attendance. After her positive experience last year, she looks forward to attending this year as well, Iyer said. Professionals at this conference also have the opportunity to learn about the variety of students in attendance and interact with students curious about the fields they represent. Some professionals have even attended in the past as a student and now are back to serve a different role, like General Motors representative Karly Quick. “It has been beneficial for me to hear from other professionals and what they’re doing but also meet students and encourage them about their career,” Quick said. “Tech is so overwhelming with knowing what direction to go and I hope I can bring some peace to some of the women I talk to as I tell them about my experience and what General Motors has to offer.” This conference allows students in attendance and professionals to connect over the
technology industry and provides a direct avenue for mentorship and networking. It also brings students together and gives them the opportunity to start thinking about career aspirations and how to achieve them.
Courtesy of Delia Whitcomb
A speaker at the 2022 Women in Technology Conference.
Out-of-this-world discoveries Aggie astronomers analyze distant supernovae By Jack Lee @jackthebatt
Northrop Grumman/Wikkicommons
A photo of the James Webb Telescope in 2020.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, astronomers at Texas A&M are able to peer farther into the cosmos than ever before. While studying supernovae, the explosions that occur at the end of a large star’s life, may seem trivial, professor of astronomy Nicholas Suntzeff said supernovae have been the subject of scientific attention in recent years due to their ability to act as benchmarks for time and distance in deep space. “When a star explodes, it gets to a standard
brightness, like a 100 Watt light bulb … you can figure out how far away the light bulb is by how faint it appears,” Suntzeff said. “It’s the same with these exploding stars. As a star explodes in a galaxy, and in any one galaxy every 100 years or so a star will explode like this, we can measure the distance to a galaxy.” As “standard candles” for distance of the universe, Suntzeff said each supernova provides more evidence that an unknown force speeds up the universe’s expansion. “By looking at distant supernovae … we found the universe is not slowing down, it’s speeding up as if there’s an anti-gravity causing the universe to expand faster and faster,” Suntzeff said. “We don’t know what it is. We just call it dark energy, but that’s just a name for ignorance.” SUPERNOVAE ON PG. 4
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PUBLICATION NOTICE
Next week’s print edition, the Student Body Election Guide, will be published on Tuesday, Feb. 28. The following week, The Battalion will be published on Wednesday, March 8. Following spring break, The Battalion will return to its normal Thursday publication.