MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2017 STUDENT MEDIA
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VICTORY IN REBEL TERRITORY
Freshman defensive back Derrick Tucker had a pick-six against Ole Miss to give A&M the lead in Oxford. Cassie Stricker — THE BATTALION
Tucker leads superb second half in the 31-24 road win By Alex Miller @AlexMill20 OXFORD, Miss. — Former Texas A&M head coach Bear Bryant once said that defense wins championships. And while the Aggies were not contending for any sort of title Saturday night at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, a championship defensive effort in the second half aided A&M (7-4, 4-3 SEC) in a tight 31-24 victory over Ole Miss (5-6, 2-5 SEC).
In the final 30 minutes, the Aggie defense yielded a shutout, and limited the Rebels to a mere 66 total yards, four first downs and forced six punts on eight drives. “Credit to our staff, we made some adjustments at halftime, we tried to contain the quarterback,” A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin said. “I thought that defense did a nice job in the second half of really creating more negative yardage plays, sacks. The issue was with the quarterback and that translated into them not putting points on the board in the second half and giving us a chance to win.” Adjustments were in dire need
after the Rebels ran wild on offense in the first half, recording 325 total yards while taking a 24-21 lead at the break. “We were more of a coverage team in the first half,” Sumlin said. “[Ole Miss QB Jordan Ta’amu] got loose and converted some third downs on his own.” Freshman safety Derrick Tucker’s 19-yard pick-six with 8:04 in the third quarter may have been the most pivotal play of the night, which gave A&M its first lead of the game, one the Aggies would not relinquish. Despite his youthfulness, Tucker stepped up mightily and played
beyond his years, recording a gamehigh 14 tackles. “Derrick Tucker had a great game, especially with him being such a young guy — he’s the future,” sophomore running back Trayveon Williams said. “That pick-six really helped us out and gave us a little spark.” Tucker was also responsible for forcing the Rebels’ only other turnover, stripping Dawson Knox of the ball after a catch just before he hit the ground. The forced fumble was critical inside the Aggie 35-yard line. “They shut us out in the second half when they had a pick-six and
ultimately the turnovers were the difference,” Ole Miss head coach Matt Luke said. “You can’t turn the ball over and win.” Ole Miss quarterback Jordan Ta’amu was held to 189 passing yards on 19-of-34 attempts. The junior came into the contest averaging 389.3 yards per game since becoming the Rebels starter three games ago. In the second half, Ta’amu was only 7-of-19 for 51 yards passing. The Aggies were prone to surrender large passing plays in previous weeks, but only allowed two passes of 20-plus yards this game, both of FOOTBALL ON PG. 4
Songfest winners receive $8,000 to donate Each performance is elaborately and carefully planned, from props and costumes to music and choreography.
Tri Delta, Beta Upsilon Chi win annual philanthropy event By Ryan Brown @ryanpbrown03 Music and dancing took center stage at the annual Chi Omega Songfest, which unites organizations around campus for some healthy competition in the name of charity. This past weekend, Songfest was held in Rudder Auditorium, where 28 student organizations competed to win money for the philanthropies they chose to represent. Songfest is held annually in the fall semester and remains the largest
Jesse Everett — THE BATTALION
Renewing a tradition Corps of Cadets brings back daylight saving uniforms By Deborah Anderaos @deborahanderaos An organization rich in history, the Corps of Cadets has brought back a tradition not seen on campus in years — wearing their Winter Bravo uniforms. Worn after daylight saving time ends, the uniform includes a darker, thicker pair of pants along with the option to wear a long sleeve or short sleeve bravo top. This option is more convenient for the constant weather changes that occur in College Station. Many within the Corps are skeptical of the change, but the chance to bring back an old uniform is exciting, according to Rebekah James, recreational parks and tourism sciences senior and Corps of Cadets public relations officer. James said the change in weather is what spurred the decision for the uniform change. Their business casual is the Bravo class uniform which includes a jacket for colder weath-
er. The Winter Bravo uniform was worn before the 1950s, making it a piece of history, James said. “The Corps is evolving so much because of our campus growing and we have to maintain relevance,” James said. “Going back to old uniforms that were worn is a great chance to preserve a piece of history.” According to Rhonda Kogut, director of the Military Property Warehouse, various changes are currently in the works. Not only are they implementing this uniform change, but renovations are being made to the Military Property Warehouse for the first time since the building was erected in 1969. “This is the first major renovation that the building has ever had,” Kogut said. “The building has had miniature renovations but nothing like the renovation today where the whole inside of the building is getting a makeover.” Kogut said the changes in the Winter Bravo uniform and Military Property Warehouse are really about the corps evolving as a whole. “Anytime Texas A&M changes
Greek philanthropy event on Texas A&M’s campus. Songfest was originally created by the sorority Chi Omega and is still organized by them today. Agricultural communications and journalism junior and member of Chi Omega Megan Smith serves as the philanthropy chair for Songfest. “This is the 39th year of Songfest, which was created to raise money for local and national philanthropies,” Smith said. “It started out very small and has grown into this insane event and Chi Omega is so grateful for the organizations that put so much time and effort into their acts.” On Friday night, a service social was held in the Rudder Exhibit
Hall where patrons were able to see the service side of Songfest. “There are six purposes in Chi Omega and one of them is selfless service, just like at Texas A&M,” Smith said. “It’s important, first and foremost, to give our time, money and effort to support organizations in our community as well as our nation.” For many participants it was their first time performing at Songfest. Communication sophomore Rebecca Davis is a member of the Delta Gamma sorority, which was representing Service for Sight, a philanthropy that supports schools for the visually impaired and various organizations promoting sight SONGFEST ON PG. 2
Sophomore Grant Lee, junior Matthew Hill and sophomore Jared Holbrook are pictured in their Winter Bravos. The uniform features thicker, darker pants and a short or long sleeved top.
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Editiorial Note: Due to Thanksgiving break, The Battalion will only print on Monday. Check online for other content throughout the week.
Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION
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In addition to first, second and third place winners, there is an “Act’s Favorite Award“ selected by Songfest participants.
Jesse Everett — THE BATTALION
SONGFEST CONTINUED preservation. “Performing was such a fun and amazing experience, and it was such a rush of adrenaline,” Davis said. “Although we didn’t win, getting to have fun while raising money for our philanthropy was rewarding in
itself.” Each student organization represents a different philanthropy. Business management sophomore Briana Van Rensburg, member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority, said she was motivated to support the Boy’s and Girl’s Club of Brazos Valley through her performance. “Performing makes me want to
put more energy into every dance I do because I know I’m helping to raise money that’s going to go to people and charities that really need it,” Van Rensburg said. “The philanthropies give everyone there a purpose.” On Saturday night, Tri Delta and Beta Upsilon Chi were announced as the winners of Songfest. Tri Del-
ta received $4,000 for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Beta Upsilon Chi received $4,000 for The Bridge Ministries, a local Christian community service organization. Preparing for Songfest can be a long and tedious process. Communication major and Tri Delta’s Songfest chair Olivia Gonzales said
the hard work put in was worth it to be able to win for their philanthropy. “Winning feels incredible because everyone has put in so much time and hard work, so it’s nice to see that pay off,” Gonzales said. “Ultimately, we’re all incredibly grateful that we can donate so much money to our philanthropies.”
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The Military Property Warehouse, which serves as the hub of all cadet uniform needs, is currently being renovated. Deborah Anderaos — THE BATTALION
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something, the little hairs on the back of people’s necks start to rise,” Kogut said. “Cadets today are slowly realizing their uniforms are historical pieces and how big of a deal the Military Property Warehouse renovation is, making a big difference for A&M and becoming much more convenient for our cadets.” The United States Army is about to making similar changes according to both their website and Lisa Kalmus, curator for the Corps of Cadets. Kalmus said the change will be back to the pinks and greens uniform that was
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worn after World War II. “The reason this is a big deal is the pinks and greens uniform that the U.S. Army is wanting to change back to is just about identical with our Winter Bravo uniforms, except for slight pocket size differences on the jacket,” Kalmus said. Kalmus said the change in the Army uniforms could potentially impact the Corps because the Army warehouse departments would have these uniforms in supply. The Corps will follow the former tradition and wear their Winter Bravos until Daylight Saving Time begins in March.
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Teams apply virtual perspectives to practical problems
Dalia Muayad — THE BATTALION
Aggies Invent participants are chosen based on an application process and range from freshman to Ph.D candidates as well as a variety of majors.
Dell supplies mission, reward for Aggies Invent competition By Alex Sein @Alexandrsein Last Friday, Aggies Invent opened its doors to 56 students. Unlike previous versions of the event, this one was sponsored directly by Dell, which gave every member of the winning team a high-end Dell workstation. According to Rodney Boehm, director of engineering entrepreneurship and associate professor of practice, Aggies Invent has been a regular event since the summer of 2014. “It’s an intensive design experience over 48 hours where we gather anywhere from 40 to 70 students together, freshmen through Ph.D. candidates, and we concentrate on solving, designing and selling a solution to a problem that’s been pro-
posed to us by one of our partners,” Boehm said. The winning team was Team Shovel, which consisted of Mike Choi and Ayaz Abdullah, both computer engineering juniors, and Muin Momin, computer science junior. “We’re so excited,” Momin said. “We’re sleep-deprived and got homework to do, but it feels good.” Team Shovel’s project dealt with the detection and real-time transmission to an augmented reality headset of the locations of underground pipelines. Choi said the team would like to continue the work outside the confines of the competition. “With enough support from the school, maybe, I think we can continue on,” Choi said. “It looks very promising.” The second place team was Team Aku, whose members included Craig Medlin, Waylon Lee, Tanner Hunt, Chris Garza, Elizabeth Bik and Kamal Khraisheh. Third
place was awarded to ARchitecture, which included Patrick Sandoval, Allison Kornher, Maximiliano Lopez, Morgan Boudier and David Miler. According to Boehm, there was a difference this year in that the sponsors were much more involved with the whole process. “This one is kind of a unique one in that we have Dell bringing all the technology and all their partners, and Accenture is here, so you have both Accenture and Dell, you’ve got the strategy and technology side working together,” Boehm said. According to Boehm, Dell offered to change the winning prize from the usual $1,000 for the team to giving each member of the winning team a Dell laptop workstation. Dell also provided the need statement, or theme for the event, which was Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), requiring that every team’s final project be presented in AR or VR.
“The companies now provide us the need statements,” Boehm said. “The reason we do that is because we want students to work on real life problems, not something that is just made up in an environment.” The students split themselves into teams of varying sizes. One of these groups, Team Dash, worked on an AR application that would make jogging a more exciting form of exercise, according to Logan Havern, industrial engineering junior. “We are trying to improve healthy lifestyle, motivate fitness and wellness, and we’re doing that by creating an augmented reality application that will encourage people who don’t run a lot to start exercising and get out there because we’re going to create a fun environment where this can happen,” Havern said. Team Aku developed a way to view cars at dealerships using VR, according to Chris Garza, computer engineering junior.
“Our need is to show how VR can help potential buyers buy vehicles in the future,” Chris said. Also attending this year’s competition was Meta, a group dedicated to using AR to make technology more accessible. “We want to make sure everyone can use technology,” David Gene Oh, head of developer relations at Meta said. “Why is it only excluded to people that can write code and have a certain education?” Meta’s AR headset, according to Oh, offers a wide-field AR display that allows the user to see augmented reality with a far wider range of view than other similar headsets. Oh also said that the unique hand recognition system built into the headset allows the user’s hand gestures to control virtual elements in real time, so users can manipulate objects without the burden of handheld remotes or buttons.
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Senior defensive end Jarrett Johnson had a sack and two tackles for loss against Ole Miss Saturday night.
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Josh McCormack, Editor in Chief Gracie Mock, Managing Editor Alexis Will, Creative Director Katy Baldock, Social Media Editor Angel Franco, Sports Editor Luke Henkhaus, News Editor
Brad Morse, SciTech Editor Mariah Colon, Life & Arts Editor Cassie Stricker, Photo Editor Adrian DeMoss, Multimedia Editor Maya Hiatt, Page Designer Cassie Stricker — THE BATTALION
FOOTBALL CONTINUED THE BATTALION is published Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during the fall and spring semesters and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer session (except University holidays and exam periods) at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. Offices are in Suite L400 of the Memorial Student Center. News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at Texas A&M University in Student Media, a unit of the Division of Student Affairs. Newsroom phone: 979-845-3315; E-mail: editor@thebatt.com; website: http://www.thebatt.com. Advertising: Publication of advertising does not imply sponsorship or endorsement by The Battalion. For campus, local, and national display advertising call 979-845-2687. For classified advertising, call 979-845-0569. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Email: battads@thebatt.com. Subscriptions: A part of the University Advancement Fee entitles each Texas A&M student to pick up a single copy of The Battalion. First copy free, additional copies $1.
which were first-half Rebel touchdowns. Junior defensive end Landis Durham said defensive line coaches Terry Price and David Turner told the unit at halftime they would have to be the ones to win the game. It would also have to be done without key defensive tackle Zaycoven Henderson, who was ejected for targeting just before the break. When called upon, they rose to the occasion. An abundance of pressure troubled Ta’amu, as the Aggies racked up three sacks, all in the second half. “We needed some young guys in the interior D-Line to step up and that’s exactly what they did,” Durham said.
Strong play by the A&M front seven allowed its secondary to make coverage adjustments and stand tall against a stout Ole Miss receiving corps on a windy night in Northwest Mississippi. “They were able to get pressure on the quarterback, so that was tough on Jordan [Ta’amu] and I think it was hard with the conditions, especially throwing that deep ball down the field,” Luke said. “It was a tale of two halves for us.” Penalties proved costly for Ole Miss in the second half, too, as the Rebels were flagged 11 times for 87 yards. None were more crippling than a pair of facemasks during A&M’s final drive of the game, which helped set up Daniel LaCamera’s 18-yard field goal with 1:59 to go — the only offensive points
scored on either side in the final 30 minutes. “We were shooting ourselves in the foot a lot of the times with a lot of penalties,” Ole Miss running back Jordan Wilkins said. “We have to play a lot cleaner game.” The A&M defense needed one final stop, though. Four plays later, cornerback Charles Oliver, who returned from injury after missing the past two games, broke up a pass on fourth-and-2 to secure the win for the Aggies. “We knew we were going to have to be back out there at the end of the game and knew we were going to have to step up and make a play and that’s what we did,” senior safety Armani Watts said.
AGGIELAND YEARBOOK It’s not too late to order your copy of the 2017 Aggieland Yearbook, a photojournalistic record of the 2016-2017 school year. The 115th edition of Texas A&M’s Official Yearbook will be available before the holidays.
Go online to aggieland.tamu.edu or call 979-845-2613 to make your purchase.
$75.00 + Tax (Includes Mail Fee)
Don’t forget to preorder your copy of the 2018 Aggieland yearbook. The 116th edition of Texas A&M’s official yearbook. Ordering can be done online at aggieland.tamu.edu, or by calling 979-845-2613. Distribution will be the Fall 2018. 2016 Aggielands and previous yearbooks are now on sale. Stop by room L400 in the MSC or call 979-845-2613.
$40.00 + Tax (Includes Mail Fee)
According to Texas State law and university policy, emotional support animals must be approved before being allowed on campus. Carlos Romero — THE BATTALION
Pets for dealing with stress Clearing up misconceptions, rules about emotional support animals By Jillian Sanders @jillsands98 While student enrollment has reached a record high, so has the number of emotional support animals on campus, according to Tracey Forman, assistant director of Disability Services. Since the Fair Housing Act began to recognize emotional support animals, or ESAs, in April 2013, the campus has seen a subsequent increase in the number of these animals. Texas A&M has also begun to face complications arising from miscommunication or misuse of the law, according to Forman. Because of these factors, the Department of Disability Services hosted a webinar on Nov. 16 to discuss service and emotional support animals on campus with other faculty members. According to speaker Scott Lissner, Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator for Ohio State University, there is a clear distinction between service animals and ESAs. “An emotional support animal provides support — we typically phrase it to someone with a mental or emotional disability,” Lissner said. “But you should remember and keep in mind that stress is both physical and psychological, and if the animal is a stress-reducer for a physiological condition, that may justify it as an ESA, even though the documentation comes from a medical doctor rather than a psychologist or psychiatrist or counselor.” Often, problems can arise when students don’t know the regulations regarding pets on campus, according to Forman. “We have the people who believe they can just bring their animal, say it’s an ESA, and think they don’t need to do anything,” Forman said. “They don’t realize that there’s a process, or they don’t realize that they have to have it approved before they bring it to campus. I think residence has this every
year, right around opening, someone shows up with an animal, they don’t have any paperwork approving it, and then housing is trying to figure out if it’s a support or service animal. Legally, the [student] shouldn’t have it until it’s been approved.” Unless the student has made a request for accommodations in campus buildings, ESAs are only allowed in places of residency, making them different from service animals. Students requesting an ESA must first contact A&M Disability Services, and also must be in contact with a health professional, according to Forman. There are some online websites, such as therapypet.com and esaregistration.org, that claim to register animals so they can be taken anywhere. However, according to Forman, these are not valid. “I could send a picture in of my stuffed animal and they would give me a paper for a service dog. They aren’t verifying anything,” Forman said. “You pay a fee, they give you a certificate. They aren’t a medical provider. It’s worthless and a waste of money. Specifically in the state of Texas, if that person is not licensed in the state of Texas or in a therapeutic relationship with you, we will not accept those [certificates].” Psychology junior Baylee Vallot said she has been looking to register her cat after realizing the benefits the animal brings her. “After I got my cat, I realized what a big help it was because I was feeling really alone in college,” Vallot said. “Even if you have roommates, it feels different than living with your family or people that you really know, so having an animal with you makes you feel like you’re never alone. Even though they aren’t people, they are definitely great company.” Vallot said she intends to get a doctor’s approval to certify her cat, since she knows that helps relieve her stress. “My cat is actually really playful so it’s kind of a good balance,” Vallot said. “During the day it’s like I have someone to play with and hang out with. But at night, he sleeps in my arms, cuddled up like a teddy bear, and that’s such a relief at the end of the day.”