Issuu

April shouldn’t be Confederate History Month, protesters say

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THE BATTALION | THEBATT.COM

By Chevall Pryce Activists gathered at the Brazos County Administration Building to protest the Brazos County commissioners’ proclamation of April as “Confederate History and Heritage” month Tuesday. The proclamation comes after the Texas chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an organization of all-male descendants of confederate soldiers, proposed the holiday to the Brazos County Commissioners Court. All Brazos County commissioners approved the proclamation. Members of “Texas A&M University Anti-Racism,” the university’s chapter of the United Left Alliance, and community members who gathered at the Administration Building Tuesday said the proclamation was in poor taste. Gary Bray, the division commander of the Texas chapter of SCV, said the month is necessary to honor past Confederate soldiers. “Our organization exists to uphold up the good name of the Confederate soldiers and the cause they fought for,” Bray said. “It’s not so much the old Confederacy, and it’s not about slavery. We have black members, we have Hispanic members and Indian members.” The commissioners’ office released a statement saying they are not supporting slavery with the proclamation of Confederate History Month. “Our recognition of Confederate history also acknowledges that slavery was one of the causes of the war, and was ended by the war and is hereby condemned,” the statement said. Brent Green, Class of 2014 and member of United Left Alliance, said the organizations present to protest the proclamation were disturbed by the commissioner’s denial of any racist implications that go along with dedicating a month to Confederate history. “No one in the community has spoken up enough about this before and how this is inherently a racist and symbolically violent act on minority groups,” Green said. “The court made sure, in their language to condemn slavery, but there’s no correct way to do a wrong thing.” Margarita Zollo, an environmental design freshman and a member of TAMU Anti-Racism, was present at the protest. “We were really just there to let them hear a few different voices,” Zollo said. “I thought we ought to do something … We wanted to lend our voices to people who were hurt by this proclamation.” Before the proclamation of the month, a day was already marked to celebrate Confederate history, Confederate Memorial Day, on April 26th. According to Brazos County Commissioner Sammy Catalena, this is not an official holiday. SCV has been trying to get the month recognized for several years.

THE FINAL TOUCHES

A&M Hyperloop team finalizes design for upcoming build phase By Gracie Mock

Members of student government are hosting a competition in hopes of fostering a classroom environment where professors lean on open resources rather than costly textbooks. what The Student GovContest awarding ernment Association professors who use has partnered with open resources Bruce Herbert, scholarly communications when director and faculty Nominations due April 18 member in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, and Library Director Sarah Potvin, to create the first SGA Open Educational Materials Awards. The awards will be student nominated and

he building phase is almost here for TAMU Aerospace Hyperloop as the team works on what could be the newest mode of transportation. After moving on from a January design competition that saw 120 international teams present designs at Kyle Field’s Hall of Champions, the Aggie team has spent the last few months prepping their design to take it from paper to the track. TAMU Aerospace Hyperloop will take their built pod for a final competition against 29 other universities at SpaceX’s test track in Hawthorne, California. The hyperloop is Elon Musk’s concept of a high-speed transportation system involving pods that will carry passengers and cargo at over 700 miles per hour through a near-vacuum tube. “The design we went to competition with was a really, really good design, but one that’s not feasible to build, at least for a first-time mock-up,” said Matthew Connelly, aerospace engineering senior team member. “If we were building this on a large scale, and building multiple of them, it would more economic to build our initial design where it was a lot of complex shapes and things like that. For this, we’ve kinda had to cut it down to more bare bones of, ‘Let’s get rid of some of the nice curves, let’s get rid of some aesthetics, more or less, and make it work first.’” Christian Sotelo, aerospace engineering senior, said since the start of the project, SpaceX has constantly made changes, but the most recent change in the configuration does not affect the TAMU Aerospace Hyperloop team. “They did do a small, minor change that really didn’t affect our pod, but it did to some others because of the shape,” Sotelo said. “Ours was very versatile in the fact that we’re using poly-carbon fiber to make the back so we can easily cut out anything and add any little pieces that are required.” The team was looking to fill gaps in the braking and electrical systems and have brought on

OPEN RESOURCE ON PG. 2

HYPERLOOP ON PG. 2

SGA

SGA promotes open resources, rewards profs for utilization Chemistry

Sociology

TEXTBOOK$ Literature History

By Brad Cannon

Photos by Ethan Dias — THE BATTALION

TAMU Aerospace Hyperloop members work long hours in their labs running tests and preparing to build their hyperloop pod.

“The design we went to competition with was a really, really good design, but one that’s not feasible to build, at least not for a first-time mock-up.” Matthew Connelly, member of TAMU Aerospace Hyperloop team

ACTIVISM

Student brings sexual assault awareness group to campus New organization kicks off with symbolic displays By Emma Whitfield

Ethan Dias — THE BATTALION

After junior Sydney Whigam was assaulted on campus, she took it upon herself to bring “Not On My Campus” to A&M.

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Students involved in a new awareness group on campus are drawing on a national campaign to spread a message — “Not on A&M’s campus.” Sydney Whigam, theater arts junior, was assaulted on campus in January. During the early stages of her grief, Whigam was told about an organization, “Not On My Campus,” at another university from a member involved in the club. Not On My Campus is a national campaign geared towards raising awareness of sexual assault on college

campuses. Now as the president of the new A&M chapter, Whigam and other members are hosting a kickoff event in Academic Plaza and the MSC Tuesday and Wednesday. “It’s important for students who have gone through this to know that they aren’t alone,” Whigam said. “As someone who has been sexually assaulted, I feel like it is important to know that even though we’re one of the greatest universities in the world, we’re not invincible. These types of things can happen here. But it’s important to let our fellow Aggies know that they are important and loved, and that it wasn’t their fault.” With sharpies in hand, members of NOMC will encourage passersby to write, “Not on my campus,”

on their hands and post a picture on social media with the hashtag “#NotOnMyCampusTAMU.” Students are also encouraged to sign the online pledge to find out more about how to help break the silence surrounding sexual assaults. Franny Hebner, education freshman, serves as the head of communications for the A&M NOMC chapter. Hebner was at the kickoff event Tuesday encouraging students to take a picture with structures that the founding members of NOMC made. The structure consists of four outlines of people cut from wood — three of which are painted maroon, and the fourth which is covered with shattered glass. NOMC ON PG. 2

4/12/16 10:24 PM

FROMTHEFRONT

ANSWERS

to todays puzzles

The Battalion | 4.13.16

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Alexis Will — THE BATTALION

Nick Page introduced the idea for the open resources initiative in a Student Senate bill.

OPEN RESOURCE CONTINUED ultimately reward professors at Texas A&M who utilize open resources in their entry-level classes. One of the awards, the “Open Educator Award,” will reward professors who make material available for free to the students in their classes, while the other award, the “Open Educator Champion Award,” will reward professors who make material available for free to all Texas A&M students, said Potvin. “You might not be getting as much out of your educational experience here if you can’t access the materials you need to do well in your classes,” Potvin said. “This award is an effort by the SGA to recognize that and to reward professors who are doing what they can to make class resources more accessible.” The goal of these awards is to motivate professors to switch from current, more expensive textbooks to open-access textbooks that are offered either online or can be printed out at a much lower cost for students, said Herbert. The idea for an open-resource competition was initially introduced by Nick Page, aerospace engineering senior, in a Student Senate bill.

“We are trying to lower the cost of attendance at A&M,” Page said. “There are not a lot of ways to do that, but this is one of them. It might take a few years to catch on, but the more publicity we can get, the faster it will catch on.” Switching to an open-access textbook creates an enormous amount of work for professors, said Herbert. “Changing a textbook for your class is an amazing amount of work,” said Herbert. “It can change homework, slideshows, presentations and tests. That is a lot of work.” The awards are intended to be an acknowledgement of professors who are willing to put the time and work in to help students financially, said Herbert. Many professors will highly value these awards, because they could directly impact them, said Herbert. “The two things that Texas A&M uses to judge teaching quality are student evaluations at the end of the course and teaching awards,” Herbert said. “Texas A&M really values these for tenure and promotion.” All students are eligible to submit nominations, which are due by April 18, and can be located on the Texas A&M libraries website.

HYPERLOOP CONTINUED board Sreekonth Reddy, industrial and systems engineering junior, and Michael Bayem, electrical and computer engineering sophomore, to bolster the design. “They had a basic design for what I was doing and just basically handed what they had and said, ‘Run with it,’ and they have been really open to whatever needed to happen or changes that need to be made,” Bayern said in regards to joining the team. The levitation system won best subsystem award during the design weekend, and the team has since worked to develop a scaled model of the system, said Ashely Harris, aerospace engineering senior. The levitation system is one of the biggest strengths, since it is both novel and safer than the other team’s designs, said Lucas Mussina, aerospace engineering senior.

“By making our pod one of the lightest out there, we’re meeting that goal — we’re meeting that objective of efficiency.” Matthew Connelly, aerospace engineering senior

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“A lot of teams competing are using magnetic levitation, which requires a lot of batteries and batteries are flammable — they’re also heavier,” Mussina said. “Our design doesn’t have that power requirement, so we don’t have a lot of batteries. So we don’t have as high a risk of fire or any kind of destructive, unstable chemicals or components. Everything is pretty user-friendly in that sense.” Connelly said another strength is that the pod is one of the lightest that will compete. “By making our pod one of the lightest out there, we’re meeting that goal — we’re meeting that objective of efficiency,” Connelly said. “It’s not going to take as much power to get it up to speed and maintain speed.” Sotelo said the pod maintains the same things the team highlighted to sell the pod to the judges and companies in January and that all the modifications made still meet the requirements put forth by SpaceX. “We said it was scalable, so we’re able to make it large, we’re able to expand everything easily,” Sotelo said. “It’s low cost, that was another big thing. We actually had, if I remember correctly, the second cheapest pod there, so if we were to manufacture ours it would be pretty simple, pretty easy and not as expensive. Air bearings, so we’re levitating on air and we’re one of the only teams [doing that].”

Ethan Dias — THE BATTALION

“Not On My Campus” is holding kickoff events in Academic Plaza and the MSC on Tuesday and Wednesday.

NOMC CONTINUED “What this represents is that one in four women will be sexually assaulted at some point throughout their college career,” Hebner said. “We used Sydney’s great idea to put shattered mirrors on one, so that when you look you could be the one in four because it’s not really something you think that could happen to you until it happens to you or someone close to you. It’s something different that we wanted to do. It’s different than just a banner — people will stop and look at it and be able to take pictures with them.” Chase Whittet, communication senior, fraternity chair for NOMC, and a member of Pi Kappa Phi said he strives to bring awareness to both the Greek

and non-Greek community on this issue and end silence on campus. Whittet said the Greek community has been very involved with starting up A&M’s chapter of NOMC, since the A&M chapter of NOMC was founded by Whigam, who happens to be a Chi Omega member. The Greek community has been supportive in getting the chapter on its feet, and plan to help the organization continue to flourish by having fraternity brothers and sisters hold leadership positions. “Most everybody in a leadership position [for Not On My Campus] is in a Greek organization,” Whittet said. “We have Gamma Phi Beta, Chi Omega, Kappa Upsilon Chi and Pi Kappa Phi.”

4/12/16 10:15 PM

NEWS

The Battalion | 4.13.16

Officials to debate state of Israel, Palestine conflict Wiley to host ‘Pursuit of Peace,’ host former Israeli prime minister By Madeline Shulz Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Liberation Organization Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi will come to campus Wednesday to discuss Israeli-Palestinian relations. The MSC Wiley Lecture Series will host Barak and Ashrawi in a discussion titled “In Pursuit of Peace: An Israeli Palestinian Dialogue.” Tranae Felicien, a political science sophomore and the main program director for the Wiley Lecture Series, said the dialogue will cover past conflicts between the two nations, as well as potential solutions for the facilitation of peace. “We’ve talked about certain things that the speakers want to hit on, which is the power differences between Palestine and Israel; what things can be done so that peace can actually be sustained? Various things like who should foster these peace talks, how should it be approached — should this be unilateral or multilateral?” Felicien said. The conflict between Israel and Palestine has a long history, igniting tensions between supporters across the globe. Such was the case on the A&M campus earlier this semester in March when a disagreement arose between Students Supporting Israel and Aggies for Palestine. Tensions arose between the two groups while the Aggies for Palestine peacefully protested an SSI mural display. The conflict was ultimately resolved peacefully, but serves to highlight the need for further discourse on peace between Israel and Palestine. “I’m thrilled that these two leaders are coming together at A&M,” said Rabbi Matt Rosenberg, executive director of Hillel at Texas A&M University. “I have so much respect for each of them and their willingness

FILE

Tensions arose when the Aggies for Palestine peacefully protested a Students Supporting Israel display in March. to come together in open dialogue to help some of the most significant challenges of our day. Everyone wants peace in the Middle East and coming together through forums such as this help pave the way to understanding and peace.” The event will be moderated by Janine Zacharia, a professor from Stanford and former Jerusalem Bureau Chief and Middle East correspondent for The Washington Post. Zacharia’s guided discussion and some open discourse between Barak and Ashrawi, MSC Wiley hopes to provide students with

a largely unprecedented opportunity to hear critical discussion between two foreign world leaders. “To have somebody who is a strong leader from both Israel and Palestine, not only on the same stage at the same time but already agreed to speak together, that’s a really big deal because it’s a very divisive issue,” said international studies junior and Wiley Chair W Lander. Civil engineering junior Yazan Zakaria, former president of Aggies for Palestine, says the conversation between two polarizing fig-

ures, Barak and Ashrawi, will bring to light new perspectives for attendees to consider. “Attending discussions such as this one will allow Aggies to create a more well-rounded opinion of the conflict, leading to the creation of individuals that can converse and give well-thought-out opinions with people whose lives have been directly affected by this conflict,” Zakaria said. The discussion between Barak and Ashrawi will be held Wednesday in Rudder Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.

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4/12/16 10:24 PM

BASEBALL

The Battalion | 4.13.16

Valerie Gunchick — THE BATTALION

Austin Homan swings at a pitch during Texas A&M’s victory Tuesday night over Abilene Christian.

Offensive outburst propels Aggies to 10-4 win over ACU By Heath Clary

Alexis Will — THE BATTALION

Nick McKenna, head of the ground’s crew, waters the field to prepare it for gameday. The crew’s gameday routine can begin as early as sunrise and lasts until long after the game ends.

OLSEN’S F OTHER HOME TEAM

By Matt Koper

A&M ground’s crew ensures the field Aggies win on is a win in itself

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or Olsen Field groundskeeper Nick McKenna, a baseball gameday can start as early as sunrise. By first pitch, he and the grounds crew will have poured hours of their time and energy into perfecting the field. The work they put into making Olsen Field look glamorous isn’t always so glamorous itself, but McKenna said it pays off when a crowd enters the ballpark. “I talk about how it needs to be safe and it needs to be playable, but a close second place to that is the aesthetics of it,” McKenna said. “We want it to look amazing, because we’re going for that wow factor with potential recruits, with fans, with visiting teams. You want that impression when someone walks in the ballpark to be like, ‘This is amazing.’” McKenna has worked at A&M for eight years. He said the reason behind his sometimes 80-hour-work week is simply to ensure that he and his crew go unnoticed. “In a perfect situation, nobody even knows about us,” McKenna said. “Because if somebody is talking about us, it usually means something went wrong … It’s sad to say that we don’t want to go noticed, but that’s kind of what we’re striving for — because it means we did our job and we did it right.” In preparation for games, McKenna and his crew give most of their attention to the “skin,” or the infield area on the diamond. Keeping up this area involves using a metal device called a “drag” to smooth out the infield dirt, meticulously watering the area and replacing dirt around the pitcher’s mound and bullpen by hand. Before the game, the grounds crew can be seen watering the infield and doing drags across the infield dirt. The first set of bases is set down for batting practice while McKenna checks over his work

one more time. “First, they have a ground ball routine, where they take about a hundred ground balls in about seven minutes time,” McKenna said. “I always like to watch that just because I can find out more about how the fields are going to play in that seven to eight minutes than I will in the next three hours.” During the game, the crew watches the game or hangs out until the end of the third inning to perform another field drag with the help of the Aggies men’s group, the Iron Spikes, a service organization that supports the baseball team. They replace the bases at the end of the sixth-inning and perform another drag following that. Even after the final out in the game, the grounds crew’s work isn’t finished. They walk the perimeter of the field with rakes and remove dirt from the grass, clean up the chalk from the field and throw it away as well as perform another drag. Once they have done this, the final thing the crew does is water the dirt. Head coach Rob Childress sees the grounds crew’s work on a daily basis and has developed a friendship with McKenna. The two have even run a marathon together. Childress said the grounds crew, and McKenna in particular, are integral to the Aggies’ success. “I feel like he’s another coach, he’s another team member. He’s a part of our team and a part of our staff,” Childress said. “Not only do I think he’s the best in the business, he’s also one of my very best friends.” Childress said the fans don’t see the amount of work that the crew puts in behind the scenes. “They don’t get enough credit for what they do,” Childress said. “The fans come out and they see a beautiful surface, they just don’t know all the man hours that’s put into this.”

The No. 6 Texas A&M baseball team used two big offensive innings and solid-pitching performances from seven different pitchers to dominate visiting Abilene Christian 10-4 Tuesday night at Blue Bell Park. Mitchell Kilkenny got the victory on the mound, but the Aggies (26-7) used the midweek game to give some innings to pitchers who haven’t received many opportunities to throw since A&M entered into the thick of its SEC slate. “We did everything well,” A&M outfielder Nick Choruby said after the game. “I thought everyone that pitched pitched really well. They all were on attack which is good. I thought one through nine in the lineup we were really aggressive, which is good to see.” The Aggies broke the game open in the second inning when Ryne Birk and Michael Barash started the frame with back-to-back singles. They each moved up a base on a wild pitch and then Joel Davis drove in Birk with an infield groundout for the first run of the game. The next four batters followed with singles, the last of which was a rocket off the bat of Nick Banks to right field that scored two. Another run didn’t cross the plate until the sixth, when the Wildcats (11-20) finally got on the board. After Tyler Ivey issued a two-out walk to ACU third baseman Aaron Draper, pinch-hitter Heath Beasley crushed a double to the wall in left field. Draper scored all the way from first to cut the A&M lead to 4-1. It didn’t take long for the Aggies to respond, though. Five straight A&M hits to lead off its half of the sixth resulted in five runs, highlighted by Davis’ two-run triple into the right centerfield gap. Choruby followed the triple with an RBI single to left and then Austin Homan plated Choruby with a long sacrifice fly to left. “We were kind of getting lackadaisical, getting away from our approach,” said Birk, who went 2-for-4 at the plate and scored two runs. “Coach Bolt got on us a little bit and kind of lit a fire under us. [Melton] started off that inning with a good spark and we just kept it rolling.” On the mound, the Aggies displayed their full array of power arms. Stephen Kolek and Kilkenny each tossed two scoreless innings, Ivey allowed one run in 1.2 innings and Cason Sherrod recorded an out on the only batter he faced. Turner Larkins and Mark Ecker threw scoreless innings with two strikeouts apiece and then Ryan Hendrix struck out two in the ninth despite giving up three runs. “Each pitcher we ran out there I thought was fantastic,” A&M head coach Rob Childress said. “We played really good defense behind them and offensively we continued to roll.” The Aggies will try to carry their momentum into the weekend when they travel to Starkville, Mississippi, to play a three-game series against No. 2 Mississippi State. Game one will begin Friday at 6:30 p.m. and be televised on SEC Network+.

4/12/16 10:26 PM