thebattalion l tuesday,
february 11, 2014
l serving
texas a&m since 1893
l first paper free – additional copies $1 l © 2014 student media
COMMUNITY EFFORT PRESSURE ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL Aimee Breaux
The Battalion ith 10 to 15 students in each of the four candidate’s inner campaigning circle and many more carrying out smaller tasks for campaigns, the days leading up to the Feb. 21 election are a community effort. Between the late-night planning, the speaking engagements, banner holding and fitting in a nap whenever possible, student body president elections can monopolize lives during campaigning season. Just over 25 percent of students voted for an SBP candidate in last year’s elections, a turnout that is almost 800 votes higher than the voter turnout for yell leader. Behind these votes is a process that starts long before the official two weeks of campaigning. Kasey Kram, one of four candidates running for student body president, said picking the right team to support him through the process and help carry the burden of stress is vital. Kram said he feels lucky to have a campaign staff with individuals who have helped
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Jayavel Arumugam — THE BATTALION
(Above) Gus Blessing, senior international studies major and SBP candidate, delivers his speech during a SAIL meeting Monday night in Rudder Tower. (Below) Numbers reflect maximum budget allotment for each position.
William Guerra — THE BATTALION
By and large, people are willing to help you and to be a part of something if you ask.” — Mark Womack, 2013 Bush School graduate
with Texas Lieutenant Governor race campaigns. “It’s a lot of work and it’s a lot of stress on those individuals for the campaigning,” Kram said. “Campaigning is not just the two weeks that you can speak to organizations and hand out fliers and hold banners. It’s a lot of prep work beforehand, making sure each member is prepared, making sure their schedule lines up with campaign season.” Andrea Berrios, campaign manager for candidate Gus Blessing, said between managing the campaign timeline and helping brainstorm among other managerial activities, she expects to spend four to five hours a day on the See Campaign on page 6
immigration
Former student’s story brings national issues close to home Katy Stapp
The Battalion
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n May 25, 2012, for her 21st birthday, Ana Parra mailed an immigration application to bring her deported father back to the U.S. Parra, a Class of 2013 computer science major, and her two younger sisters were born to immigrant parents in the U.S. When Parra was 14, her mother died due to kidney problems. For a year, Parra looked after her sisters until
July 1, 2008, when her father was deported back to Mexico because of an expired visa. On the day of her 21st birthday, she sent the immigration application to bring her father back to be with his family. “My father shouldn’t be punished for staying in the United States to take care of his family who had just lost a mother,” Parra said. “As soon as I was of the legal age to be a petitioner, I sent the application.” See Immigration on page 5
COURTESY
Ana Parra, Class of 2013, is working to help her father gain residency in the U.S.
FOUNDER FIGHTS FOR RIGHTS Fire school to local
Q&: A
accept donation from Phillips 66
Local project works to end child enslavement
Lindsey Gawlik
Chris Field is the founder and executive director of Mercy Project, an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works to provide long-term and sustainable solutions to child trafficking in Ghana, Africa. Although he eventually transferred, Field started school at Texas A&M in the Class of 2005. City reporter Pallavi Kaushik sat down with Field to talk about his project.
FIELD: About four years ago I travelled to Ghana, Africa, for the first time. I had read in a book about child trafficking and minors facing injustices and as part of a Dallas Church Group I was working [with] as a volunteer. Once I went there, I was just captivated by the place and its people. I saw firsthand those problems and was so brokenhearted [by] the situation. Once we returned to the U.S. I had
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Gue
rra —
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COURTESY
THE BATTALION: How did Mercy Project get started?
Willi
The Battalion
Chris Field, founder of Mercy Project, works to end child enslavement in the Ghana fishing industry. a lingering feeling that I needed to get involved and help more. We tried to look and no other organization seemed to be tackling this root cause of poverty so we decided to start the Mercy Project on our own to address the root causes. See Mercy on page 4
organization THE
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Graduate student LGBT club creates welcoming atmosphere on campus Alexander Nelowet The Battalion
A “Our goals are more toward development and creating a warm climate and the advancement of graduate students along with welcoming more researchers who are LGBT aware into the Texas A&M school system.” — Jeremy Saenz, president of the group and counseling psychology graduate student
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exas A&M Engineering Extension Service announced in a news release Monday that the TEEX-operated Brayton Fire Training Field would be receiving a $500,000 donation over the next five years. The Brayton Fire Training Field has been operated by TEEX since 1960 and is the largest live-fueled firefighter training facility in the world, according to the TEEX website. The facility has 132 training stations, 22 live-fueled fire props and trains more than 45,000 emergency responders annually. Phillips 66, a Houston-based energy manufacturing and logistics company, will contribute the donation for future expansion. In the release, Bob Herman, senior vice president of health, safety and environment, projects and procurement for Phillips 66, said the company is donating the money to the program because the fire school has supplied the company with hands-on training that allowed its staff to safely respond to incidents. The donation will be given in a ceremonial check at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Brayton Fire Training Field H.D. Smith Operations Complex.
new organization created to foster an accepting environment for LGBT graduate students, The LBGTQA Graduate Group of Texas A&M, was unofficially founded last semester and is on its way to becoming an official A&M organization. Jeremy Saenz, president of the group and counseling psychology graduate student, said the group was created to meet the needs of LGBT graduate students looking to socialize and relate to others in similar
life positions. “With the graduate group a lot of times there are people who are older and they kind of have more professional mindsets to what they are studying,” Saenz said. “Our goals are more toward development and creating a warm climate and the advancement of graduate students along with welcoming more researchers who are LGBT aware into the Texas A&M school system.” Nick Barta, treasurer and public relations officer and materials science and engineering graduate student, said the group is attempting to
challenge the perception of A&M as “homophobic.” “We want to make a more welcoming environment also since A&M is ranked as one of the most homophobic campuses,” Barta said “That’s one of the myths that we are trying to dispel from A&M because it is possible that it is something that could keep very good students from potentially looking at A&M as a possibility when something like that is so false.” Saenz said the group participates in and organizes philanthropic See LGBT on page 4
2/10/14 11:17 PM