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Education at a cost Students in debt talk about adapting to financial strife By EmmaLee Newman @Emmy_Lee014

typical student faces many challenges during college — deadlines, exams and time management, just to name a few. But one of the challenges that many college students face beyond their time on campus is debt. Academic debt is a reality that 45 percent of students at Texas A&M face each year, according to the A&M Financial Aid Center. Although lower than the national percent of undergraduates that use loans — 68 percent — a student at A&M will take out an average of $23,000. Kaylie Fontenot, Class of 2014, is currently $40,000 in debt. Taking out a loan interfered with her plans to go to veterinarian school, so now Fontenot works for the university as a document imaging specialist for the Admissions De-

partment because of the lack of job availability for her degree. “It was stressful knowing that I was in debt and getting into debt because basically I pay for everything with my student loans so my mom helped me with rent and other than that I worked. None of my tuition was paid for so I wouldn’t say it was good, definitely not good now,” Fontenot said. “Once I graduated it became more stressful because you have to start paying within six months of graduating, so I knew trying to find a job quickly so I could start making significant payments was important.” Brendon Newman, Class of 2012, took out his first loan for all his expenses because it was his first experience with loans. He was $45,000 in debt and has $35,000 left four years later. To pay his loans it cost him half of his monthly rent, which is 25 percent of his paycheck from his starting salary. Newman said it was a difficult adult lesson to learn. STUDENT DEBT ON PG. 3

Morgan Engel — THE BATTALION

Excitement about Electromagnetic Drive may be premature, according to Texas A&M experts

CONSTRUCTION

By Alex Sein @AlexandrSein A recent NASA paper suggests a device that propels objects by shooting microwaves into a closed metal cavity may actually work — but a lot of scientists are still not convinced. Ever since the initial claims of a working Electromagnetic Drive surfaced in 2001, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding this “impossible drive.” The main problem is that it seems to violate Newton’s Third Law of Motion — it produces thrust, but there is no equal and opposite force that accompanies the thrust. According to Adonios Karpetis, associate professor of aerospace engineering, its violation of Newton’s Third Law may only be the beginning of the drive’s problems. “When the power is turned off, the force goes to zero exponentially, or, you know, slowly, and that is an indication of thermal response,” Karpetis said. “It’s an indication of heat being dissipated by radiation, or even by conduction or convection when they’re outside the oven,

PROVIDED

A rendering of the Cain Hotel located next to the MSC. For an enlarged version, see page 2.

Alex Sein — THE BATTALION

A&M professors are speculating on the physics of the EM Drive, which has the potential to move objects around, including satellites in outer space like the one shown above.

so there may be thermal effects that they’re not accounting for.” At the scales the NASA experiment was conducted, thermal error can be a considerable issue. Karpetis said the only

conclusive way to prove that the drive works is to scale it up beyond the point of thermal error having any effect. But according to Nicholas Suntzeff, physics and astronomy

professor, that may not be necessary. “If this thing violates the third law of Newton, something that’s been around for a long time and

103 officers from area stand as security detail during ceremony By Tyler Snell @Tyler_Snell2

COURTESY: The National Guard

At Donald Trump’s inauguration, police officers from the Brazos Valley served as part of the security detail.

Sgt. Blaine Krauter of the College Station Police Department organized the group of officers from his department who traveled to Washington, and said the officers were warned of potential problems with the crowd. “We were warned on this one that there could be a chance of more violence,” Krauter said. “The way they have it laid out, it would have taken a lot of work for [the protesters] to get to the parade route, and that’s the whole reason why we are there

By Tyler Snell @Tyler_Snell2

EM DRIVE ON PG. 2

Brazos police attend Trump inauguration A piece of Brazos County was present in Washington, D.C. Friday during President Donald Trump’s inauguration — 103 police officers. Each year, the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department calls for officers across the country to provide extra security during the presidential inauguration. Brazos County area officers have participated for the past three inaugurations. Of the 103 who attended, 24 were from the Bryan Police Department, 16 from the College Station Police Department, nine from the Texas A&M University Police Department, two from the Brenham Police Department and 25 deputies from the Brazos County Sheriff’s Office. “It gives us the opportunity to shed a positive light on the city of Bryan where people there have never heard of it,” said Kelly McKethan, Bryan Police Department public information officer. “I got a couple of Facebook posts from the people [the officers] interacted with and [they] said, ‘The officers of Bryan Police Department were very nice and courteous. We really enjoyed visiting with them.’”

Cain Hotel construction enters its vertical phase

— to secure the route.” Krauter, who served at former President George Bush’s second inauguration and former President Barack Obama’s second inauguration, said officers consider the service a privilege. “It’s an honor to be able to attend something as significant as this,” Krauter said. “Hours are long, but you are standing POLICE ON PG. 3

A&M’s newest addition — a 20,000-plus square foot convention center and 250room hotel next to the MSC — is now in its vertical phase of construction. The project is expected to open in August 2018 and will feature a 600-seat ballroom, instructional rooms and a full-service restaurant and bar. Project manager Mike Matula said the main challenge with the project will be balancing the design and construction teams because this project is a design-build project, meaning the construction has started despite not all design features being finished. “We have not finished 100 percent yet on the design of the building, yet we are already building the building,” Matula said. “Keeping the design packages on schedule is pretty important and managing the design team as well as the construction work.” Phillip Ray, vice chancellor for Business Affairs, said a main push for the project came as a result of seeing other Southeastern Conference and other non-SEC schools building similar facilities. “We’re just lacking,” Ray said. “As Aggies, we don’t like to be second field to anyone, so we want to provide our students with the same type of services, recruitment, national exposure, seminars and conferences that other students are getting.” The hotel and conference center will be run by the company Benchmark, which also operates other hotels and conference centers at universities across the country. “It is a project that we have contemplated being a part of in College Station for 20 years,” said Alex Cabanas, CEO of Benchmark and A&M Class of ‘98. “My father, who started the company, pulled out a letter from 1988 of a CAIN HOTEL ON PG. 2