The Battalion: November 17, 2016

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2016 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2016 STUDENT MEDIA | @THEBATTONLINE

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FILE

Students, faculty and the B-CS community came together after the fatal collapse to aid in the relief efforts.

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FOOTBALL

2

The Battalion | 11.17.16

AROUND THE SEC WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN WEEK 12 OF THE CONFERENCE Kevin Roark

FULL STORY AT THEBATT.COM

@Kevin_Roark

been moved to Death Valley, where the Tigers (6-3, 4-2 SEC) have been next to unstoppable this season. Their only loss in Baton Rouge came by the hands of No. 1 Alabama, who squeaked out a mere 10 points. The Tigers look to continue their success through the ground game where star ball carrier Leonard Fournette continues to carve up defenses with 98 yards and three scores on 17 carries last weekend against the No. 25 Arkansas.

Derrius Guice ran over the Razorbacks with 252 yards and 2 scores on 21 carries. Guice now averages a whopping 8.7 yards per rush, by far the largest in the SEC. Getting work down on the ground is good news for LSU interim head coach Ed Orgeron as the Gators specialize in passing defense. The Tigers sit at No.21 in the nation on run game and will certainly

make this the focal point of their offense as quarterback Danny Etling has been mediocre from the start. On the other side of the ball, the Gators are not an offensively explosive team.

Defense is the name of the game in The Swamp, where an average of seven points are scored per game.

On the road that average increases to a small 13 points per game. The Gators will be forced to refocus their energy on LSU’s dominant run game and learn to make tackles in the open field. Watch for both teams to pound the run game but the Tigers will come out on top due to the strength and speed of Fournette and Guice.

sissippi State (4-6, 2-4 SEC) really hasn’t gotten much going at all this season after losing Dak Prescott to the NFL. They pulled off a huge upset in Starkville over Texas A&M before getting pounded into the ground by the Crimson Tide last weekend 51 - 3. Both teams are looking for a rebound as they battle it out this Saturday night. There are two Arkansas teams playing in the SEC. They either win big or get shut down. I know I sound like a broken record, but their running game has to get going through Rawleigh Williams III (No. 3 in SEC) against a Bulldog defense that’s allowing just 157.3 ground yards per game. The key to Miss State’s success is isolating the Arkansas backfield and sending Austin Allen to running as he leads the SEC in times sacked. On the offensive side, Bulldog signal caller

Nick Fitzgerald should have a field day running against the Razorbacks defensive front that conceded 390 yards on the ground to LSU. Dan Mullen and the Bulldogs have proven they can create a game plan and most importantly, execute it. Disregarding the Alabama demolition last weekend, Mississippi State keeps games close. Each of the Bulldogs’ losses this season have been within an average of just one touchdown. Watch for Fitzgerald and his legs to take the upper hand in a high scoring game where cowbells will send the pigs crying all the way home.

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Florida at No.24 LSU Baton Rouge, LA SEC Network — 12 p.m. CT A rescheduling from early October, the Gators (7-2, 5-2 SEC) were originally meant to host this competition in the midst of Hurricane Matthew. The matchup has now

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Arkansas at Mississippi State Starkville, Mississippi ESPNU — 6 p.m. CT This seems like another group of formerly-ranked SEC teams. Arkansas (6-4, 2-4 SEC) was rocking and rolling before getting blindsided

by Auburn in a 56 - 3 thrashing. Mis-

Palestinian Genocide?

A Black Lives Matter platform accuses Israel of genocide.

The assertion is false, it’s racist and it sabotages efforts to achieve justice for African-Americans.

Black Lives Matter (BLM) asserts that Israel is responsible for “genocide taking place against the Palestinian people.”

Given the definition of genocide, this accusation is groundless—and because it singles out the Jewish state, it ranks as racist anti-Semitism. Just as bad, this libel drives away BLM supporters who otherwise oppose police racial bias.

What are the facts?

An Arab man who attempted to stab a police officer presentation of how that could apply in Israel.”

Why is it racist to accuse Israel of genocide? at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem was shot and killed by police. A 17-year-old Palestinian, who Those who condemn Israel falsely—for crimes it infiltrated a Jewish town near Hebron, murdered a does not commit—are attempting to delegitimize sleeping 13-year-old Israeli girl. The murderer was the Jewish state. Delegitimization is one of the killed by a security team when he attacked them. classic signs of racist anti-Semitism: Those who The fact is, most of the 200 Palestinians killed over use this strategy are asserting that of all the world’s the last year by Israeli nations, only Israel’s forces were involved in attempts to defend itself “I haven’t seen any presentation of violent attacks on Israeli from sworn enemies civilians, soldiers or how [genocide] could apply in Israel.” are criminal. That’s a police. Their response double standard—also Sari Bashi, Palestine Director, was not genocide, it was anti-Semitic.

Where Human Rights Watch self-defense. is Black Lives Matter’s condemnation of Syria, Even in the 2014 Gaza war, which killed about 2,100 Palestinians, only which has killed hundreds of thousands of its 45% were non-combatants, one of the lowest citizens? What about Iran, which hangs LGBTQ civilian death ratios in modern warfare—due people? How about China, which has occupied largely to Israel’s extraordinary efforts to avoid Tibet for more than 50 years? attacking residential areas and warn civilians in In truth, Jews have every right to selfadvance of bombings. determination in the Middle East. Jews have had Indeed, a close look reveals not a shred of an uninterrupted presence in the region for 3,000 evidence that Israel intends or is in fact committing years, including their own nation state. For some 2,000 of those years, following their exile from genocide.

What is the definition of genocide? Genocide ancient Palestine, the Jewish people have strived is one of the most horrific crimes against to resettle in their Biblical homeland. Finally, in humanity—and it was exemplified by Adolf Hitler’s 1948, with United Nations approval, Jewish selfplan to exterminate Jews and his killing of some six determination was realized as the State of Israel. In million of them. These are the two legal elements short, those who deny Israel’s right to exist—those of genocide: There must be deliberate intention who delegitimize it with accusations of genocide— to destroy a national or ethnic group, and there are guilty of anti-Semitism. must be a concerted effort to effect that goal, such How does the genocide libel harm Black Lives as the methodical killing of that group’s members Matter? Jewish Americans have been among or inflicting conditions calculated to bring about the most stalwart leaders and supporters of the group’s physical destruction. As one quickly the American civil rights movement from the sees, neither of these conditions exists in Israel or beginning—they were among the founders of the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria (“the the NAACP—and powerful Jewish support for West Bank”). defeating racism continues to this day. Moreover, Israel has no plan to eliminate Palestinians, nor the State of Israel enjoys strong approval from is it methodically killing them on ethnic grounds. the overwhelming majority of Americans. When In fact, some two million Palestinians are citizens a movement, such as Black Lives Matters, strays of Israel and enjoy full democratic rights and one from its core purpose into peripheral issues— of the highest standards of living in the Middle particularly when it resorts to wildly false East. The Palestinian population within Israel accusations— that movement quickly loses broad and in the disputed territories has doubled since public support. In short, if Black Lives Matters 1990 and continues to grow apace. According truly cares about stopping police racial bias, it to Sari Bashi, Palestine country director for will marshal all its forces to dramatize disturbing Human Rights Watch, “[Genocide] is an attempt law enforcement practices and gather support for to destroy an entire people. I haven’t seen any reform—not alienate supporters.

Libels of genocide against Israel are attempts to delegitimize solely the Jewish state among all the world’s nations and are therefore anti-Semitic. What’s more, such racist accusations alienate not only Jewish allies of the Black Lives Matter movement, but also other political progressives who will be repulsed by defamation of Israel.

Facts and Logic About the Middle East P.O. Box 3460 Berkeley, CA 94703 James Sinkinson, President

Prediction: Mississippi State 31, Arkansas 28

Week 12 staff picks

You deserve a factual look at . . .

This message has been published and paid for by

Prediction: LSU 27, Florida 13

FLAME is a tax-exempt, non-profit educational 501 (c)(3) organization. Its purpose is the research and publication of the facts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the interests of the United States and its allies in that area of the world. Your tax-deductible contributions are welcome. They enable us to pursue these goals and to publish these messages in national newspapers and magazines. We have virtually no overhead. Almost all of our revenue pays for our educational work, for these clarifying messages, and for related direct mail.

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UTSA v.s. No. 25 A&M

Florida v.s. No. 24 LSU

Saturday, Nov. 18 @ 11 a.m.

Saturday, Nov. 18 @ 12 p.m.

SAM

SAM

KATY

KATY

ALEXIS

ALEXIS

ANGEL

ANGEL

JOSH

JOSH

OLIVIA

OLIVIA

GRACE

GRACE

MEGAN

MEGAN

CHRIS

CHRIS

HEATH

HEATH

Chris Martin SciTech Editor @martin19340

Another UT school? Easy win.

Sam King Editor-in-Chief @Sam_King372

If we don’t beat UTSA, all I can say is at least I graduate in May...

Heath Clary Asst. Sports Editor @Heath_Clary

Florida can’t score. ‘Nuff said.

Josh McCormack Life & Arts Editor @_joshmccormack

When two of the worst states face off in football, you gotta go with where you’re from. Shoutout to Palm Coast, FL.

Bonfire Remembrance

3

The Battalion | 11.17.16

GUESTCOLUMN

FILE

Snapshots of Battalion front pages in the time following the collapse.

‘More than teamwork’

A re-telling of the events in The Battalion newsroom during Bonfire collapse Ron George 1999 faculty adviser for The Battalion

I

was appointed to the Journalism faculty in January 1999 as a lecturer and faculty adviser for The Battalion. Bonfire fell the following November. My wife, Mary Sherwood, was a doctoral student. We lived in a one-bedroom apartment just off campus near the intersection of George Bush Drive and Wellborn Road.

Our phone rang about 3 a.m. on Nov. 18, 1999. I immediately assumed that there were production problems at the newspaper. Battalion Editor-in-Chief Sally Turner told me Bonfire had collapsed and that there were injuries. I went immediately to the newsroom in the basement of Reed McDonald.

Sally had joined another photographer, J.P. Beato, who was the first Battalion staffer on the scene. He had been chilling in a parking lot near the Bonfire site when he heard sirens then saw emergency vehicles in route. Sally had been notified by sports writer Doug Shilling, who was camping in line for football tickets to the A&M-UT game. He, too, had heard the sirens.

Sally told me later that Doug called her just as she had arrived home from putting the paper to bed. After that call, she called the press room at the Huntsville Item, where The Battalion was printed, and said those familiar but seldom used words in newspaper journalism: “Stop the presses.” Huntsville agreed to hold the press run until page one could be remade.

Staffers began gathering in the newsroom. Sally returned from the Bonfire site and began making assignments. She also got a call from the Associated Press that had received a bulletin from the College Station Eagle. The AP interviewed Sally, and for the rest of Day One, based on the AP story quoting

Sally, news media across the nation began calling for updates from The Battalion editor.

My role as adviser in all this was simply to be present as a resource when asked. University policy required that The Battalion be a publication of, by and for students. Student Media advisers were not permitted to interfere in the news reporting and editing process. I critiqued the final product daily, but students and only students produced The Battalion.

Sally decided that page one would be a page of photographs. Rather than tell the story to readers, she said in the remake budget meeting, “Let’s show them.” I delivered the page one remake on a disk to an Item employee who met me at the halfway point between College Station and Huntsville.

Meanwhile, continuous newsgathering had begun in The Battalion newsroom.

Frankly, much of this first-day activity is a blur. At some point, though, I took over answering the phones to deal with news-media inquiries. We were getting calls from all over the world, especially Europe and Australia. National news-media teams were arriving in College Station, and many of the photographers and news writers used The Battalion newsroom to transmit their stories. The mix of student and professional journalists covering a major news story was almost intoxicating for the high level of energy.

I do recall one phone call above all others. A producer for Bryant Gumbel’s morning show called wanting to speak with Sally. I said I’d take a message and that she’d get back to him. “Maybe you don’t understand,” he said. “I’m calling for Bryant Gumbel. He wants to interview Sally Turner.” I explained that Sally was extremely busy putting out a newspaper and that she didn’t have time to be interviewed. “If you want to cover this story,” I said, “get down here and cover it.” Several hours later, the producer called from Houston to ask how to get to College Station.

The Battalion was the first newspaper on the streets of College Station the day of the Bonfire collapse. It was about

noon when it began hitting the boxes on campus and at the Bonfire site. By then, satellite trucks were beaming live coverage around the world as news helicopters hovered over the campus. The vigil had begun as first responders continued to bring out the living and the dead from a dangerously unstable pile of collapsed logs.

The real masterpiece of student journalism came with The Battalion’s second-day coverage. It speaks for itself, but I will say that I cannot, to this day, read Caleb McDaniel’s editorial without tears. Everything about these pages brings emotional memories — the photos, the writing, the presentation as newspaper design. I was deeply honored — personally and professionally — to have witnessed their achievement.

As usual, I critiqued The Batt on 11/19/1999. Here’s what I said: I couldn’t bring myself to mark-up today’s Battalion. From Cody Wages’ splendid photo capturing the sense of 24 awful, awesome hours to Caleb McDaniel’s magnificent editorial, this edition of The Battalion serves the Texas A&M University community as nothing else can or will do.

It’s more than a keeper. It’s a monument to the staff who produced it, those with bylines and credit lines and those without.

Sally Turner’s leadership and journalistic instincts touch every page, but without her staff of editors, writers, photographers and graphic artists, none of it happens. “Teamwork” falls short of describing what happened yesterday in The Battalion newsroom. I’m not sure what single term would suffice, but it would have to capture the deep corporate spirit that sustained everyone, even when fatigue and emotional exhaustion depleted the most driven of editors. This was more than teamwork in the same way “Aggie” is more than a label to those who call each other by that name.

Ron George was the faculty adviser for The Battalion during the Bonfire collapse.

“Everything about these pages brings emotional memories — the photos, the writing, the presentation as a newspaper design. I was deeply honored — personally and professionally — to have witnessed their achievement.”

Ron George, 1999 faculty advisor

BONFIREREMEMBRANCE

5

The Battalion | 11.17.16

Dealing with tragedy

TIMELINE OF THE

COLLAPSE

1909

1957

FIRST BONFIRE CONSISTED OF TRASH GATHERED IN THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT

AFTER A BONFIRE COLLAPSED, THE 1957 BONFIRE HAD TO BE REBUILT IN TWO DAYS

1994

1998

BECAUSE OF WET GROUND, BONFIRE HAD TO BE REBUILT IN LESS THAN A WEEK AFTER A COLLAPSE

LAST BONFIRE TO BURN ON CAMPUS

1999 FILE, PROVIDED

(Top) Then-head coach R.C. Slocum and his team volunteered to help clear debris after Stack fell. (Middle) Once first responders had done all they could do, a vigil was held to honor the victims and the injured. (Right) After Bonfire fell, first responders and volunteers rushed to the scene to help clear debris and free people from the rubble.

OCT. 30

NOV. 6

FIRST CUT ON BONFIRE

CENTER POLE ARRIVED

CENTER POLE RAISED

— NOV. 18 — 2:42 A .M.

2:43 A .M.

BONFIRE COLLAPSES

FIRST 9-1-1 CALL REPORTING COLLAPSE IS MADE

2:47 A .M.

1999 SBP reflects on leadership R.C. Slocum, player remember challenges during tragedy football game after collapse

By Chevall Pryce @ChevallP

By Angel Franco @angelmadison_

A

t nearly 3 a.m. Nov. 18, 1999, Will Hurd was woken up by a phone call from one of his best friends. The 22-year-old Student Body President of Texas A&M rushed out of his home after hearing what came from the other end of the call — Bonfire had collapsed.

Hurd, now the United States Representative for Texas’ 23rd congressional district, said he remembers every part of the night Bonfire collapsed, even 17 years later. Hurd recalls when he first left his house to assess the situation.

“I woke, threw on a sweater and when I showed up it was a scene I’ll remember forever. Just the chaos and the lights and the pile of logs,” Hurd said. “It was pretty shocking to process what actually just happened.”

Hurd said the first challenge was keeping everyone at the scene grounded and calm while the situation was assessed by first responders. With students rushing to help and overall in a panic, the scene wasn’t easy to quell.

“That day it was really about working with the administration and the first responders,” Hurd said. “You have thousands of people whose buddies were under a pile of logs and their first instinct was to rush in and start pulling logs. I was trying to make sure that everybody was ready to help when first responders needed it.”

After the logs were cleared and the paramedics had given their best efforts to help those who were stuck beneath the logs, Hurd and other Aggies organized a candlelight vigil for the night before the football game. Hurd said the Aggie family pulled together during the vigil, especially when they began to sing “Amazing Grace.”

“After the candlelight vigil was over, nobody wanted to leave because there was something powerful about being together,” Hurd said. “The crowd broke into ‘Amazing Grace’ spontaneously and that song …

Whenever I hear that song, it’s something that brings me back to that day.”

Hurd said the most difficult task he faced was reaching out to families.

“Ultimately you have 12 families who suffered one of the greatest losses a family

OCT. 3

could suffer,” Hurd said. “You also have people who were still injured and some who were in critical condition. This was a time when cell phone infrastructure was still pretty new, so with calls being made and everything like that it was still hard to get in touch with friends and family.”

Although the collapse was local, Texas schools and cities reached out to help Texas A&M. “The University of Texas — what they did in response was fantastic,” Hurd said.

“They took their Hex Rally and turned it into a candlelight vigil. When their band played the A&M Fight Song and raised an Aggie flag, that was moving.”

While the Bonfire organization is no longer directly associated with the university, students continue to build bonfire. Hurd said it should be okay for them to do so, as long as the right precautions are taken.

“It was an important tradition for our campus, for our school and for our A&M family,” Hurd said. “As long as things are being done where we’re not putting people in harm’s way and not opening ourselves up for the potential tragedy that we saw, then that’s great.”

Hurd said that night will always be in his mind.

“When you pull up and you see something that you had spent time building in a pile and you know 12 of your friends are under there, it’s an image you don’t get out of your head,” Hurd said. “But then you have the number of people that create memorials and people putting their Aggie Rings on it to show their support, that’s the kind of stuff that sticks with you.”

I

“It was my position that I thought we should have the game,” Slocum said. “The reason for doing that — it wasn’t because the game was so important to me. But I thought the game — with our students and with what had happened — it would all be better as an Aggie family and stick together.

I thought there would be some healing for everybody and some consolation.”

After the decision was made to play the game, Slocum decided to cancel practice for the day and the players went out to the site where Stack had collapsed to help clear debris.

“Some of the seniors had gone to Coach Slocum,” said then-redshirt freshman Brian Gamble said. “They called a players-only meeting and said, ‘Hey we’re going to cancel this practice and we’re going to go out and help in the effort in clearing the logs.’

If there are people still trapped and people under there, we felt as if it was our duty as Aggies to go out and help.”

As the team prepared to face the Longhorns in the days following the collapse, Slocum told his team that the game meant more than beating their rival in a national spotlight.

“I told them we owed it to those young people who lost their lives in the accident building the Bonfire, which was symbolic to the Aggie Spirit,” Slocum said. “We owed to them to be ready and play to the best of our abilities.”

Gamble said football played an important role in helping the players escape reality for a bit, which impacted the mindset they

had going into the game.

“It was an emotional time,” Gamble said. “We still had to prepare for that game.

It was almost as if the event sharpened our focus. Football was a chance for us to kind of get away from everything that was going on outside those white lines we were practicing in. But as soon as you were done with practice, it was there — the events, tragedy and emotions.”

Once game day came around, Gamble said players and coaches both felt the weight of the game on their shoulders.

“Maybe we knew it, maybe we didn’t know it at the time, but we knew the game was special,” Gamble said. “Because it was Texas and the rivalry. We knew with everything with everything that happened that there was going to be more of an eye of the game. And what winning the game could do to help the healing process.”

Despite the emotional and physical toll, it took on the players, coaches and everyone involved, the Aggies prevailed both on and off the field. A&M defeated Texas 20-16 after mounting a 10-point comeback after the half.

Years later, Slocum says the game had to be one of the most stressful games he’d ever had to coach, but had no regrets in the decision he made to play the game.

“I’m thankful that we went ahead and played,” Slocum said. “We did it for all the right reasons. It went way beyond football and the game — it was something. I thought it would create an atmosphere that I thought would be helpful for the kids.”

“I told them we owed it to those young people who lost their lives “I was trying to make sure in the accident building the everybody was ready to help when first responders needed it.” Bonfire, which was symbolic to the Aggie spirit.”

Will Hurd, student body president

Professors describe campus atmosphere after Stack fell

By Katy Stapp @katyxstapp

n the days following the collapse of Aggie Bonfire, which are described as the hardest times in A&M history, Aggieland turned to almost anything to escape the tragedy, and sports was one of those escapes.

It was A&M tradition to burn Stack the night before the Aggies played the Longhorns for the annual Thanksgiving Day game. But in the wake of tragedy following the collapse, it was up to A&M head coach R. C. Slocum to decide whether or not the game would go on.

R.C. Slocum, former A&M head football coach

FIRST RESPONDERS ARRIVE “EMERGENCY RESPONDERS WERE GREETED WITH A SCENE EERILY REMINISCENT OF THE CHILDREN’S GAME OF PICK-UP-STICKS.” — 2002 HOMELAND SECURITY REPORT

T

he night Bonfire collapsed, Nancy Street didn’t know why she couldn’t sleep.

“I don’t know why, but I was very restless and I woke up, and I remember I kind of walked around my house. I remember thinking that was very strange,” Street, a communication professor, said.

“And then I started hearing sirens and sirens and sirens.”

The next morning, Street woke up to her husband Richard yelling, “Oh my god.”

“Horror, fear,” Street said of watching the news that morning. “Our nephew was in the Corps, and we didn’t know whether he was working on Stack or not. The phone started ringing and there was confusion and disbelief.”

Street was one of many A&M professors who heard that Stack had collapsed at 2:42 a.m. that morning. Charles Conrad, communication professor, was driving his children to school when he turned on the radio and heard the news.

“When we started to cut through campus, everything was blocked off and there were helicopters in the air, and I was talking to my daughter saying, ‘What’s going on?’ and my five-year-old son said, ‘Why don’t you turn the radio on, Dad?’” Conrad said.

“So I turned the radio on and found out what happened. That was the first news I had.”

In the hours that followed the collapse, the atmosphere on campus was perpetually somber and few people spoke.

“It was like going to a funeral,” Conrad said. “The only thing I can think of as a comparison at all is 9/11. But it was much more subdued, quiet. Partly because it took a while for us to know — they had to disassemble the stack to find out who was alive and who wasn’t.”

As the day progressed, names of the deceased were published and professors cross checked the names with their class rosters.

“I checked my roster to see if they were any of my students,” Conrad said. “I probably shouldn’t have needed to do that because they’re all Aggies. But they’re also my students.”

In Conrad’s 10 a.m. communication theories class that day, the unit he taught focused on how rituals band communities together. He said he brought up a tragic accident a few months before in which six members of the A&M skydiving team

were killed in a plane crash after take off.

He mentioned the previous accident and then told his students, “But this is different.

How?” “I just let them talk,” Conrad said.

“Some people cried, some people talked.

They needed to talk about it. Giving them an opportunity to do that was my primary goal in that class, but it was also a teachable moment.”

After class was dismissed, Conrad walked to the site where Stack collapsed.

“You could see [the volunteers] working really hard to disassemble it,” Conrad said.

“Students were all around. The chain link fence became a place where people would put flowers, poems, notes on the fence.”

Street said she was torn between acting normal and being there for her students by acknowledging the tragedy.

“I think I kind of went into nurturance mode,” Street said “You know, ‘Don’t worry, you don’t have to take the big test.’

But out of the around 1,000 students I had at the time, 30 of them said, ‘No, we want to take the test.’ I think that was them kind of trying to hold on to normalcy.”

This year and last year, Street has taken her current freshman students out to see the Bonfire Memorial. She said although her students were only three or four years old when Stack collapsed, they relate to the tragedy all the same.

“It is a wonderful memorial. It doesn’t even seem like you’re in the same location though that Bonfire happened,” Street said.

“I know that it is, but it just seems almost like two different worlds. It’s somber, it’s sweet.”

Street said for students who visit the Memorial today and go to the Remembrance ceremony, she hopes they’re moved by the memory of the tragedy.

“I hope they gain a sense of the foreverness of being an Aggie,” Street said. “I hope they gain a sense of understanding of, ‘We will always remember.’”

“I checked my roster to see if they were any of my students.”

Charles Conrad, communication professor

6:05 A .M.

6:51 A .M.

8:37 A .M.

THREE STUDENTS CONFIRMED DEAD AND RECOVERED, SIX ADDITIONAL DEAD STILL ENTRAPPED. TWO TRAPPED ARE STILL ALIVE

ONE PERSON PULLED FROM RUBBLE ALIVE

TAMU PRESIDENT RAY BOWEN HOLDS PRESS CONFERENCE , CONFIRMS FOUR DEAD, 25 INJURED

8:37 A .M. TAMU PRESIDENT RAY BOWEN HOLDS PRESS CONFERENCE , CONFIRMS FOUR DEAD, 25 INJURED

9:01 A .M. REQUESTED SILENCE IN AREA IN ORDER TO USE LISTENING DEVICES

2:15 P.M. PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER CONFIRMS SIX DEAD, 25 INJURED, 10 TREATED AND RELEASED

3:27 P.M.

5 P.M.

11:47 P.M.

TAMU CONFIRMS DEATH TOTAL NOW AT EIGHT

CONFIRMED DEATH TOTAL MOVES TO NINE , TWO BELIEVED TO STILL BE IN STACK; 28 INJURED SO FAR

TWO REMAINING BODIES WILL HAVE TO BE REMOVED

BY HAND

— NOV. 19 — 12:55 A .M.

2:14 A .M.

BODY OF LAST KNOWN FATALITY IS REMOVED FROM STACK

LAST LOG REMOVED, NO OTHER VICTIMS FOUND

NOV. 22 UT STUDENTS AND AGGIES GATHER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS BELL TOWER TO HOLD A CANDLELIGHT VIGIL

NOV. 26 AGGIES DEFEAT UT IN THE FOOTBALL GAME FOLLOWING THE COLLAPSE . THE GAME WAS ALSO THE MAROON OUT GAME .

2000, 2001 FEB. 4, 2002

NOV. 2002

NO BONFIRE CONSTRUCTION

FIRST BONFIRE SINCE THE COLLAPSE BURNED

BOWEN ANNOUNCES THERE WILL BE NO UNIVERSITYSPONSORED BONFIRE ON CAMPUS, CITING SAFETY AND LIABILITY FACTORS. “MY HEART DOES NOT LIKE WHAT MY BRAIN IS DOING TODAY. IT WOULD BE IRRESPONSIBLE OF ME TO LISTEN TO MY HEART WHEN WE ARE DEALING WITH THE SAFETY OF OUR STUDENTS.”

FILE PHOTOS SOURCES: CITY OF COLLEGE STATION DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, THE BATTALION, 2002 HOMELAND SECURITY REPORT

Bonfire Remembrance

6

The Battalion | 11.17.16

Sacred ground

Construction of Bonfire Memorial symbolizes the collapse, honors Aggies

By Chris Martin @martin19340

F

ive years after the Stack collapse which took the lives of 12 Aggies, the Bonfire Memorial was opened on campus as a place to honor the victims of the tragedy.

Immediately following the Stack collapse, A&M began working rigorously to plan, design and construct a memorial commemorating the Aggies who died and who were injured. Performed by Overland Partners, the construction of the memorial was one of the quickest turnarounds for memorials in the United States.

Out of more than 300 entries to the Bonfire Memorial design competition, Overland Partners was selected to construct the memorial.

Michael Rey, vice president of operations of Overland Partners and Class of 1998, was asked

by Bob Shemwell, Class of 1982, to spearhead the brainstorming process and present ideas the company could submit for the competition to build the Bonfire Memorial.

Rey said many of the employees at Overland Partners had a personal connection to the incident, including himself and one of his colleagues, Ryan Jones, Class of 2000.

“I remember the day [Stack fell] intimately — I had a structural exam 8:30 a.m. that morning in the O&M tower,” Rey said. “In between the two of us, we knew everyone that passed and who was injured. So we had a pretty intimate connection to the event and were there when it occurred, and so it was very personable from that perspective.”

Jennifer Jones-Barbour, a former A&M communication professor, studies public commemorative memorials. She said A&M diligently gathered the committee to judge the entries to the competition, including students, faculty and parents of students who had been killed and injured in the collapse.

“They worked really hard to make sure the community was represented on the memorial committee itself and they did a number of public displays of the potential design and gave the opportunity for a public response,” Barbour said.

Barbour said an interesting aspect of the memorial is that it has two purposes: to commemorate the history of Bonfire and to remember the specific moment the tragedy occurred.

“One of the things I was struck by was when the memorial committee put together the idea of a memorial they made clear that what they were looking for was a memorial that both commemorated the Bonfire as an activity as well as recognizing tremendous profound loss that A&M experienced when the Bonfire collapsed,” Barbour said.

The construction of the Bonfire Memorial totaled an estimated $5 million. Rey said throughout the construction of the memorial, the team made sure all ideas presented during the brainstorming process were incorporated into the design in some way.

“The dimension of the ring is set by the dimensions that you had from holding other people at Bonfire; the direction of the gateways are dependent on where the individuals came from,” Rey said. “The center pole is the exact same size as the center pole that was there.”

Barbour used to take her A&M students to the Bonfire Memorial to apply concepts in class to analyze the symbolism of the memorial. She said the trips to the memorial always had a profound effect on them.

“I think one of the more meaningful experiences for people when they walk into to the memorial — that when you stand in that doorway lies the rhetoric of the 12th Man, ‘We stand for that student,’” Barbour said. “I have had students reflect that the portals have two levels of them, that you have the inside part and outside part, and students have commented that it [represented] a life unfulfilled because it is not all the way at the top.”

Reflecting on the construction process for the Bonfire Memorial, Rey said it is probably the most satisfying project he has worked on.

“A lot of people never understood this idea: ‘Why would people get together and cut down trees just to burn them?’ It was a tradition that outside the university was hard to explain, very much like our spirit is,” Rey said. “In many ways [the memorial] was symbol for that spirit, and in many ways it was told by those 12 individuals, and in many ways it is probably the clearest articulation for the outside world and how it pulled the state of Texas together.”

PROVIDED BY OVERLAND PARTNERS

Overland Partners began construction on the Bonfire Memorial in Oct. 2003.

FOOTBALL

7

The Battalion | 11.17.16

STANDOUTSIBLINGS UTSA’s top receivers return to hometown of College Station for game against Texas A&M

By Alex Miller @AlexMill20

T

he majority of the UTSA football team will enter uncharted territory when they travel to Kyle Field this Saturday in the school’s first meeting with Texas A&M. But juniors Josh Stewart and Kerry Thomas Jr. will be coming back to a familiar area. The two College Station natives will be returning home to a place both players know well.

“It’s just one of those moments that you have to take in and enjoy it,” Thomas Jr. said on UTSA Football Insider this week.

“It is just incredible to go back home and to be able to try and set ourselves up for success.”

Stewart and Thomas Jr. have made names for themselves in the Alamo City since they left Aggieland after high school, and they are currently the Roadrunners’ leading receivers. Their journeys to becoming UTSA’s top playmakers, however, have been quite different.

The brothers moved to College Station from New Orleans in 2008, but originally did not even play football. Until Stewart’s senior year and Thomas Jr.’s junior year, the duo preferred to play ball on the court rather than the gridiron, and both believed their futures had basketball in them, until a little persuasion from high school coaches changed their plans, ones they would alter together.

“We were going to go to college for basketball, that’s where our mind was at,” Stewart said. “My junior year, [coaches] asked [if I would play football], and I was like, ‘No.’ I promised them my senior year I would come out and play football, and [Kerry] said, ‘If you play, then I’m going to play, too,’ and I said, ‘Alright we’re going to play together then.’”

A year younger than his older brother Stewart, Thomas Jr. signed with UTSA out of A&M Consolidated High School in February 2014 following a strong senior campaign which he totaled 100 receptions for 1,401 yards and 16 touchdowns for the Tigers, dropping just two passes in 14 games. He saw sparing action his freshman year at UTSA, but broke out in his sophomore season, setting a school-record 52 receptions for 541 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Stewart’s path, however, took a few more turns than his brother’s. Like Thomas Jr., Stewart signed following a successful senior year at A&M Consolidated to Division II’s Midwestern State in February 2013. Stewart redshirted for the Mustangs his freshman year, but left following the season.

When Thomas Jr. signed with UTSA, Stewart tried to reconcile with his brother in San Antonio, but was academically ineligible. This led Stewart to take classes at Blinn to get his grades up. Stewart eventually met the requirements and walked-on at UTSA in the spring of 2015.

He would then hit another roadblock, tearing his ACL in a summer workout which caused him to miss the 2015 season.

Stewart fought back from the injury though, earning a starting

receiver spot heading into this season, which he has held each game since.

“Josh deserves every bit of the success he has had,” said Stewart’s high school coach and A&M Consolidated offensive coordinator Brian Cope. “After going to Midwestern State, then transferring to Blinn, to UTSA, tearing his ACL and going through rehab, many people would have given up. Josh fought through everything and made it to play Division I football.”

Jeff Huehn, UTSA Athletics— THE BATTALION

Josh Stewart, Kerry Thomas Jr and Marquez McNair (4) celebrate Thomas Jr.’s touchdown against Southern Miss.

UTSA head coach Frank Wilson added how strong Stewart’s work ethic has been since arriving to campus, going from a no-name walk-on, to recovering from injury, and now to one of the Roadrunner’s top playmakers on the field each Saturday.

“We had no idea [about him] when we arrived,” Wilson said at Monday’s press conference. “He was not one of the 85 scholarship recipients at the time; he had not caught a pass in a game or a scrimmage, so there was not was no way we could

possibly know what he could become. But in time, it revealed itself. He works his behind off in practice and it carries over to the game. It’s a reflection of who he is and the character of the man that he is.”

Stewart’s recovery route paid off, and at 6-foot-4, he leads the team with 591 receiving yards this season, a UTSA single-season record. He has also recorded two 100-yard games, including last week against Louisiana Tech during which Stewart reeled in career-highs seven receptions for 113 yards.

Stewart is also seventh in FBS in yards per reception (20.4).

Thomas Jr. has also written his name in the UTSA record books, as his seven touchdowns this year and 12 career scores are single-season and career records for the Roadrunners.

Those numbers will only increase as Thomas Jr. has another year of eligibility remaining.

“Kerry is the definition of players make plays,” Cope added.

“In the red zone, there is no doubt that if the ball goes his way, he is going to make that catch.”

Wilson said that the two brothers fuel their success off of one another, striving to be the better brother while maintaining continuous support.

“The sibling rivalry, in a positive way, is very constructive, very positive with one another that I believe they feed off and inspire one another to do well,” Wilson said. “When one excels, the other is chapping at the bit, wanting to do the same as he encourages the other brother.”

Their head coach’s words ring true to the brothers as well, as each mentioned their constant pushing of another, knowing their achievements are not given and must be earned.

“Coming here, our goal was to perform, to do well on the field,” Thomas Jr. said. “Our talks were to work hard, to go out there and practice hard, to perform in the weight room, to do everything you can to get yourself ready for when the season comes.”

Stewart echoed his brother’s comments.

“We know how great we can be, how great we want to be,” Stewart added. “It’s basically pushing each other and all the other guys in the locker room pushing us to be the best we can be.”

Even A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin knows the vertical threat Stewart and Thomas Jr. pose on the Aggie secondary this Saturday.

“Those guys are going to be excited to play here basically back home here at Kyle Field,” Sumlin said at Tuesday’s press conference. “They’ve gotten loose their last couple games.

They’ve gone for quite a bit of yardage, guys who can really, really run.”

Saturday’s game will make their journey come somewhat full circle, and Cope hopes he can be in attendance, as A&M Consolidated is in the second round of the playoffs.

“When they decided to play at Consol, we talked to them about having opportunities like this,” Cope concluded. “They went out on a limb and decided to play football for us and I am so proud to see that it has worked out. It shows all the people of College Station how hard they have worked to get here.”

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FOOTBALL

2017-2018 Parking Permit

8

The Battalion | 11.17.16

DESIGN

CONTEST! DON’T MISS YOUR CHANCE TO SUBMIT A DESIGN AND EARN A

FREE 2017-2018 PARKING PERMIT!

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Transportation Services is looking for a creative student, faculty or staff member’s design to be featured on the 2017-2018 parking permit.

Contest entries must be submitted by December 9, 2016.

Transportation Services employees not eligible. Other rules apply.

For more info visit transport.tamu.edu/permitcontest

Jacob Martindale @Papa_Duck17 — THE BATTALION

STOP THE BLEEDING Aggies look to rebound with a victory after two consecutive losses

By Lawrence Smelser @LawrenceSmelser

The perfect time to get engaged is

Texas A&M will look to get its season back on track Saturday against UTSA after losing two straight games and dropping from fourth to 25th in the College Football playoff rankings in two weeks.

The Aggies are coming off losses to unranked Mississippi State and Ole Miss, and are now 0-2 in November, a month they have struggled in during the past three seasons. A win Saturday would give them confidence heading into their final game of the season on Thanksgiving Day against No. 16 LSU. “We still have a tremendous opportunity to play in a great bowl game,” said quarterback Jake Hubenak. “We just want to play for each other. This is an extremely strong team we all love each other. We would never give up on each other.”

The No. 25 Aggies (7-3, 4-3 SEC) will be led at quarterback by Hubenak, who will be making his third career start. The junior has thrown for 563 yards with five touchdowns and two interceptions in place of starter Trevor Knight.

Running backs Trayveon Williams and Keith Ford are the Aggies’ primary threats in the running attack and have split carries.

The Aggies have struggled in the last two games on the ground rushing for a total of 246 yards on 66 carries. Williams is 134 yards from reaching the 1,000-yard mark as a true freshman.

At receiver, Christian Kirk and Josh Reynolds lead the pack with a combined total of 103 receptions for 1,400 yards and 15 touchdowns. Junior Speedy Noil, who has been nicked up this season, finished with 59 yards and a touchdown against Ole Miss.

“Speedy Noil had his best game of the year,” offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone said. “Josh and Christian have been solid all year. Speedy made big plays in the first half.

We have to get the ball in the right guy’s hands. He needs five or six touches a game.”

Against Ole Miss, A&M only scored sev-

en points in the second half which came late in the fourth quarter. When asked about the offensive struggles, Kirk said he thinks the Aggies will be fine as long as they execute properly.

“I think the offense is still there,” Kirk said. “Execution is a big thing offensively. I think the biggest thing is to execute for all four quarters. We have to get out there and dominate like when we were 6-0. We’re still the same team, it’s not like we lost the same 11 guys that got us where we were.”

The Roadrunners (5-5, 4-3 C-USA) are led by quarterback Dalton Sturm, who has thrown for 1,748 yards this season with an impressive 16 touchdowns and five interceptions. UTSA’s running game is a split backfield with Jalen Rhodes and Jarveon Williams. The sophomore and senior have combined for 1,384 yards and 16 touchdowns.

UTSA’s two leading receivers, Josh Stewart and Kerry Thomas Jr., will be returning to their hometown of College Station. The two attended A&M Consolidated High School and have been dynamic players for the Roadrunners this season.

“Those guys can really, really run,” Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin said. “The guys from A&M Consolidated on their roster will be excited to play. Those guys will be excited to play back home at Kyle Field.”

The Roadrunners are one win away from being bowl-eligible and wrap up a threegame road trip against the Aggies. UTSA is 0-5 in program history against nationally ranked opponents.

A win for A&M would make Sumlin the only coach besides Alabama head coach Nick Saban in the SEC to have at least eight victories in the last five seasons.

“We just want to get back out there and play,” Kirk said. “Especially with how Saturday went, we want to get a win and get our confidence back rolling.”

Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. Saturday at Kyle Field and the game can be seen on ESPNU.

Hold onto a piece of Aggieland

It’s not too late to order your copy of the

2016 Aggieland yearbook. The 114th edition of Texas A&M’s official yearbook will chronicle the 2015-2016 school year. Distribution will be Fall 2016.

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of the award-winning 2015 Aggieland yearbook, a 608-page photojournalistic record of the 2014-2015 school year.

For older Aggieland yearbooks go online to aggieland.tamu.edu or call 979-845-2613. You can also drop by the Student Media Office in Suite L400 of the MSC.