LIFE & ARTS
The Big Event sta members spend fall semester building culture, community, symbolic wooden house A3
Inside SEC Tournament’s revival
First SEC Volleyball Tournament since 2005 engages community, hopes to prepare teams for NCAA Tournament
By Ian Curtis Editor-in-Chief
Texas A&M volleyball fans Paul and Shawna Ricks had a weekend to remember.
The first leg of their family trip took them from their home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to College Station for A&M football’s game against Samford at Kyle Field. Then, it was off to Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Georgia, to watch the Aggies in the Allstate Southeastern Conference Volleyball Tournament.
when she stopped by, ‘What would you give [as] advice?’ And Logan took the time to talk to her about what to do, how to stay focused.
So as a parent, it was really cool.”
Brooklyn wasn’t the only young volleyball player looking up to the stars of the show.
Of the fans in attendance, plenty sported shirts supporting local — or non-local — volleyball clubs, and plenty of players from several teams spent time in the crowd taking pictures and signing autographs with fans before and after their matches.
But as the dust settled with the 1-seed Ken-
sored team sports, women’s volleyball’s postseason is divided.
Of the 31 conferences that sponsor Division I women’s volleyball, 27 of them hold some sort of postseason tournament to decide their automatic qualifier for the NCAA Tournament. Most of these mid-major events are held on campus sites and only invite the top teams from the conference. The Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten and Big 12 all do not have a conference tournament.
Every conference in America, if they don’t have a tournament, is thinking about it now.
Craig Skinner Kentucky Volleyball Coach
“We follow the girls on the volleyball team,” Shawna said before A&M’s semifinal matchup against then3-seed Texas. “We love them all. We’re so proud of how great they’ve done this season, and we just want to celebrate them.”
Though A&M fell short in the semifinals, the opportunity to see the Aggies play live was cherished by one member of the Ricks family, especially — 14-year-old Brooklyn, a high school volleyball player herself. She was especially excited for the opportunity to see A&M senior opposite hitter Logan Lednicky.
“It ended up being more than we could ever ask for,” Paul said. “She asked Logan
tucky Wildcats taking home the tournament title, the SEC’s revival of its volleyball tournament — played for the first time in 20 years after being axed in 2005 — sparked significant questions.
Namely, is the tournament good for the SEC — and is it good for the sport of volleyball — in the same way it was good for fans like the Ricks family?
A divided postseason
Unlike most non-football NCAA-spon-
Tuition and general fees are just $203 per semester credit hour.
Volleyball, on a power-conference level, doesn’t have the neutral-site, big-event feel that men’s and women’s basketball and diamond sport tournaments deliver in the postseason. The SEC wants to change that with all 16 of its teams.
“We want this tournament to evolve into the premier volleyball event nationally, something fans look forward to every year,” SEC Assistant Commissioner for Competition and Student-Athlete Engagement Misty Brown said via email before the tournament. “ … Over time, we envision this growing into a must-see postseason showcase that expands our brand, attracts new fans to the sport, and becomes another signature championship in the SEC.”
NEWS
Two-time best-selling author, North Korea defector Yeonmi Park, speaks to students about fighting socialism A7
3-seed A&M opens NCAA Tournament against Campbell
Aggies look to advance to next round at Reed Arena
By Ava Loth Sports Writer
Texas A&M volleyball will kick off the NCAA Tournament as it hosts the first two rounds of the Big Dance at Reed Arena. The Aggies secured the No. 3 seed on Selection Sunday, setting them up to face the Campbell Fighting Camels in their opening match on Friday, Dec. 5, in Aggieland.
The Aggies capped off their regular season with a less-than-ideal 3-1 loss against then-3seed Texas at the Allstate Southeastern Conference Volleyball Tournament on Nov. 24. However, A&M had a standout season as it finished 23-4 with a 14-1 record in SEC play, its sole conference defeat coming from a 3-1 loss against then-No. 3 Kentucky.
“I think that we’ve had lots of growth moments,” senior libero Ava Underwood said after Selection Sunday. “Of course losing is not fun, but it’s made us hungry and ready to go for the tournament and ready to go for what’s to come.”
Marking their second appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the Fighting Camels hold a 23-6 record with a 13-3 mark in Coastal Athletic Association play. They are riding a two-game winning streak but have yet to set up nets against a ranked opponent.
“I’m sure as I watch, they’re going to play good volleyball, because that’s how you win your conference,” coach Jamie Morrison said. “We’re going to have to be on it on that first night.”
The Aggies have five ranked wins under their belt. A&M’s biggest triumph came against then-No. 2 Texas, when it sawed Horns off in five sets in front of the 12th Man.
A&M features four All-SEC First Team players, representing the most among its conference opponents. The award marked senior opposite hitter Logan Lednicky’s fourth all-conference honor, who leads the Aggies in kills with 359 while also picking up 256 digs and 75 blocks.
The duo of senior setter Maddie Waak and redshirt sophomore outside hitter Kyndal Stowers received their first conference distinction this season.
Waak has totaled 1,093 assists, sitting at the top of the division with the most assists per set at 11.51. Stowers has posted 293 kills, averaging 3.37 kills per set and recorded a season high against Vanderbilt, with a .538 hitting percentage. She has also racked up 189 digs and 17 aces throughout her campaign.
Senior middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla leads the Maroon and White in blocks with 159. The Flower Mound native ranks No. 3 in the country with 1.67 blocks per set and No. 7 with a .438 hitting percentage.
The top producers for the Fighting Camels are junior S Lauren Wheeler and senior OH Gwen Wolkow. Wheeler notched a .405 hitting percentage and 186 digs, 17 of which came from her performance against Stony Brook on Nov. 21. Wolkow leads the Fighting Camels in kills with 365, at a rate of 3.35 kills per set.
The winner of the Aggies and Fighting Camels’ duel will advance to the second round of the tournament held on Saturday, Dec. 6, against the winner of the TCU and SFA matchup. TCU, not far behind A&M, claimed the No. 6 seed, with a 20-10 record and finished 10-8 in conference play.
“At the end of the day, it’s really about going out and playing cleaner volleyball, and competing at a higher level than whoever’s on the other side of the net.” Morrison said.
The opening round is set to take place 30 minutes after the conclusion of the TCU-SFA match on Friday, Dec. 5, at Reed Arena. The battle will determine who advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
A&M to face SMU in neutral-site test
rst Quad 2 win over Florida State. During Dominguez’s heater, the Aggies have averaged 25.7 assists as Bucky Ball has started to take shape.
By Mathias Cubillan Associate Sports Editor
Drowned out by the sorrows of a loss to then-No. 16 Texas football in the Lone Star Showdown was a 95-59 beatdown of Florida State by Texas A&M men’s basketball on the same day. Now, with a neutral-site matchup in Arlington against a similarly explosive SMU, Bucky Ball faces its toughest test of the season on Sunday, Dec. 7.
Much like the Spaniards who surged late in the medieval Reconquista, sophomore guard Rubén Dominguez started the season slow before launching his full-scale siege from 3-point land.
Prior to A&M’s game against Pittsburgh on Dec. 2, the Spanish sniper hit 20 3-pointers in his last three games at a 58.8% clip. Dominguez’s emergence has — not so coincidentally — come at the same time as A&M’s best run of form, including their
“That’s just what we are,” coach Bucky McMillan said after A&M’s win over Manhattan. “This was not like we got hot.This is just what I’ve been waiting to see, to be the standard of how we make threes because of what we have. When you make threes, everything feels good and sometimes you’re not as good as you think when you’re making shots and sometimes, you’re not as bad as you think when you’re missing shots.”
The Maroon and White have also been bolstered by the return of junior forward Mackenzie Mgbako from his Jones fracture foot injury. The Indiana transfer and former consensus ve-star recruit spent the o season showing o for scouts at the 2025 NBA Draft Combine before deciding to return to school.
The 6-foot-9 New Jersey native is working his way back, progressively playing more minutes in each of the last three games. Against the Seminoles, Mgbako scored 10 points and pulled down ve rebounds be-
fore fouling out.
“He’s all about winning,” McMillan said about Mgbako after A&M’s win over Mississippi Valley State. “He’s all about wanting to be out there and help the team. Just got to get him caught up more on everything that’s going on … get the other guys caught up playing with him.”
That lack of chemistry has also been evident with junior G Pop Isaacs, who has been in and out of the lineup coming o of a season-ending injury in 2024 and has recorded multiple turnovers in 3 of his last 4 outings, despite averaging 11 points per game. Against an SMU team that has already picked o Butler at home and Mississippi State on the road in an overtime thriller, A&M’s defensive cohesion will need to be tight against o ensive star senior G Boopie Miller.
Prior to SMU’s game against Vanderbilt, Miller — nicknamed after his late uncle — averaged 21.3 points, 7.3 assists and 2.6 steals on 49/45.9/91.9 shooting splits. His backcourt partner, senior G Jaron Pierre Jr., is averaging 18.4 points as a slashing threat
for the Mustangs.
With a top-20 scoring o ense in the nation and nabbing over nine steals a game, SMU is almost a mirror image of A&M, playing fast — 17th in possession length, according to KenPom — to try and maximize possessions while maintaining a uidity on the o ensive end with over 19 assists per game. Despite this pace, the Mustangs employ the skyscraping 7-foot-2 sophomore center Samet Yigitoglu at the heart of their defense. Like the Camlica Tower was erected in front of the basket, Yigitoglu protects the rim with 1.5 blocks per game. To combat SMU’s size at the ve spot while staying mobile against the Pony Express’ run-away guards, A&M will throw out a platoon of graduate student Fs Zach Clemence, Federiko Federiko and Rashaun Agee in the front court, who all average over four boards a game. Tipo
The Big Event prepares for spring service
Build the House: Executive team constructs foundation for nation’s largest single-day student-run service project
By Claire Frazier Life & Arts Writer
Mid-meeting, members drag out a small structure. It doesn’t look like much more than a pile of painted planks yet, but it will.
A single sta member steps up to the wooden frame at the front of the room. They’re handed a two-by-four etched with words that describe them — modest, creative, committed — and drive it into place. The room erupts. For The Big Event sta , this is what building the house looks like. One piece of recognition, one act of service, one person at a time.
The Big Event is a single-day event each spring during which tens of thousands of volunteers ood into Bryan-College Station to serve community residents. What they rarely see is the months of work during the fall and spring leading up to the project day when The Big Event sta recruits residents, shapes organizational culture, runs service projects of its own and prepares for the largest one-day service event in the nation.
Over three years, accounting junior Tyler Prince has moved from sta assistant to executive leadership, serving The Big Event every step of the way.What began as a spontaneous decision freshman year has become the cornerstone of his college experience.
“I was poured into a lot by the person who was above me, and that’s really the reason I stayed,” Prince said. “She was awesome. She kind of taught me the ropes and how to do everything.”
Now, as co-head of development on the executive team, he oversees more than 450 members, spending his days speaking at meetings, delegating tasks and running team-building activities.
“There’s de nitely a lot of behind-thescenes things that a lot of people don’t see that we’re working on just to make it a better culture and something people want to invest in,” Prince said.
Part of Prince’s initiative includes a new sta -wide celebration, Build the House, which was pitched half-jokingly at a brainstorming session during a September ex-
ecutive sta retreat. At every meeting, The Big Event honors a di erent sta member, adorning a two-by-four with words that describe them and handing it over to be hammered onto the small house-like structure.
“Build the House gives an opportunity for our incredible internal members to be recognized for all of their hard work,” Prince said. “A lot of the time, the work we do is more logistic and backend stu , so being able to be spotlighted makes a really big impact. It also adds to the culture of lifting one another up.”
By November, the house had already started to take shape, serving as a living metaphor for the sta ’s work. For marketing senior and Recruitment Executive Ryann Berry, it represents the community she found when she needed one.
“[The] Big Event is what I found at A&M to be my place, my people,” Berry said. “We
“We’re doing a lot of new marketing initiatives this year,” Berry said. “We’re just touching on di erent marketing strategies, slowly chipping away at that. And then on the more traditional executive side, we are seeing those job requests coming in. We’re making sure everything is running smoothly from the internal side.”
Wilson manages the o ce hours that power the resident recruitment process, coordinating sta assistants who call residents, setting up job checks, entering data and assigning tasks.
“I’m pretty much in charge of anything that is based around recruiting residents,” Wilson said. “I’m just mainly there to help facilitate that and make sure everything’s going smoothly.”
Prince focuses more on development initiatives, like facilitating interviews, leading trainings, planning retreats and creating systems for 450 people to work together
We make it a priority to make sure that every single individual is seen and valued, and they feel the love of The Big Event.
Ryann Berry The Big Event Recruitment Executive “ “
make it a priority to make sure that every single individual is seen and valued, and they feel the love of The Big Event.”
For genetics junior and fellow Recruitment Executive Tobin Wilson, it’s about the balance of working together months in advance to prepare for day-of logistics and then piling into a car for discount pizookies at BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse on a random Tuesday.
“The Big Event’s culture is, we’re a service org,” Wilson said. “One of the biggest things we do is serve. I think the next biggest thing we do is run our community and have a really strong culture. Everybody is just happy to be there and happy to help.”
Berry and Wilson’s team spends weeks tabling at community events, answering phone calls from residents, writing newsletters, pitching news outlets and monitoring sign-up numbers.
e ciently.
“There’s de nitely a lot of backend work in The Big Event executive team that you wouldn’t think,” Prince said. “We have to zone jobs and ll out all kinds of paperwork just to keep things running.”
Because sta members oversee the spring event on campus, most do not get to participate. Instead, every fall, they pause their preparation to hold The Little Event, designed for internal members.
On Nov. 9, executives and sta assistants alike got their hands dirty, serving residents directly.
“As internal members, we don’t really get to serve on the day of anymore,” Wilson said. “So when we do things like The Little Event, it kind of puts us back at home, back to why we joined The Big Event.”
Sta members nominate former professors, local grandparents, past clients or com-
munity members as residents for The Little Event. For Berry, the highlight was serving the grandmother of a committee member on her birthday.
“It was super sweet,” Berry said. “We brought her a card, and she just needed a ton of little jobs done outside. She was so grateful for it, especially it being her birthday. She was just so grateful to have people around, and that was what was really special about that day.”
For all three executives, the fall semester isn’t just preparation and logistics. Every task checked o the to-do list also comes with personal transformation. Prince credits The Big Event with his growth in public speaking and professionalism, while Berry said it taught her how to lead.
“It gave me so much experience in being a leader, but also a follower,” Berry said. “I’ve learned how to love others better. I’ve learned how to really value people in an organization and show that they are seen.”
But most of all, being a part of The Big Event year-round has catered to the hearts for service that every sta member and volunteer carries, according to Prince.
“I feel like we’re called to serve by God,” Prince said. “It’s not just the physical service we do, the biggest aspect of it is the connection you make with the community.”
As fall turns to winter and the house in the meeting room gains more planks, sta members will continue to hammer away at the foundations for the spring event, from ling backlogged paperwork to forming community connections.
“We are projected to have the largest Big Event yet,” Berry said. “Our growth has been extremely exponential this year, and we are projected to need the most volunteers we’ve ever had in history. We need over 25,000 volunteers this year in order to serve all of our residents and just say thank you to the people that make Bryan-College Station our home away from home.”
The Big Event may be a single day of service, but Berry said that for the people behind it, the house is built long before the volunteers ever arrive.
“It’s just unimaginable the amount of impact that one day can have on an entire community and how close it can bring students and residents,” Berry said. “I gained my best friends in the world through this. I would be literally nowhere without our exec team and our committee members and the sta that I’ve been so blessed to have and to know.”
Emails reveal tensions between administrators, former president in final days, committee backs McCoul
By Ethan Rhame News Reporter
Former President Mark A. Welsh III received a $3.5 million payout from the Texas A&M University System, approved by the Board of Regents on Sept. 26 following his resignation, according to documents recently obtained through a public records request by the Houston Chronicle.
In his original contract with the university, Welsh was set to receive $1.1 million annually from 2023 until December 2028. Over three years of his contract remained
when Welsh resigned in September.
On Sept. 17, just two days before he left his o ce for the last time, Welsh emailed Chancellor Glenn Hegar and Executive Vice Chancellor Susan Ballabina, making it known that Board of Regents Chair Robert Albritton supported Welsh’s full $3.5 million payout.
“Can’t believe I forgot to mention this to you today,” Welsh wrote in his email to Hegar and Ballabina. “The idea for the 5-year payout actually came from something Bob Albritton said on our phone call Monday: ‘Mark, I’m so tired of this bullshit. … You gotta trust me that I’m gonna push to get you paid that full contract.’”
In his email, Welsh also said the payout was not entirely supported by the Board of Regents as a whole.
“This is the reason I was a little surprised when you told me they didn’t support the 5-year payout,” Welsh wrote. “I don’t expect
you to do anything with this note except double delete it (which is what I’m gonna do after I send it), and I’m not asking you to use it for anything, I just want you to know why trust has gone out the window on my side of all this.”
Welsh’s resignation came as a result of a controversial viral video in which former senior lecturer Melissa McCoul discussed gender identity in her Literature for Children class. The novel McCoul discussed, “Jude Saves the World,” features a 12-yearold nonbinary protagonist.
An anonymous student was recorded confronting McCoul over gender identity discussions in the classroom. The video was circulated by Texas State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-10), who published it online along with unreleased audio recordings of a conversation between Welsh and the anonymous student.
As the controversy grew, Welsh red
McCoul and removed College of Arts and Sciences’ Dean Mark Zoran and the head of the English department, Emily Johansen, from their administrative duties. Welsh’s own resignation followed.
McCoul explored legal action against the university, appealing her termination through A&M’s Committee on Academic Freedom, Responsibility and Tenure.
A panel of eight faculty committee members met on Nov. 3 and unanimously agreed that the university did not have good cause to re McCoul after evaluating the three reasons A&M provided for her termination — failure to perform her duties, violation of policies and acting unprofessionally.
The committee reported its consensus to Interim President Tommy Williams on Nov. 18, according to a new report. The decision to uphold McCoul’s termination or reinstate her as a professor remains up to Williams.
Development Executive and accounting junior Tyler Prince, Recruitment Executive and marketing senior Ryann Berry and Recruitment Executive and genetics junior Tobin Wilson piece together another tile for their house at The Big Event office in the Koldus Buliding on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025.
LIFE & ARTS
Breaking bread: Friends bake for faith
Faith-based bakers sell out sweets at local markets
By Ava Whelan Life & Arts Writer
Freshly baked pastries cool beside golden, glazed dinner rolls and fruit- lled pies, each one dusted, drizzled and shaped by hand. The carefully aligned spread transforms the bakery’s market booth into a display that draws customers in.
His Daily Bread Bakery, a faith-centered venture founded in November 2024, uses simple ingredients to provide baked goods to the community. From adjusting recipes to testing new avors, the owners, Sadie Brown ‘25 and Blinn student Genny McNeely said the bakery was founded based on their “simple love for baking” and “desire to glorify God through the work of hands.” Brown found her passion for baking at a young age, learning from the pie and pastry bakers at Slowpoke Farm Market in her hometown of Cisco. While the owner retired and closed down the bakery, Brown carries on the recipes through His Daily Bread’s menus.
“I worked in a pie bakery growing up, so I always kind of had this love for baking,” Brown said. “Whenever I met Genny, she had the same love. We started around this
time a year ago, selling Thanksgiving goods individually. That’s when we decided, after Thanksgiving, let’s do it together. We both have di erent talents that we could de nitely grow more together with.”
Making up the other half of His Daily Bread Bakery, McNeely grew up baking bread and cinnamon rolls with her grandma. Specializing in cheesecake, cinnamon rolls and sourdough, a bakery-wide element of
baked goods increases as customers prepare for seasonal gatherings, a process the pair described as meaningful and busy.
McNeely said that the season aligns with the thoughtful scratch baking they specialize in.
“With the holidays and it getting a little bit colder, this is de nitely our busy season,” McNeely said. “I feel like homemade, fresh foods help gather people around the table
Seeing the growth that we have had individually with Christ and hearing other people’s stories when they see our name is so inspiring.
Sadie Brown ’25 Co-Owner of His Daily Bread Bakery
all their products, McNeely said she wants to share food that is wholesome and cozy.
“Our overall purpose is to spread the word of God and share nourishing, healthy baked goods with the community,” McNeely said. “Every single thing is from scratch, meaning they don’t have any additives or anything along those lines. Just genuinely clean, purposeful food.”
With the arrival of fall, the demand for
more.”
Brown and McNeely carefully craft their seasonal menus from a blend of their treasured recipes, family members’ fall favorites, community suggestions and feedback from regular customers.
Consisting of pies, scones, dinner rolls and more items made from scratch, McNeely said the bakery’s products are bound to be a hit.
“[My favorite] is de nitely the cinnamon crumble cheesecake; it has the perfect crunchy top,” McNeely said. “The cheesecake is classic, and the crust is delicious, so seasonal.”
Brown’s favorite Thanksgiving menu item, the cranberry apple pie, brings her anticipation for the holiday. For the upcoming winter menu, she said an orangecranberry avor is in the works, inspired by a lifelong recipe from her grandmother.
“Surprisingly, a lot of people aren’t sure of cranberries, but they add such a sweet and tart taste all in one,” Brown said. “It is amazing and one of my favorites, so yummy.”
During the bakery’s seasonal period, from October through Christmas, they sell every weekend at various pop-up markets.
During their o -season, they sell at around two events per month. This fall, the Wellborn Market and Sundays at Polite Co ee Roasters have been their regular selling points, along with newer pop-ups like Howdy Marketplace.
“We’ve had a really amazing response from the start, going back to our very rst market,” Brown said.
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Living with ataxia, working with purpose
Shelbi Davenport ‘20 shares how her journey with ataxia shaped her resilience, work, commitment to helping others
By Julia Helsel Life & Arts Writer
At 5 years old, Shelbi Davenport ‘20 was diagnosed with ataxia, a progressive neurological disease that a ects speech, motor skills and balance. Her family was shocked and unsure of what her future would look like, but they committed themselves to supporting her dreams despite the potential challenges posed by the diagnosis.
Since then, Davenport’s life has exceeded the expectations of doctors and educators alike. Doctors believed she would need to rely on a wheelchair by the age of 10. However, she’s still walking independently today. Her high school counselor told her that she would never be able to graduate college because of her disability, though she now has a degree in university studies and has a career coordinating the Horticultural Options in Plant Science, or HOPS, program with Texas A&M’s AgriLife extension.
Davenport said she had dreamed of attending A&M her whole life and got a taste of that dream when she joined — and later graduated from — the Postsecondary Access and Training in Human Services program, or PATHS. Even as she walked the stage with her two-year certi cate, she knew she’d return to A&M one day for her bachelor’s degree. “My high school transition o cer showed me the PATHS program, and I fell in love with it,” Davenport said. “Even though I wasn’t gonna be a traditional Aggie, I was still gonna attend Texas A&M, and that’s been my dream since I was born. I graduated in 2015 from the PATHS program, and I wrote on my graduation cap, ‘I’ll be back.’” From there, she attended Blinn to obtain her associates degree and spoke with an advisor who suggested she apply for the
A&M university studies track, to which she enrolled in the summer of 2018. She said making the leap was exceptionally hard, as she faced several setbacks. Because of her disability, she had to learn to advocate for herself and work with professors who understood that she needed a di erent learning style and accommodations.
“When I rst came to A&M, I had never passed a test in college, ever,” Davenport said.
“But I was at class, I did all the extra credit, I talked to my professors, I did everything. … I knew all the material, I sat in the front row and I would answer questions, but come test time, I would bomb the test. A professor of mine would talk to me and ask me to explain a concept, and I could explain exactly what the answers were, I just couldn’t write them down.”
From then on, Davenport requested to answer exam questions verbally, received A’s on her tests and nally saw that graduation was within her grasp. Cheryl Grenwelge, Ph.D, ‘10 — a past director of PATHS that had helped Davenport during her time in the program — noticed her success and hired her for the HOPS program immediately after graduation.
“Shelbi came in with the self-con dence and knowledge she could do it,” Grenwelge said. “ … The passion for what she does, you can’t put a cap on it. She understands disability struggles, accommodations and how to support students.”
In Grenwelge’s experience, she said that people have a tendency to put those with disabilities into boxes that strictly outline what they can or cannot do. She believes individuals like Davenport rise above the expectations that are placed on those with disabilities.
“My philosophy is that individuals with disabilities deserve the life anyone else has,” Grenwelge said. “ … It doesn’t really matter so much what the challenge is, most of the time they will rise to the challenge provided access. … We want to provide opportunities that those individuals are passionate about.”
Owners Sadie Brown ‘25 and Blinn student Genny McNeely sell baked goods at Polite Coffee Roasters on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025.
Corby Maupin — THE BATTALION
Shelbi Davenport ‘20, poses for a photo at Aggie Park on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. Corby Maupin — THE BATTALION
University mascot becomes cybernetic terminator
By Wyatt Pickering Opinion Columnist
In a shocking turn of events, beloved mascot and First Lady of Aggieland Reveille X executed a cattle communication professor during a lecture where diversity in cattle herds was discussed.
In a statement made by current Reveille handler Cory Cordet, “I think it was a shock to all of us when Reveille blew up my cattle comms professor. At least we don’t have to take that exam next Monday.”
After blowing up the professor, Reveille went on her usual walk around campus and barked at any squirrels in her presence.
This action comes months after Senate Bill 1012 — also known as the “Make Reveille Robotic Again” bill — came into e ect. This bill forced Reveille to undergo augmentative surgery; she had a laser eye installed that immediately silences any person in academic spaces who discusses topics unapproved by the Board of Regents. The banned topics include discussions of DEI, gender, empathy or “being a nice person.”
It’s unclear what the requirements for Reveille’s laser eye to be set o are, but it has many professors who have the privilege of having Reveille in class on the edge of their seats.
When I spoke to forest psychology professor Leanne Leaf, she commented, “I used to hear horror stories about professors cancelling classes because Reveille would bark. Now, they’re scared because she can blow up our faces with a laser beam. It’s a shame that a university like A&M will choose to sic an attack dog on us instead of ring us
Education insists we learn without the anti-intellectual barriers, fabricated definitions of ‘race and gender ideology’
By Sidney Uy Opinion Writer
In today’s crisis of higher education, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents doesn’t desire to simply maintain the marketplace of ideas, as it’d like to claim. Instead, it desires to whitewash education in order to limit the intellectual expression of all Aggies, regardless of what educators think.
So, why are they doing it?
Two internal investigations have already concluded that former senior lecturer Melissa McCoul did not actually violate university rules. Earlier in the semester, the lecturer was red after teaching students about gender identity in an upper-level children’s literature course. Chair of the Board of Regents Robert Albritton — like the student who recorded McCoul — even publicly accused her of violating a law that does not exist. This is rather suspicious, since McCoul was red only after the classroom video was leaked to the public.
The Regents’ political imagination is so formidable that they’ve even imagined violations of rules ex post facto regarding catalog descriptions in an attempt to retroactively justify McCoul’s ring. They’ve since passed real rules that serve the same purpose — control for control’s sake.
Since Nov. 13 — the date on which a unanimous vote was held by the Board of Regents to prohibit instruction of “gender ideology” and “race ideology” in the classroom — we have sunk further into the kind of blistering ignorance that the Regents and their political appointer, Gov. Greg Abbott, now properly esteem as an “education.” As a result of decisions made in a single semester, our education will now be capriciously gatekept.
They aren’t protecting students from indoctrination, instead, it’s all political theater at the university’s expense.
The revisions of “gender ideology” and “race ideology” are so vague and unsupported that several crucial topics can be taken o of course syllabi altogether.
Satire: Reveille executes professor
for our beliefs like they used to.”
In addition to attacking professors who harbor this woke mind virus, Reveille is also trained to attack A&M students who have blue hair or look like they would live in Austin. She has been banned from attending any t.u. football games for fear that she would take out half of the Longhorns’ student section.
SB 1012 was championed by Texas State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-10), who wanted
to make sure that professors on the A&M campus were being held accountable by the highest-ranking member of our university. When asked why that person should be a dog that bites her own tail, Harrison ran away and complained about news agencies on X for the next couple of hours.
One positive result of installing a laser eye on Reveille is that she is no longer swarmed by students who want to take a photo with her. Many freshmen now say
they consider living more important than a cute Instagram story. One Aggie even wrote an email to her representative stating, “I love Reveille, but I also love having a face. I just hope those priorities aren’t mutually exclusive anymore.”
It’s important to note that many former students are now calling on Reveille to step down from her position as A&M’s premier laser-eyed executor, calling her an “outdated DEI hire.” This is because Reveille is a disabled female who is taking this position away from dogs who are just as quali ed to silence free speech on campus.
Harrison even exposed Reveille on his own X page by sharing a photo of her taking a nap in class during a lecture. He captioned this photo by saying, “While professors are indoctrinating our students with DEI terrorism, our female Dog Czar is sleeping on the job! A&M’s Board of Regents needs to replace Reveille right now with a competent MALE dog that knows how to do its job!”
It’s unclear what the Board of Regents’ decision about Reveille will be at the moment, but a meeting is scheduled to discuss this very important issue. Leaked documents suggest that United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem will be brought in to “dispose” of Reveille in an appropriate manner.
How many more students will be subject to unregulated free speech in our classrooms while Reveille sleeps on the job? We students deserve a competent attack dog who will protect our right to be ignorant of societal issues and learn safely from academic terrorists.
Wyatt Pickering is a business honors and nance junior and opinion columnist for The Battalion.
Opinion: Our future rests on education
ing biological studies on gender orientation and ongoing debates on whether we can assume gender or sex are essential categories altogether.
or assign them intrinsic guilt based on the actions of their presumed ancestors or relatives in other areas of the world.”
race, the mere fact that this de nition may downplay major historical events has the potential to exacerbate the denials of the horrors of slavery, colonization and war.
This extremely long revision su ers from its own lack of historical context that the length cannot compensate for. If there were any incidents where a professor taught students about slavery in order to “shame” white students for their supposed ancestors, why wasn’t this case mentioned or cited?
According to the Board of Regents, “gender ideology” is de ned as the “concept of self-assessed gender identity replacing, and disconnected from, the biological category of sex.”
This one-sentence de nition of “gender ideology” completely erases entire areas of research.This revision overlooks psychological research on the mental health of transgender and nonbinary individuals, develop-
Issues of gender are in constant contention in healthcare, the legal system and a plethora of other overlapping industries. Young professionals should be prepared for the workforce with a well-rounded, uncensored education. However, since this revision is so vague, many important lessons could be subject to complete erasure.
For instance, this revision may trigger an exclusion of the Holocaust. During the open session of the Regents’ meeting, assistant professor Miranda Sachs, Ph.D., claimed that the history of the Holocaust fell under the restrictions outlined in the amended policies.
The Board of Regents also de nes “race ideology” as a “concept that attempts to shame a particular race or ethnicity, accuse them of being oppressors in a racial hierarchy or conspiracy, ascribe to them less value as contributors to society and public discourse because of their race or ethnicity,
In reality, “race ideology” remains a specter and no student at A&M has recently reported a class lesson containing “race ideology” that justi es this conveniently shoehorned addition. “Race ideology” is yet another fantasy for the Regents who desire to enact revisions that are not grounded in fact. Even if a professor were to teach about
“The new revised policy would, in fact, make it impossible for me in a classroom at A&M to teach this history,” Sachs said.
The project of education challenges misinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories, yet that becomes impossible when institutions decide to power trip. By the Regents’ own de nition, a professor should not label anyone as being “oppressors in a racial hierarchy.”
If these revisions were created in 1930s German academies, then the Nazis couldn’t have been accused and therefore held accountable for the oppression and mass extermination of Jews, queer and disabled Germans, Romani nomads and other groups that were considered “non-aryans.”
In fact, the Nazis wrote eerily similar rules called the Nuremberg Race Laws, which were intended to “Aryanize” German universities and protect German honor. Today, whose reputation actually needs this level of feverous protection? The “race ideology” revision reads like defensive self-victimization rather than real policy.
What’s so troubling about these revisions is that the Board of Regents — after listening to rounds of professor testimony — did not seem open to changing the denitions or negotiating concessions. The Regents were instead asking themselves who they had to terminate in order to satisfy the politicians responsible for their careers. At the end of the day, it’s unsettling to acknowledge the sheer banality. It’s a bureaucratic nightmare and another iteration of “just following orders.”
Overall, these didactic revisions enforce the disavowal of education on the grounds of something like “you’re being insensitive to my worldview” rather than championing any real arguments. Yet, we are not children to infantilize, and a university is not a sandbox.
Even though our political leadership fully expects us to acquiesce in ill-decisions, we did not come to this university to be delivered to bad actors. Before the university experiences an impending brain drain, we ask that they stop selling students to politicians. Let students have an education the university is ready to o er. Let us have a future.
Sidney Uy is a philosophy junior and opinion writer for The Battalion.
Illustration by Susana Lazcano — THE BATTALION
Illustration by Allison Fernandes — THE BATTALION
By The Battalion
Opinion Editor Isabella Garcia Kim Kardashian’s thong skirt
Yeah, you read that right. Kim Kardashian stars as a high-strung lawyer in the new legal drama “All’s Fair,” ostensibly to promote empowerment amid our patriarchal, capitalist society. I have yet to see this absolute catastrophe — that boasts a jaw-dropping 3% Rotten Tomatoes rating — but, as a fellow aspiring lawyer, it would seem her infamous work attire choices have made their way to my Reddit feed. In the series, the SKIMS founder dons a Jean Paul Gaultier 1997 skirt suit … with a cutout in the back that reveals her maroon thong. She is supposed to be a professional! In a law rm! Subverting expectations to reclaim power in a eld dominated by men is one thing, but I fear this may have set feminism back three generations.
What was your favorite pop culture moment this year?
Opinion Sta : Student debt? Lame. Government shutdown? Irrelevant. Impending reality that you’ll probably be unemployed when you graduate? No, thank you. The opinion sta decided to discuss what we’re actually thinking about. From the Kendrick Lamar-Drake saga to Katy Perry catapulting into space, we asked our writers to detail the most iconic moments from this year.
Opinion Writer Gabriela Gomez Katseye’s iconic collab with Gap
Associate Opinion Editor Kaleb Blizzard
sumed would see Instead, got a gentri-
The Premier of ‘Zootopia 2’ I’ve had to wait a long time for a number of things, but no wait that I have had to experience has been as excruciating as the one for “Zootopia 2.” It’s been over nine years since the debut of the rst entry in the series, and my Wilde-Hopps ship hopes have been on hold since then. “Zootopia 2” was released in late November to what many aswas a guarantee that we the pair together. it turns out we story on a covert cation plot by a family of lynx. Still, it’s the best Disney animated lm we’ve seen in years — I guess I’ll just have to wait on Judy and Nick until 2035, when “Zootopia 3” is finally released.
Opinion
Columnist Wyatt Pickering
Everything is non-romantic between Taylor Swift and Charli xcx
Opinion Writer Aidan Zamany
The new, old zeitgeist
on the British song “ActuTaylor went Charli as a
On the heels of Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad came the iconic dance collab between Katseye and Gap. While Sydney has been able to utilize her name to sell all sorts of products — Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss, namely — the American Eagle ad fell short of its mark. It faced a lot of backlash as audiences claimed that it advertised “ideal genes.” With public outcry at an all-time high, the global popstar group Katseye stepped up. The ad, featuring a spectacularly choreographed dance to the popular song “Milkshake” by Kelis, was the de nition of perfection. The overwhelming mix of diversity — represented in the group itself and the supporting background dancers — was exactly what we needed.
Throughout 2025, we saw many successful women at odds with one another, but none of those feuds were more iconic than the beef between Taylor Swift and Charli xcx. In response to Charli allegedly writing about her insecurities toward Taylor in her catchy song, “Sympathy is a knife,” Taylor dropped the equivalent of a Swiftie atom bomb pop star in the ally Romantic.” on to describe toy chihuahua that won’t stop barking at her. Many chronically online pop fans, myself included, are waiting to see what these two opposing forces in the music industry have next and if their beef will inspire more songs from these two icons.
Opinion Writer Sidney Uy
‘The concept of’ and the bald-headed genius aura
Opinion Columnist Joshua Abraham Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX halftime performance
After one of the greatest rap beefs of all time between Kendrick Lamar and Drake ended with Lamar accusing Drake of being a pedophile and turning it into a billion-stream hit, people thought the saga was over. Except, Lamar was announced as the halftime performer for Super Bowl LIX, further burying Drake in the ground. Featuring music o his newest album “GNX,” his Pulitzer-winning “DAMN.” and his ultra-hit o the “Black Panther” album, he transformed the Caesars Superdome into a platform to comment on the current state of America and his place in it. Not only was his meme-making smile at the camera during “Not Like Us” iconic, but the entire show will go down as one of the greatest halftime performances of all time.
“The concept of,” followed by the most audaciously real observation, is the standout pop culture moment of the mid-2020s. Attached to “The concept of” meme is Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo tapping on her bald head and doing some callations with her acrylic nails, ready to drop something nuclear. Now I’m tapping my ngers on my head too, trying to figure out why I’m being tested! For example, the concept of that man standing on top of the bar tables, frat- icking in order to impress the women — oh! That’s a concept! Ever been icked out? Apply “The concept of” generously because it’s addictive and works every single time.
Opinion Writer Aliyah Mims Katy Perry in space
A borderline absurd spectacle to be remembered this year is Katy Perry catapulting herself into space along with her ve fellow renowned “astronauts.” The takeo of Blue Origin’s NS31 ight perfectly captures the growing ridiculousness of millionaire escapism while the rest of us regular citizens spend our time calculating if we can a ord gas and groceries in the same week. In the meantime, the all-women crew was gracefully oating in zero gravity like it was an avant-garde pilates class. The entire stunt is purely performative, along with a cosmic reminder that ultra-wealthy luminaries literally exist on a di erent plane. While it was unintentionally poetic, this unhinged mission con rmed that the rich aren’t just out of touch anymore — they’ve ascended into orbit.
aesthetic. release “Alhas have
I couldn’t care less about shortlived internet trends, celebrities and any other super ciality that falls under the umbrella of contemporary “popular culture.” Most of what I engage with is esoteric, ethereal and rooted in ancient tradition. This year, I have enjoyed watching my special circle of dissenters publish exceptionally elevated content; with great creativity, they have incorporated the Algiz, Ouroboros, Götterdämmerung and the Übermensch into a glorious synthesis of pure culture. In this regard, consumption is no longer degenerate, but instead a deeply nourishing a rmation of our superiority in body, soul and
spirit.
Opinion Writer Maeva Elizabé
Opinion Writer Killian Netherton 25th Anniversary of ‘Almost Famous’
Tom Holland and Zendaya’s engagement Zendaya’s mononymous name is undeniably iconic, but Mrs. Holland sure does have a nice ring to it! As a hopeless romantic born in the wrong generation and subjected to a year disconcertingly plagued by celebrity bombshell divorces — I’m looking at you, Keith and Nicole — and acrimonious splits, I’ve increasingly found myself scouring for signs that romance is still alive and kicking. While the number of sh in the sea of singles may have risen these past months on account of this catch-and-release epidemic, the dating pool having conversely shrunk by two following the of Tom Holland and daya’s long-anticed engagement the bride-to-be’s ionable Golden soft launch — in January merproves that love not gone out of and is, in fact, very much in
reports Zenipat— and fashGlobes back cifully has style, still the air.
My favorite pop culture moment of this year is the 25th anniversary of Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous.” The anniversary promoted some limited screenings of the anniversary special — and Kate Hudson’s iconic character, Penny Lane’s ankle-length suede pants and shearling-lined coat continue to inspire public fashion to this day. Even celebrities like Sydney Sweeney and Bella Hadid can’t resist rocking this glorious 70s boho-chic From the movie’s in 2000 to 2025, most Famous” continued to a lasting impact on American audiences, extending its reach not only to their hearts but also to their fashion sense.
Illustratoins by Zoe Rich and Kynlee Bright THE BATTALION
CAMPUS
YAF hosts North Korean defector
Aiming to unite, educate politically passionate students, human rights activist, author Yeonmi Park speaks at A&M
By Taryn Stilson News Reporter
North Korean defector, two-time author and human rights activist Yeonmi Park was invited to speak at an event hosted by Texas A&M’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, or YAF, on Nov. 20. It was held at the Memorial Student Center, in MSC 2404.
Founded in 1960 by William F. Buckley, YAF aims to unite students of the conservative movement, aerospace engineering junior and YAF o cer Audrey Delgado said.
“Today, we ght to restore the timeless values like free enterprise, limited government, anti-socialism and, most importantly, traditional family values to our Aggie family,” Delgado said.
At YAF’s speaker event, Park spoke about the responsibility of freedom, her experience escaping North Korea and the realities of socialism.
“I really have a deep concern for American universities, especially, because the people who usually become socialists are the college graduates,” Park said. “They get this idea of the fairytale story of socialism, and they don’t know how destructive socialism has been. I really want to educate them on what socialism is, and what it can do to our future.”
Park said her upbringing in Hyesan, North Korea, gave her rst-hand experience
with the implications of socialism. In her novel, “In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom,” she describes what it was like to endure extreme poverty and live under authoritarian rule.
Park explained to attendees how North Korean society is steeped in the in uence of government propaganda. Park said she was taught by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, to worship dictator Kim Jon-II and was brainwashed into devoting her life to the state.
North Korea wasn’t always like this, Park told audience members.
She explained that socialism in North Korea began with Kim II-Sung, a charming politician who wanted to give everyone opportunity and close the gap between the wealthy and the poor.
“But with that promise, my grandmother and grandfather gave up their rights one by one,” Park said. “They rst gave up their freedom of speech … and they also had to give up private property, and then they eventually had to give up their freedom of movement … and religion.” Park said. “They gave up all their rights, in the just name of this paradise where everyone is equal. Eighty years later, we know that North Korea is not a paradise.”
Park referenced the novel “1984,” written by George Orwell, several times during her speaking time, focusing on the idea of “double speak.” She compared this method of distorting language for political control to the way the DPRK controls its people.
“Whoever controls the language, they control what we can think,” Park said. “[The DPRK] eliminated the word ‘freedom,’ because people are not allowed to know what freedom is.”
The DPRK strips away all semblance of individuality in North Korean society, Park said. Park explained having to say, “We love
Sharon Gursky re ects on species rediscovery, rainforest research
From close calls with apex predators to rediscovering species, A&M professor shares how passion for fieldwork has shaped her career
By Aayan Adnan Life & Arts Writer
The scorchingly humid air of Uganda, Indonesia and the Philippines are a world away from the third floor of Texas A&M’s Anthropology Building, where the office of anthropology professor Sharon Gursky, Ph.D., resides — yet Gursky has built a career exploring those rainforests every year. Her field sites — rugged and chock full of nocturnal primates — are where Gursky said she feels most at home.
Gursky wasn’t born with love for her craft. Her journey began with an internship assignment that slipped into a career-defining discovery.
“When I was in college, I had to do an internship,” Gursky said. “They found an internship for me at the primate center, and while I was there, I was working with animals, and I realized how much I loved it. And that’s how it started.”
She has spent decades working with tarsiers, tiny primates known for their enormous eyes and ancient evolutionary lineage. Tarsiers belong to a group of primates that have existed for roughly 50 million years, according to University of Chicago scientists. Their peculiar traits — including eyes whose volume exceeds that of their brain, as Gursky shared — are tailored to their nocturnal behavior.
Gursky’s contributions to the research of tarsiers over the years have proven so influential that the species was renamed in her honor. The scientific name was changed from Tarsius spectrum to Tarsius spectrumgurskyae, or Gursky’s spectral tarsier.
Gursky said that while primatology may not be a high-paying profession, her passion has been the driving force of her work.
“I love what I do,” Gursky said. “I get to travel around the world and hike in rainforests — I go hiking in Madagascar, Indonesia, Uganda, chasing monkeys, and this is my job.”
Gursky’s work sends her into some of the most vulnerable ecosystems on the planet. Rainforest habitats in Southeast Asia face rapid deforestation due to modern pressures such as logging and agricultural expansions, meaning the progression of human infrastructure and land-use expansion directly renders native species under threat of resource and habitat scarcity. For Gursky, each fieldwork season is a chance to collect data that may contribute to the preservation of species fighting for survival.
“When I’m in that four-wheel-drive vehicle going on a bumpy road to my field site, and I see it in the distance, I can just all of a sudden feel like I can start to breathe,” Gursky said.
However, not every moment in the field is peaceful. On an island in Indonesia, Gursky was conducting a population survey of slow lorises when her guide suddenly froze.
“All of a sudden [the guide] stopped, and I’m like, ‘Keep going,’” Gursky said. “Then he grabs my head, turns it and I look up and go, ‘Oh my God.’”
kimchi,” instead of, “I love kimchi,” because individualism is heavily discouraged and even punishable in North Korea.
“That was a big transition for me going to South Korea … learning why the ‘I’ was so important, because in North Korea it’s always, ‘We.’” Park said. “But I am not a collective. I’m my own being, and I’m created in the image of God.”
After a brief history lesson on how North Korea fell to socialist ideology, Park told more of her own story to the audience.
Park said that, in 2007, she and her mother made an escape from North Korea to China after her father was arrested.
From there, her journey only became more di cult after she was sold into human tra cking in China by the woman who helped her escape across the border.
Park explained that it was in 2009, after being tra cked for two years, that a South Korean missionary helped her nd a way out.
Her escape was a grueling trek across the Gobi Desert that led her to South Korea at 15 years old where she stumbled upon freedom.
“Freedom was very hard,” Park said. “I had to understand what freedom really is … and when I got to a true, free nation for the rst time, I understood that freedom was responsibility.”
After Park wrapped up her speech with words of encouragement about stewarding freedom with responsibility, students were given the opportunity to ask questions.
Some students asked questions such as “How do I contribute to the ght against socialism?” and “What do you think the American [diplomatic] policy should be for North Korea?”
Park answered each question with detail before thanking attendees for their time and exiting the room.
Just 10 feet above them sat a clouded leopard, a notoriously powerful predator native to rainforests in Southeast Asia. Gursky said that memory was one that’s only fun to tell after the fact.
“It was doing that growl,” Gursky said. “We slowly started backing up … nobody would ever go into the forest with me again after that.”
Gursky’s adventures in primatology extend beyond fateful encounters with apex predators — it stretches as far as rediscovering a species thought to be extinct. The pygmy tarsier, a two-ounce nocturnal primate, had not been seen in over 70 years and was believed to be extinct by conservation groups. Gursky said The International Union for the Conservation of Nature had reached out for her opinion on the species’ status, to which she replied that she didn’t know.
Then, they asked her to take a look.
“National Geographic gave me money,” Gursky said. “On the second night there, my graduate student and I found a live population.” Their find went on to rewrite the understanding of the species, which Gursky said reignited scientific attention toward tarsiers.
“These guys are incredibly tiny — about two ounces,” Gursky said. “You’re going and looking in the forest for something that tiny and nocturnal.”
Gursky said every species plays a role in its ecosystem, and that they’re all interconnected. Whether she’s trekking through Madagascar at dusk, redirecting from a clouded leopard’s gaze or mentoring the next generation of primatologists, the mission remains the same: preserving what can be saved.
“I know I’ll never be rich,” Gursky said. “But I love what I do — and not most people who get jobs just to make money can say that.”
Photos by Tilly Hillje — THE BATTALION
North Korean defector, author and activist Yeonmi Park answers audience questions during an event hosted by Texas A&M’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter at the Memorial Student Center on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025.
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