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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 1955)
Page 4 THE BATTALION Thursday, August 25, 1955 Pu b l ica tionsO'ffice r Has Newspaper, Four Magazines Thp Office of Student Publica tions offers the student body of A&M a wide variety of reading material throughout the year, with a daily newspaper, a yearbook and four, magazines. The newspaper is The Battalion, City Grew Up After Founding Of College A college was founded and a city grew up around it. That is the story of the City of College Station, the “Home of Texas A&M.” College Station’s population is approximately 7,000, not count ing students living on the campus. The city almost completely sur- ronds the island of state property that is A&M. Each of the city’s three main sections are on a dif ferent side of the college. The oldest section is to the south and has three subdivisions: College Park, the oldest; Breezy Heights; West Park and Oak- woodi. Across Highway 6 from East Gate is the largest section of Col lege Station. This area has five additions: College Hills, Wood land, Ringhoffer, Kelley and Coon- er. The streets in this area are named for well known men of A&M: Walton, Puryear, Kyle, Milner, Foster, and others. The third section is behind North Gate. Composed of Boyett and Tauber, this section has most of the city’s churches. It also is the location of the City Hall. Each section of the city has its own business district and shopping center, and each is a city ward. College Station was incorpora ted in October, 1938. A city man ager type of government was adop ted in 1944. A mayor and a six- tnan council form the legislative branch of the city. The mayor of the city is Ernest Langford, head of A&M’s Architecture Depart ment, who has served College Sta tion in this capacity for 13 years. Ran Boswell is city manager. .• A; volunteer Fire Department is bp .hand, and city police officers work in conjunction with A&M Gainpns Security officers, Bryan $dhce' and county and state offi- W' : - written and edited by students for the students, faculty, staff and residents of College Station. Published four times a week dur ing the regular session, it is a member of the Associated Press and is the official newspaper of A&M College and of the City of College Station. The Batt, as it is called, covers campus, local, state and national news, with emphasis placed on happenings around the campus. It carries regularly Pogo and Li’l Abner comic strips and also car toons about A&M drawn by stu dents. Several special editions, such as this one, are published during the year. One of these, a safety edi tion put out last winter, won third prize for college dailies in a na tional contest. The yearbook, which is called the Aggieland, presents a record of student life on the campus during the year. Work on the book is begun in September and continues until June. The Aggieland is de livered in October. There is one magazine for each school of the college. These are The Agriculturist, Th^ Engineer, The Southwestern Veterinarian and The Commentator, which is the publication of the School of Arts and Sciences. The Engineer is published monthly, and the oth er magazines are published four times during the school year. All publications are staffed en tirely by students, and all students, including freshmen, ai*e invited to try out for the staffs of any of the publications. Subscriptions to all publications are included in the student activ ity fee, and the student who pays this fee receives the Aggieland, a year’s subscription to The Bat talion, and a subscription to the magazine of his choice. Fish Drill Team Open to Students The military students of the freshman class have their own drill team, coached by military science instructors and led by its own elected officers. At the first of the year, tryouts for the team will be announced. Membership is on a competitive basis, with about 80 men trying out each year for the 30-man team. Besides putting on drill exhi bitions on the campus, the team travels to other cities to perform. 0m im * * if •' mm. AGGIE PASTIME—It may look like fun but the famous Aggie “Water Fights” can get you into trouble with col lege officials. Despite this, however, the watery contests continue year after year, so you who have indicated that you intend to come to A&M had just as well see what goes on. It is highly advised that you avoid such incidents, but you may happen to get involved in one. It’s an old Aggie pastime, and, after all, there are no girls at A & M. A&M’s Stormy History A&M now has 79 years of his tory, history significant mainly for the people who made it and what has been done. Some of the time has been stonny, but the re sult is the most important thing. Texas A&M, like every other state’s land grant school, was authorized by the Morrill Act of 1864. At this time, Texas and the rest of the South were a little too busy fighting the “dam yank- ees” to do anything about the a.ct, but by 1866 they began looking around for some place to put a land grant college. A&M was not founded in the middle of Brazos Valley by acci dent—contrary to what upper classmen think. The City of Bryan gave the land to the state. The story goes that the school was to be two miles from Bryan, but some persevering state researcher discovered that Bryan had (at that time) some 14 saloons. So the college was moved out another two miles to get away from the poten tial evil influence. A&M had the usual opening cer emonies in 1876, but there‘was a slight misunderstanding. Only a few students showed up, so college officials told them to go home and bring some more boys back with them. Things got off to a start the next year. The presidency of A&M was of fered to Jefferson Davis, former chief executive of the ill-fated Con federacy. But Davis declined on the grounds of poor health—pos sibly because he had just gotten out of prison. The job was then offered to Thomas Gathright. Al though Gathright was then super intendent of instruction for the state of Mississippi, he could read and write and accepted the job. He had five faculty members to help him. Texans in those early days did n’t think too much of their two- building Agricultural and Mechan ical College at first. The faculty members were trained only in the classics, and the farmers and ranchers of Texas had no use for an education along these lines. On to the scene galloped Law rence Sullivan Ross, to rescue A&M as he had saved Cynthia Ann Parker from the Indians about 90 miles up the Brazos River. The bearded Ross took the pres idency of the college in 1890, and his personal prestige gave the school the public prestige it so badly needed. You’ll hear a lot about L. S. Ross during your stay at A&M, but briefly, he was a Texas Ranger captain at 18, a brigadier general in the Confederacy, and a general all-round soldier, statesman and knightly gentleman. He also makes a lovely statue, gracing the front lawn (now side walks) of the Academic Building. This statue, a bronze by Pompeo Coppini, is sometimes orange and white—but it is unodubtedly the most photographed object on the A&M campus. A&M perked up and sung along from this time on. It has had a few student revolutions, a glimmer of a faculty revolution and a few other things that a college needs to get out of its system while growing up. But since Ross’ day, A&M has had the approval of the people of Texas, its owners, for the job of education it is doing. Lawrence Sullivan Ross The Man Behind A&M’s Great History Clothes No Worry For A&M Students Clothing will be no problem at A&M. If you are a civilian student, you will wear just what you would wear anyplace else. If you are a military student, you will be is sued uniforms, and told what uni form to wear and when. Civilian students should have a suit for church, banquets, and other dress up occasions; slacks and sport shirts for class wear, and old khakis or blue jeans for loafing. The climate here is mild most of the year, but there are a few bitterly cold days during January and February, so you’d better have a heavy coat. And the Brazos valley being what it is, it rains during the win ter. A raincoat and hat will help. The college has very few rules about the clothing of civilian stu dents. You will be told about them during Freshman Week. Corps students will be issued a uniform after they get here. It will contain all the basic items Ronnie Greathouse Is Sports Editor Battalion Sports Editor fCr this coming school year will be Ronnie Greathouse, senior juornalism ma jor from Kaufman, Tex. Greathouse has been with the paper for two years, serving the past year as sports writer on the staff of Sports Editor Jerry Wizig. Although no final plans have been thus far set, Greathouse will have two and possibly three assistants this year. It is hoped that by having a large sports staff, more of the various sports around A&M will get complete coverage. needed by a freshman cadet. You will need a few things that aren’t issued; your company com mander will tell you about them. Briefly, they include hats, brass and cloth insignia, belts, and an extra pair of winter uniform pants. You will be issued one pair of uniform shoes, but you will prob ably want to have another pair for dress-up occasions. Tan and brown plain-toes are the only shoes ac cepted by the military department, so don’t bring any oxblood or other off color shoes. It would be a good idea to bring two pairs of shoes, if you have them. And you will be expected to keep your shoes shined, so bring a little shoe-shine kit. Corps students should have some civilian clothes with them too. You will want to wear them on week ends away from the campus, and your company will probably have outfit parties that you can go to out of uniform, or ‘“non-reg.” A suit, a pair of slacks, a couple of sport shirts and a pair of blue jeans will be plenty of civilian clothes for the military students. You will also need enough civilian clothes to last through Freshman Week. For both civilian and military students who will have field labo ratory courses, and that includes all engineering and agricultural majors, a pair of heavy boots will come in handy. Any type of boot will do—engineer, paratroop, or cowboy—except that corps students can’t wear cowboy boots with the uniform. The best way to bring your clothes and personal items is in a footlocker, which can then be kept in your room and used as storage space to supplement the dresser there. For A Quick Bite . . . SUGAR r N SPICE Best In Food Best In Service 11 Blocks North of Court House on Highway 6 — Bryan TRIANGLE Banquet Room For BANQUETS — PARTIES WEDDINGS For Reservations Phone 2-8508 Refrigerated Air Conditioning FOR A TREAT... Pizza-Burger Sandwich TRIANGLE DRIVE IN AIR CONDITIONED DINING LOUNGE CHARCOAL BROILED STEAKS — CHICKEN — SEA FOOD Also PIT BARBEQUE Good Food Pleasant Atmosphere Congenial Service • A Good Place To Eat • TRADE AT LOUS