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By Kendra Kingsley
THE BATTALION
ieLife
THE BATTALION
Page 3A
HOWDY!
StudentSy survey cite decline in use of
traditional Aggie greeting
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CHAD MALLAM • THE BATTALION
For freshman business major
Ashley Bell, exchanging the time-hon
ored greeting of “howdy” with other
Aggies has shifted from A&M’s standard
salutation to a campus-wide mating call.
“The only people [who] have ever
said ‘howdy’ to me were either in the
Corps or using it as a bad pickup line,”
Bell said. “It’s just an easy way to show
your interest in another student.”
Bell is not alone in noticing the
i greeting’s amorous appeal.
Hong Chu, a junior international
studies major, said the traditional wel
come has become so strongly
employed as a flirtation device that a
gender bias has resulted.
“I have never had a girl say
‘howdy’ to me,” she said. “Even
though it’s supposed to be a gener-
-f al greeting, I think some people
' feel weird exchanging something
that might [have a romantic con
notation] with someone of their
own gender.”
In addition to the absence of same-
sex howdy exchanges, many students
have simply ceased the tradition alto
gether. Chu said she noticed a definite
decline in the customary greeting when
she moved out of the dorms.
“Whenever I lived on campus, 1
heard people calling out ‘howdy’ on a
regular basis,” she said. “Now that I’m
off campus this year, it’s a different
story. I haven’t had one person say
[‘howdy’] to me since school started.
People are on cell phones way too much,
and since it’s been raining a lot lately,
everyone’s busy trying to stay dry and get
to class.”
Because a sense of urgency often
accompanies the start of each semester,
students are often too absorbed with
their personal agendas to think about
engaging in one of Aggieland’s oldest
and easiest traditions.
Dustin Timmermann, a sophomore
environmental design major, said students
are more oblivious to keeping the howdy
legacy alive than ever before.
“My dad took me to Aggie football
games when I was younger, and it seemed
like more people paid attention to the
howdy tradition then than they do now,”
Timmermann said. “Since I’ve been going
to school here. I’ve noticed that other stu
dents seem to be more focused only on
where they’re going and what they’re
doing. They don’t think twice about keep
ing up the tradition.”
The fading exchange of an Aggie cus
tom is startling given the publicity the
campus has received for its tradition-
rich culture.
Nathan Gatewood, a sophomore
mechanical engineering major, said the
exchange of “howdies” is rapidly decreas
ing in spite of the constant emphasis
placed on A&M’s time-honored practices.
“Fish Camp is the perfect example the
school tries to [promote] the Aggie spirit
early on,” Gatewood said. “It teaches new
freshmen to say ‘howdy’ and to keep the
tradition alive, but after the beginning of
the year the only people who say it are
either in the Corps or people who are try
ing to impress visitors.”
While the howdy drought may stem
from a gender gap or hectic schedules,
Anthony Yasser, a senior electrical engi
neering technology major, said 1999
Aggie Bonfire collapse is the underlying
reason for the greeting’s decline.
“Bonfire was the most unifying event
for most students on campus,” Yasser said.
“The Corps has managed to [maintain] its
unity, but the rest of the student body
seems more distant, which may explain
why howdy has decreased.”
Although different theories struggle to
decipher the reason for the decrease in
Aggieland’s mantra, a few indisputable
facts remain.
As part of a statistics project, Megha
Patel, a sophomore genetics major,
decided to determine the factors influ
encing the “howdy” decline. Patel, along
with four classmates discovered factors
such as Corps membership, gender and
location each had an impact on whether
or not a student would exchange howdies
with a tester.
“While our group only recorded
“howdy” responses [as opposed to
“hello,” “hey” or “hi” responses], our
analysis concluded that the Corps
response rate outnumbered the non-Corps
response rate [87.68% to 51.74%] and
males responded significantly more than
females,” Patel said.
Their findings also ranked locations
See Howdy on page 6A.
Breakawo'
way
offers Bible
study and
music
By Heather Campbell
THE BATTALION
What began as a group of
four college guys meeting in
their living room to study the
Bible has grown into a group
of 4,(XX) to 6,(XX) students now
meeting every Tuesday in
Reed Arena.
Breakaway is a non-
denominational weekly Bible
study. Gregg Matte, director
and weekly speaker helped
start Breakaway in 1989.
“Our main goal is to intro
duce students to a relationship
with Jesus Christ and help
them grow,” Matte said. “We
desire to present a real Jesus
in a real world.”
Matte said Breakaway is
geared toward college stu
dents. He said it is a very
relaxed atmosphere where stu
dents can get away from the
pressures of college life.
Gretchen Lochry, a junior
kinesiology major, attends
Breakaway on a regular basis.
“I like it because when I’m
there during worship 1 can
sense God’s presence,”
Lochry said.
Everett and Benard met at
Texas A&M and continue in
music ministry together.
“Ever since we started
singing together, the Lord has
been doing incredible things
and blessing us with cool
See Breakaway on page 4A.
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