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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 2015)
MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015 I SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 I © 2015 STUDENT MEDIA I ©THEBATTONLINE Construction for the 1,200-bed -- _ White Creek S m ' Apartments has m m begun. m m m m I M Ml B 81 B t SB S S B B B B SB i i -a ia i' S 8 i : 8 fi ! !!J Jil H: Jill ■[! j iRii* ■rat f 1 ' . .. .. un « is I f Sjsi-lHi!;- Vanessa Pena — THE BATTALION Renderings (left) show the planned ^ $40 million Music * Activities Center that will replace the E.V. Adams Band Hall (above). 2 mBKBBmMaBBKBBBKBBHBM ** .« t\^7WBm**JiWBBKr* ■ Photo by Cody Franklin —THE BATTALION, renderi Band marches toward new hom West Campus apartments on way for Fall 2015 By Sam Scott Apartment-style student living units on West Campus are on track to be fin ished for the Fall 2015 semester. “Everything that I’ve heard and seen is that they’re right on track for that comple tion,” said Timothy Broderick, president of the Residence Hall Association and poultry science senior. “Transportation is working on the parking lot and they’re going to be done at a similar time.” Broderick said the planned 1,200 new beds are just the start of plans to make West Campus more accommodating for students. The Department of Residence Life plans to have a mock apartment-style room ready for viewing sometime this spring semester for students interested in living at the White Creek Apartments. Broderick said the apartments should be similar to the University Apartments located on the north side of campus, only with some larger models that allow more students to a single suite. Located on the corner of University Drive and Discovery Dnve, White Creek Apartments is the result of a public-private partnership between Texas A&M and Bal four Beatty Solutions and Construction. Broderick said the Board of Regents also approved the construction of a common area, a building with food options, study spaces and recreational activities for West Campus students. “Phase 1, which is being built right now, is the apartments, and then part two of that is going to be a commons building WEST CAMPUS ON PC. 2 By Katy Stapp Fundraising underway for music center to replace band hall o keep pace with size increases in the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band and other music programs on campus, univer sity officials are seeking donations to update the long-outdated and hazardous E.V. Adams Band Hall. Brig. Gen. Joe Ramirez Jr., commandant of the T exas A&M Coips of Cadets, said a $40 million Music Activities Center will replace E.V. Adams. “We’ve got a commitment from the uni versity of $20 million, so what we’re doing now is looking at trying to find major donors who would be willing to contribute that kind of money to allow us to name the building in their honor,” Ramirez said. Timothy Rhea, director of Bands and Performing Ensembles, said E.V. Adams was built at a time when the Texas A&M mu sic program was smaller, but said the facility was too small even then. He said about 250 students used the hall when it first opened in 1970, while today roughly 1,000 students use the facility. “The fire marshal gave the building a maxi mum capacity of around 200 people,” Rhea said. “Well, they broke that number the day the doors opened in 1970.” Ramirez said the Aggie Band is not al lowed to practice in E.V. Adams primarily due to safety concerns. “It’s an old building, and has become un safe to use,” Ramirez said. “It has no fire alarms, no sprinklers, not enough exits and it’s acoustically unsafe. It would be negligent of us to allow the Aggie Band to practice in it.” The new facility would include three re hearsal halls, one of which will hold 400 peo ple, more than the maximum capacity of the BAND ON PG. 2 W. BASKETBALL ARCHITECTURE SWIMMING Unseating nation's top team next task for A&M Cody Franklin—THE BATTALION Senior forward Achiri Ade rises above LSU defenders. By Brandon Wheeland Winless in 14 attempts, the Texas A&M women’s basketball team looks to win its first game against the No. 1 team in the AP poll in pro gram history as the No. 10 Ag gies take on the South Carolina Gamecocks 6 p.m. Monday. Gary Blair has his A&M squad amid a five-game stretch, featuring four-road contests sandwiched around a Feb. 1 matchup against Auburn at Reed Arena. “This is the way it’s going to be all year long,” Blair said after a 54-51 loss Thursday to the No. 22 Georgia Bulldogs to kick off the road-game heavy slate of the schedule. “It’s nearly going to be the first team that hits 50 is prob ably going to win.” Three Aggies scored in dou ble figures in the defeat, led by Courtney Walker with 12. A&M has never beaten a team ranked higher than No. 6 in the AP poll while on the BASKETBALL ON PG. 4 Lectures probe problems seen in healthcare overseas By Sarah Medrano ^ If College Station had the same number of ^ medical doctors as Colombia, there would be just over one for every 10,000 residents — a fact that-Jorge Vanegas, dean of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, used to highlight the different challenges architects need to solve in designing healthcare facilities throughout Latin America. Vanegas’ lecture Friday kicked off the Ar chitecture For Health lecture series, which will explore health environments and facility design in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Spring 2015 lecture series will range from new hospital proposals in Honduras to case studies in Mexico and Brazil. Vanegas, who is a registered architect in Co lombia, discussed the multiple dimensions of healthcare in Colombia and how it differs from the United States. He highlighted several statis tics, such as the disparity between the number of doctors in Colombia versus the United States, to discuss the challenges that must be addressed through healthcare design. “Healthcare is a problem around the world for everyone,” Vanegas said. “But the health envi ronments and designing of these facilities in the context of Latin America and the Caribbean is very different in how you would approach those two topics in the US.” Vanegas’ talk reviewed the social, political and technological dimensions of healthcare in Colombia, while bringing College Station into the mix. “You have to take all those factors into ac count, and healthcare must respond to those dimensions,” Vanegas said. “Through a propor tional perspective, if there were as many doctors ARCHITECTURE ON PG. 2 PROVIDED Freshmen Mauro Castillo (left) and Brock Bonetti have won back-to-back SEC Freshman of the Week awards. Pair of freshmen making a splash Swimmers snag weekly honors 2 straight weeks By Brandon Wheeland Saturday’s swim meet played host to Senior Day against the LSU Tigers at the Student Recreation Center, but two freshmen have already shown signs that the success of the A&M swimming and diving program will continue in years to come. * In the last two weeks, fresh men swimmers Mauro Castillo and Brock Bonetti have earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors on their way to a No. 16 ranking for the program. “It’s nice to get recognized for that kind of stuff and see that people actually care about swimming a little bit more than sometimes is put out there,” Bonetti said. “It definitely helps us train harder. It was nice to follow [Castillo up] because we got to take [the weekly honors] two weeks in a row.” Castillo said they are already planning what times they hope to beat. Bonetti has plans to set re cords in both the 100 and 200 backstroke while the duo wants to help break the 200 and 400 medley school-records. Castillo has already began to make his mark in College Station. Just days after making his in tentions known, Castillo set a school-record Saturday against the Tigers in the 200 breast stroke with a time of 1:55.65. Bonetti claimed victory over the SEC opponent as well with a 48.69 in the 100 back. “We recruited both of those guys knowing they could come SWIMMING ON PG. 4