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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 2015)
Aggieland2015 NEWS The Battalion I 1.30.15 4 It’s not too late to order your copy of the 2015 Aggieland yearbook. The 113th edition of Texas A&M’s official yearbook will chronicle the 2014-2015 school year - traditions, academics, athletics, the other education, the Corps, Greeks, residence halls, campus organizations, and student portraits. Distribution will be in Fall 2015. By credit card go online to http://aggieland.tamu.edu or call 979-845-2613. Or drop by the Student Media office in Suite L400 of the MSC. Aggieland2015 read the fine print. battalion Classifieds Call 845-0569 To Place Your Ad Track teams hit the road for Arkansas Meet to serve as precursor to SEC indoor championships By Seth Stroupe The Texas A&M track team (women No. 3, men No. 4) travels to Fayetteville, Arkansas, Friday for the Razorback Invitational. The Aggies are hoping to ride the wave of momentum they generated last weekend on their home track, where they captured first place in 17 of the 30 total events in the Texas A&M Quadrangular Dual Meet. “We took a good step forward,” said Texas A&M’s head track coach Pat Henry. “We did some things we needed to do last weekend. We need ed to see things happen out of specific individuals. We needed to see where Bralon Taplin was. Bralon needed that opportunity to be on that stage at that point to test himself, and the meet gave him that opportunity. That’s just one example. There was a number of peo ple that were the same way.” Taplin, this week’s SEC Sprinter of the Week, owned the stage and made the most of his opportunity en route to a 45.78 second run in the 400 meters. That mark is the best time posted in the young 2015 indoor track season, and the third-fastest in school history. Tap lin also anchored the 4x400 relay team that took first with a time of 3:07.28. Texas A&M may need another round of record-shattering performances from Taplin and others if they want to stand out in a competitive field of 14. “If you look at the rankings, this is probably one of the better meets this year even though its only the third or fourth meet of the season,” Henry said. “It brings together a tremendous group of institu tions and great track programs. Hve or six of the teams are ranked in the top 10.” There are five squads that come into the Arkansas Invitational with a top 10 ranking — Horida (women No. 1, men No, 2), LSU (men No. 9), and host Arkansas (women No. 5, men No. 3). With the SEC indoor championships only three weeks away, A&M will get its first look at some of the top-level competition it has to look forward to in the conference. “People talk about the SEC’s domi nance in all sports,” Henry said. “But we’ve won more national champion ships in track than anything else. It’s the most dominated sport in the United States. It’s also the toughest sport in the SEC to win a conference champion ship in.” The Arkansas Invitational Meet is a two-day event that kicks off at 11 a.m. Friday with the women’s pentathlon and runs until 8:15 p.m. Saturday’s competition will run from 11 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. A full list of events can be found on Arkansas’ team website. The meet will be broadcast on SEC Net- work+, which can be accessed via the Watch ESPN app. THEBATT.COM The A&M men's basketball team will go for its sixth straight win at Reed Arena Saturday against Vanderbilt. Find the preview online. Professional Science Master's Program Building a career in science through a balanced curriculum - Space Stutfies 'Siibsurface GeosritnMl profms.rice.edu • Communication enhancement • Advanced science & engineering • Management training • integration of technology & business practice • Strong industry ties • Solid employment record • Corporate internship 1111^1 "I • Highly-respected faculty I IklPBPjP jn Rice University • Houston, TX Sarah Lane —THE BATTALION Texas Rangers Manager Jeff Banister speaks with media from Olsen Field Thursday. New Texas Rangers manager visits Aggieland Thursday By Brandon Wheeland New Texas Rangers manager Jeff Banister was in town Thursday night at Olsen Field as part of the FOX Sports Southwest Texas Rangers Media Tour. Traveling by private jet, the tour kicked off from Arling ton at roughly 9 a.m., making stops in Lubbock, Oklahoma City and College Station be fore returning home. For the first time, every game not na tionally broadcast will be on FOX Sports Southwest. “It was a whirlwind day,” said FOX Sports Southwest Public Relations Director Ramon Alvarez. “We hit a lot of the outer markets — that’s where a lot of our viewer base is. Now that we have all the games, it’s really important to hit markets like College Station.” FOX Sports Southwest Se nior Vice President and Gen eral Manager Jon Heidtke knows the importance of providing their product to fans who can’t make it to Ar lington for games. “There are a lot of Rang ers fans in College Station,” said Heidtke, Class of 1981. “We want to make sure peo ple get a chance to see games and get to know the players. Jeff Banister is a great guy... [He] has a lot of charisma. He’s a larger-than-life fig ure.” Banister was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986. He called Pittsburgh home as a player and coach until he was named manager of the Rangers in October of last year. “Every time I put my feet. on the floor since the cky I was offered the job, it’s been wonderful,” Banister said. The Rangers open the 2015 season against the Ath letics in Oakland on April 6. LITERACY CONTINUED rise in our country.” Bush said she thinks digital books may help teach children to read, giving an anecdote of 4 friend’s daughter learning to read from an iPad. “I think technology is going to change the way we learn,” Bush said. “I think if used cor rectly and monitored, technol ogy will change the world.” Hall Davidson, educational innovator in digital learning for Discovery Education , said a big focus is placed on making technology interactive with existing books rather than just making books digitally acces sible. Davidson demonstrated the interactive features of “Auras- ma” with Rushmore. By wav ing a phone over the pages of the book, the user can unlock supplemental material. With some books, users can “go inside” and “move around” a virtual world modeled after settings in the book. Both Bush and the children present at the reading partici pated in creating a supplemen tal video that can be watched through the app when using it on “Rushmore.” “Let me just say that as far as I know, this is largest col laboration of authoring that has ever been done. So we think this is the world’s largest aug mented reality authoring ses sion,” Davidson said. Mark Wright, KBTX Gen eral Manager, gave the students in attendance and watching via video stream one last piece of advice to get them involved in reading. “Reading provides you with an exciting discovery and ad venture,” Wright said. “You may enhance your reading with the AR app as Mr. Hall talked about a minute ago. Find a reading buddy, have fun reading.” REVEILLE CONTINUED committee will discuss how to take the next step of meeting and interacting with the finalists. Veterinarians from the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences will also nsure that the next Reveille meets proper health conditions by checking the five current candidates. “If any mascots arrive at the top we’ll decide whether to bring them here or go visit them,” Reber said. “A lot of these dogs are breeder and show dogs too. We not only have to work around the dog’s schedule but their family’s schedule as well. ” Willard said the two dogs chosen from the Hous ton Collie Rescue are both long-haired collies, simi lar in appearance to that of Reveille VIII, but seem to be more timid. “The two dogs are gorgeous and both are very nice and super sweet,” Willard said. “They love people and other animals, but they are a little more shy.” Alexandra Gonzalez, Traditions Council chairman and search committee member, said the selection has been a lengthy process accompanied by much anxi ety. “I’m thrilled,” Gonzalez said. “Just the fact that we’ve narrowed it down to a few applicants and hopefully further [Friday], it just means we’re that much closer. It all comes down to which can adjust to the lifestyle of being a super busy dog.” Silk ftESPONJHM . GLOBtl HUMANiTiftifil CRISES , CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES X Join us to hear from social entrepreneur, Neal Keny-Guyer. about how Mercy Corps is providing innovative, sustainable recovery solutions to international communities in crisis. Under Keny-Guyer'rvieadership, Mercy Corps, has emerged as a leading international humanitarian and development organization with ongoing operations in more than 40 countries and a reputation.for groundbreaking programming.in the world’s toughest: environments. Tuesday, February 3, 2015 ^ 5:00 p.m. Reception’ 5:30 p.m. Lecture r ^ii§ipr ■ ; ; George Bush Presidential Library and Museum 1GOO George Bush Drive West • College Station, TX / jf if Acceptances only by Monday, February 2. 2015 if Email: bushschaolmosbacherortamu.edu Phone: 979.845.1927 Nea' Keny-Guyer CEO, Mercy Corps -■. ...... o c BANK OF AMERICA program on VOLUNTEERISM i n .si 16S< i )< x >i [J!gfR£R£ ER TEXAS AfcM VNTVKRSITYTRADE * ECONOMICS ^ PUBLIC POLICY mill WE'VE GOT YOUR NUMBER 2015 Texas A&M Campus Directory Convenient listings of administrative offices, departments and other information about A&M. p\EPARTMENTS: You may charge and pick up Campus Directories L^in the Student Media office in Suite L400 of the MSC. Cost is $5 per copy. Please bring a Student Media Work Order. Call 845-2646 for info. TUDENTS AND OTHERS may purchase directories for $5 plus tax each in MSC L400 (by cash, check or credit card). Hours: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.