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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 12, 2015)
I THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015 1 SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 1 ©2015 STUDENT MEDIA 1 OTHEBATTONLINE ' ^ BATT THE BATTALION I THEBATT.COM ,rs> ^ c ' i ■, % SO • ' Dean of the College of Education and Human Development Douglas Palmer (left) moderates a talk with education advocate Razia Jan (center) and former first lady Laura Bush. Vanessa Pefia —THE BATTALION Former first lady talks education at home, abroad M. BASKETBALL' A&M needs strong showing to hold out for NCAA tourney Laura Bush: "Books have the power to shape our journey as a nation" By Spencer Davis ducation is a powerful in strument for change; that was the message of an MSC Bethancourt event keynoted by former First Lady Laura Bush. The event pushed the message that edu cation should be an equal opportunity for children in every country, rich, or poor. The former first lady spoke along with Razia Jan, an Afghani education activist, in Rudder Theatre on Wednesday night. Their discussion covered the domestic progress of education and United States efforts abroad to create education infrastructure. Bush said her early involvement with child education as an elementary school teacher inspired her to speak out for reform. When her husband was elected president, she saw it as a chance to take her message worldwide. Bush has been a prominent voice in ed ucation in the 21st century, and made lit eracy rates and equal-opportunity schooling the focus of her tenure as first lady. Douglas Palmer, dean of the College of Education and Human Development and curator for the discussion, said Bush is one of the great est names in education today. “Laura Bush is an extraordinary advocate for literacy, education and women’s rights,” Palmer said. “As first lady, Bush advocated the importance of literacy and education to advance opportunities for America’s youth.” Bush spoke on the fundamental power of education to stabilize nations and enrich culture. “I believe that literacy is a central founda tion of democracy,” Bush said. “Books have the power to shape our journey as a nation.” Bush said the process, while getting bet ter, is still broken in some areas. Mqst of these problems seem to arise from hard to reach places, including the home. “The challenges really are internal,” Bush said. “They are a family situation that makes it difficult for the children to have the disci pline to make the best of going to school.” BUSH ON PC. 4 Coach Kennedy says House unlikely to play in first game of tournament By Carter Karels Texas A&M men’s basketball achieved at least one of its goals: finish in the top four of the SEC. However, the Aggies were in a four-way tie for third and drew the short end of the stick as a 5-seed in the SEC Tournament, which begins for A&M Thursday. After losing three of its last four games, the A&M men’s basketball team could be left in the cold after NCAA Tournament selections if it can’t make a showing in the SEC Tournament. “We’ve got to win games,” head coach Billy Kennedy said. “We definitely have to win the first one. If we win both games I’d think we defi nitely have a chance to get in. ” The regular season-ending defeat to Alabama came without the presence of Danuel House, who was taken out late in the Florida game after spraining his foot. House leads the team in scor ing with 14.8 points per game, and is doubtful in A&M’s first game. “I think it will be a stretch,” Kennedy said. “We’re hoping for it. But it would be a quick recovery at this point. He’s progressed along and we’ve gotten good news that he’s getting better. But he’s not able to put a lot of pressure on that foot.” BASKETBALL ON PG. 2 Tim Lai —THE BATTALION Junior guard Alex Caruso said he is healthy now after playing sick against Alabama. MSC OPAS SEINFELD'S 1ST AGGIE PERFORMANCE For the first time, Jerry Seinfeld will perform live Thursday at Rudder Auditorium. Anne Black, executive director for MSC OPAS, said demand fo' comedians has been increasing. "Our audiences have been asking for more comedy since Carol Burnett's appearance two years ago, so we contacted Seinfeld's agent and asked him to come," Black said. Black said there is a specific process for selecting performers. "We try to book what audiences want to see, so it is entirely possible there will be more [comedians]," Black said. Seinfeld, coming off the success of his recent talk show "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee," is expected to sell out. ELECTIONS Recount reveals 5 For Yell would have swept Result rendered void due to special revote decision By Katy Stapp ^ The original Feb. 19-20 election re sults for Senior Yell Leader, certified by the SGA Judicial Court, state that after a re count winners of the 2015 election would have been Zachary Lawrence, Ben Ritchie and Kyle Cook. | This result, howev- f er, is rendered void by the Yell Leaders’ deci sion to hold a separate revote, in which Ste ven Lanz passed Cook to win the election. Cook finished fourth in the revote. In the end, seniors Lanz, Lawrence and Ritchie and juniors Chris Wilder and Will Alders will serve as 2015-2016 Yell Lead ers. Election Commis sioner Emma Douglas, who resigned Wednes- day, submitted the re count results ofJ-Court YELL ON PG. 4 ■m '5 for Yell" candidates gather for the Spring 2015 election results. Show gives B-CS area early start on SXSW festivities SERVICE Local bands to perform Saturday in Bryan By Keely Wi^ries ^ The Bryan-College Station ^ music scene will greet spring break with a Pre-SXSW showcase Saturday to feature home-grown bands such as Electric Astronaut and Sol Cat for the evening be fore they head to Austin. Revolution Cafe and Bar will. host these bands, whose music is influenced by indie pop, rock and psychedelic music. Johnny Fisher, guitarist of Sol Cat, said he and his bandmates are pumped to show the artists touring alongside them in the lo cal area. “It is definitely more familiar in Bryan, weird fact is that we were looking back through our dates from 2014 and we actually played The Jag is one of the five bands booked to perform at a Pre- South by Southwest showcase Saturday at Revolution Cafe and Bar. Bryan more than we played any other place in the U.S., we played it six times last year,” Fisher said. “I’m really pretty excited — a couple of bands from Nashville are coming with us that we’re big fans of, we love their music, so we SXSW ON PG. 2 Alternative Spring Break provides selfless service Students travel to help areas in need By Paris Weber ^ College students often ^ flock to beaches or go home to relax throughout spring break, but one group takes a different route that centers on selfless service. Alternative Spring Break is a volunteer organization that serves Bryan-College Sta tion and other communities through various spring break trips. Students have spent months preparing to go across the United States to volunteer in different communities on projects ranging from wildlife conservation to animal rescue. Careful planning goes be hind each trip. Blake Sokora, biological and agricultural engineering sophomore and BREAK ON PG. 2 This semester, Aggies will travel to five different site across the country to help areas in need over Spring Break.