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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 2015)
WEDNESDAY, APRILS, 2015 I SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 I © 2015 STUDENT MEDIA I ©THEBATTONLINE Two late home runs spark A&M comeback over No. 15 Rice By Andre Perrard Time and time again, Texas A&M has had its back against the wall late in games. Tuesday night, the No. 1 Aggies again came through late to earn a hard-fought 4-3 win over the No. 13 Rice Owls. Two home runs in the seventh in ning from Logan Nottebrok and JB Moss led the A&M comeback, and Ronnie Gideon garnered the game winning RBI in the eighth. The Aggies (31-2) were the first to score off a Mitchell Nau RBI double to right center field, which gave A&M the early 1-0 lead. Rice responded with a run of its own in the next frame to tie the game at 1-1, then a two-run fifth inning helped Rice gain a 3-1 advantage over the Aggies. A&M tried to gain momentum in the sixth. Nau ripped a ball down the right field line, but was called out trying to leg out a double, a call with which the Olsen Field crowd strongly disagreed. After that play, A&M ended with no runs or hits in the sixth. The seventh inning was massive for A&M. Trailing 3-1, the Aggies hit back-to-back home runs to tie the game 3-3. Moss hit the first one over the scoreboard in left field to make it a 3-2 game, and then Nottebrok smashed a ball to straightaway center field to tie the game. The Aggies have now hit 12 home runs in the last Tour games combined. The eighth inning resembled what has come to be known as Olsen Mag ic. A&M managed to put runners on the corners, and Ronnie Gideon smacked a ball to shortstop and Nau crossed the plate to give A&M the game-winning run. Sophomore infielder Ryne Birk gets a hit at Tuesday's game against Rice. Lena© Allen —THE BATTALION Campus houses international collection of ocean samples By Lenae Allen ■■■■ he need to collect ocean soil samples is sending A&M researchers across the globe. The latest expedition sent researchers to Sri Lanka, where soil samples joined the largest collection of soil deposits from the earth’s mantle, located just off Discovery Drive. The collection’s size is the result of the National Science Foundation’s decision to fund the International Ocean Discovery Program, IODP, in 1984. Through the international program, various science or ganizations have the opportunity to send researchers aboard the JOIDES Resolution, a scientific drilling ship manned by 100 peo ple that collects data world-wide. The end location for most samples col lected in these voyages is the Gulf Coast Repository at A&M. Phil Rumford, superintendent of the Gulf Coast repository, said the Earth’s ocean sediments contain a unique record of the planet’s history and structure. Through examining the sediments collected by the JOIDES Resolution, researchers work to answer questions such as what the global climate looked like 55 million years ago and how plate tectonics move. Mitch Malone, assistant director of sci ence services and manager of science opera tions, said 25 countries are participating. “They send money to the U.S. so they can put their scientists on board,” Malone said. Malone said expeditions go out every two months with a rotation of researchers and technicians. On the latest expedition, many of the staff in the IODP left for Sri Lanka to switch with their homebound counterparts to begin a new wave of drill ing collections. Serving as one of only three programs of its kind in the world, the IODP drills and maintains the largest collection of soil deposits from the Earth’s mantle extracted from the sub-ocean floor. Drill bits cost between $12,000 and $17,000 per unit. Often, in harder sediment, the ship is only able to use a drill bit once before they have to attach another. Collections are refrigerated on ship after a drilling to prevent molding. They’re sent back to the IODP library in College Station, where scientists who studied aboard the ship have a year’s unlimited access to the collec tions. After the year, tubes are free game to curious geologists, microbiologists and other scientists. Comprised of more than 12,000 kilome ters of clay, hard rock and softer sediments, OCEAN DRILLING ON PG. 2 Q&A From campus to coral reef Shelby Knowles — THE BATTALION Jim Woosley, shown above, is speaker of Faculty Senate and a scuba diving instructor. The Battalion news reporter Heaven Martinez sat down with Jim Woosley, speaker of the Faculty Senate and scuba diving instructor. THE BATTALION: As speaker of the Faculty Senate, what are some responsibilities you hold? WOOSLEY: Well as speaker of the Faculty Senate I lead the executive committee of the senate and then 120 faculty total that represent all of our colleges, including the new Health Science Center and Law School that we recently joined up with. The speaker is the leader who is representative of their colleges and faculty within each person's responsibilities. As a group, we make decisions and try to comment and help the administration work through situations and concerns related to various things, but mostly academic initiatives. THE BATTALION: How long have you worked with the Faculty Senate? How long have you held the position as speaker? WOOSLEY: Let me give you a little background of the Faculty Senate. When you're elected as a senator from your college, you serve a three-year term and then you can be reelected multiple times. I have been elected probably six terms as a representative and I have been at the university for 32 years. The speaker is just a one-year position, but... you serve one year as speaker elect, then you serve a year as speaker and then you serve a year as former speaker, so it is kind of a three-year position. I've served on the executive committee of our Faculty Senate about six years at various times throughout my IVOOSLEY ON PG. 4 Group hopes to shed light on modern slavery By Olivia Knight A little girl in Africa. A small family in India. A teenage girl in College Station. These seemingly unconnected people could all be victims of the same crime — modern slavery. . Modern slavery is a global problem to which the International Justice Mission, IJM, wants to bring awareness. Along with other chapters across the United States, the Texas A&M IJM chapter is hosting its Stand For Freedom event in Rudder Plaza Wednesday as students stand for 24 hours in solidarity with slavery victims. “Modern day slavery is completely different than historic slavery,” said Lauren Sanders, com munication sophomore and chapter president-to- be. “It happens around the world, and it happens in so many more areas than just agriculture. They can be enslaved through prostitution. They can be enslaved by working in factories, for example, a common occurrence essentially in India is peo ple can be trapped working in brick factories.” Lindsey Landers, business management senior and chapter treasurer, said it is important to edu cate and raise awareness that slavery still exists. Christian Lowe, international studies junior, said between 200,000 and 300,000 people are trafficked annually in the United States alone. To respond to the problem, Congress is at tempting to pass a human trafficking bill, S. 553, also called the End Modern Slavery Initiative Act. Unlike others in the past, Lowe said this one IJM ON PG. 2 REMEMBRANCE Quidditch team retires jersey of fallen player PROVIDED Karen Barnett, shown above, had her jersey retired by the Quidditch team. By Evan Flores The Texas A&M Quidditch team retired jer- sey number 55 on March 31 in honor of its teammate Karen Barnett, a Chaser on the Silver Phoenix team, who died earlier in March and who had played since her freshman year. Barnett will be honored at Muster, but in the meantime her Quidditch teammates wanted to remember Barnett in their own way. Rosemary Ross, president of the Quidditch team, said the Quidditch officers decided to retire Barnett’s jersey number to honor her life and her position on the team. “Karen had been playing as a Chaser for years, starting as a freshman and played even past her graduation,” Ross said. “We’ve never retired a jersey in the program before, but it was suggested to us by her boyfriend and at the officer meeting we unanimously voted to retire jersey number 55 in remembrance of her impact on the team.” On the field, Barnett proved to be a formidable player, said Alyssa York, Chaser on the starting A&M Quidditch team. “The defining characteristic of Karen as a play er was that she was ferocious,” York said. “She was the sweetest girl you’d ever meet, but on the Quidditch pitch she would go and tackle guys QUIDDITCH ON PG. 2