thebattalionasks
Q:
What does Black History Month mean to you?
thebattalion ● monday,
february 1, 2010
● serving
texas a&m since 1893
● first paper free – additional copies $1 ● © 2010 student media
Top students choose A&M
Adam Batt sophomore political science major
“Black History Month to me stands for a progress of the United States as far as a Civil Rights Movement. It’s a remembrance of what our past generations have worked for.”
Aggies rank 10th in terms of National Merit Scholars
Desmond Tucker senior industrial distribution major
Robert Carpenter The Battalion Highly recruited students are choosing Texas A&M over other competing universities, statistics released last month by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation show. The 2009 report listed A&M 10th in terms of new National Merit Scholar enrollment, up from 13th in 2008. This year, the University added 189 National Merit Scholars in its freshman class, bringing the undergraduate total to 550. Ed Funkhouser, executive director of honors programs at A&M, attributed this success to the uniqueness of the University. “What A&M tries to do is level the playing field so the choice is not based on finances but on the quality of the
“It’s a time to remember how far African-Americans have come as a people. It’s a checkpoint to make sure we don’t stop moving forward.”
Shiyu Hu computer science graduate student
See Scholars on page 4
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“I have never had any experience with it. It will be interesting for me. I think I will attend it and know more about it.” Artifacts recovered from the 1838 Heroine shipwreck in the Red River in Oklahoma include bale hooks, a hardwood mallet and a boot and shoe.
Johanna Storm
“It means an awareness that we still have racial issues in the country. We’ve come a long way, but we still have a ways to go.”
senior engineering technology major
Texas A&M nautical archaeology brings history to life
Brandon Klekar sophomore aerospace engineering major
“It means we’ve gotten over a lot of our past. Now we can celebrate that it’s not that way anymore. Now we have Barack Obama as president. We can celebrate that we can all live and work together.”
Melissa Appel and Sam Smith — THE BATTALION
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When the clock strikes midnight MSC OPAS’ “A Cinderella Story” may have an alternate ending to the classical tale.
voices | 7
Preacherman is back His appearance on campus is nearly biannual, but what do the students think?
this day in
.S. U history
Feb. 1, 1960 Meagan O’Toole-Pitts
“I think it’s a cop-out. It’s a way to appease people who want to be recognized. If we want to include everyone, we don’t need to have a month to look at black history.”
Jeramie Heflin — THE BATTALION
Waterworld wonders
junior psychology major
Preston Thorpe
trends | 3
The Battalion Texas A&M’s Nautical Archaeology Program is bringing history to life –– literally. Students of the New World laboratory, which focuses on the study of ship evolution within the past 500 years, are in the midst of recreating “The Heroine,” a Mississippi River steamboat built in 1832 that sank in the Red River between Texas and Oklahoma
in 1838. “At the time they weren’t keeping records; there’s a lot we don’t know about early boats –– how they designed and built them – this opens early steam boating in the early west, how they operated on the river and how it was to live and work on them. We want to know what our ancestors lived through,” said Kevin Crisman, associate professor of nautical archaeology. See Steamboat on page 8
thebatt. com Explore the meanings, uses and names of the artifacts found on the Heroine plus catch a glimpse of the nautical archaeology man himself.
In Greensboro, N.C., four black students sat down and ordered coffee at a lunch counter in Woolworths. They were refused service, but did not leave. Instead, they waited all day. The scene was repeated over the next few days, with protests spreading to other southern states, resulting in the eventual arrest of more than 1,600 people for participating in sit-ins.
Aggie students save life on Highway 6 ■ An ordinary shuttle ride between Houston and College Station nearly turns deadly when driver needs immediate medical attention, miles from help Samantha Johnson The Battalion An ordinary shuttle ride after an exhausting journey nearly turned deadly, but tragedy was avoided thanks to the quick thinking and teamwork of a group of Aggies. Kiera and Maggie Gallagher were hoping to have a relaxing ride from Houston to College Station after their flight back from Abu Dhabi on Jan. 15. They were joined by seven other A&M students ready
to get home and recover from their journeys. “We had been traveling for a while, and there were a lot of international travelers, so we were really tired,” said freshman communication major Maggie. The shuttle ride started out well, except for the stormy night. The driver, a former Aggie, was excited to find out he was taking Aggies home. See Saving a life on page 8
Natasha Sankovich — THE BATTALION
Junior education major Kiera Gallagher and freshman communication major Maggie Gallagher were traveling from Houston when their driver had a diabetic coma.
1/31/10 7:43 PM