thebattalionasks
Q:
What do you think about the Aggie ring tradition?
thebattalion ● monday,
april 19, 2010
● serving
texas a&m since 1893
● first paper free – additional copies $1 ● © 2010 student media
Julia Quintana freshman general studies major
“I think it’s pretty cool, the general tradition, but not how expensive it has gotten.”
Gabriel Torres senior university studies major
“I love it, I can’t wait to get my ring. That is one of my highlights of graduating. Ring dunk and ring dance are pretty awesome.” Megan Ryan — THE BATTALION
After multiple attempts and an illness diagnosis, David Davenport, agribusiness graduate student, accomplishes his goal.
Angel Torres senior manufacturing and mechanical engineering technology major
Decades in waiting Davenport ‘finally’ receives Aggie ring Vicky Flores
“I think it’s a good tradition and should continue on as it has been. I got my ring today, and I was very excited.”
The Battalion With apprehension and uneasiness, at 6:45 p.m. David Davenport, agribusiness graduate student, walked through the crowd of young students, making his way to pick up his Aggie ring. “I have been waiting for this ring now, for about 29 years,” Davenport said. “It is going to be a mix of feelings; the word that comes
to mind is ‘finally.’ I guess I am reserved still with my history, and I am still expecting something to go wrong.” Davenport, 47, has been waiting close to three decades to receive his Aggie ring. He has been in and out of A&M, but is on track to graduate with a master’s in agribusiness. “I teach at a community college right now, and does that degree help me with that? Probably not,” Davenport said. “But it was
one of those things that I always wanted to come back and finish up.” Trying for his bachelor’s degree in 1981, he didn’t finish his degree at A&M due to poor grades and then graduated from Texas State. Several times, over the next four decades, Davenport floated in and out of the A&M system, but was never successful at attaining a degree. Davenport said he was never See Ring on page 2
Neha Bhat
Sharing the highway
biology graduate student
Cyclists and drivers can prevent vehicular deaths “I feel like it unites the people together so when you go out from the University you are still unified to those people. So I’m all for it.”
Laura A. Sanchez The Battalion
Maggie Strange freshman kinesiology major Nicholas Badger — THE BATTALION
As the weather heats up and the semester comes to a close, more motorcyclists go on the road. Sgt. Blaine Krauter of the College Station Police Department patrols on motorcycle and advises motorcyclists and vehicle drivers to take precaution. “The motorcycles have the same privilege as anyone else on the road does. They’re smaller, they don’t take up the full lane, so
therefore people don’t see them,” Krauter said. Krauter said most accidents occur when a driver is turning left at an intersection and does not see the motorcyclist on the opposite side. Krauter said most drivers enter the motorcyclist’s lane because the motorcyclist was in a blind spot, or the driver did not turn to see if anyone was there. “Motorcyclists always need to be paying attention and mindful of what they’re doing,” said Bart Basile, president of the Texas Ag-
gie Motorcycle Club. “Motorcycling is 90 percent mental and paying attention to what’s going on around you. Even if the car starts going into your lane, you need to be able to react.” While many automobile drivers do not take into consideration their blind spot, motorcyclists have blind spots as well, said Aaron Scarboro, public relations officer for the club. Their mirrors are 5 inches by 3 inches and can reflect less.
Genetics students study bread mold “Rings are cool. I’m really excited to get it. I like what it symbolizes: the Aggie family.”
Sarah Gervais sophomore university studies major
“I think it is one of the greatest traditions that A&M has. Both of my parents went to A&M, and they can strike up a conversation with anyone because of their rings. It really ties us together, so I think it’s one of the best traditions A&M has.” Katy Ralston and Sam Smith — THE BATTALION
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■ Aggies gain hands-on experience and course credit through molecular fungal genomics research The degree Genetics is an interdisciplinary graduate degree program administered by the faculty of genetics, which consists of 106 members from 19 departments in the TAMU Colleges of Agriculture, Science and Veterinary Medicine. Students are required to participate in a lab rotation allowing them to explore differing field opportunities.
Katy Ralston The Battalion The hands-on experience of the real world of research, and the ability to gain knowledge to help understand human processes, comes together for one group of A&M students through one of the most unusual topics: bread mold. BIOL 489: Special Topics in Fungal Functional Genomics enrolls 11 undergraduate students in the quest for phenotyping the knockout mutants of the Neurospora crassa genome, a type of bread mold. The class is part of a nationwide experiment funded by a National Institutes of Health grant. The grant is in its second five-year term. After spending the first five years as part of a UCLA research program, the experiment was renewed and brought to A&M by Matthew Sachs, the instructor for the course. “The conception of the course is to use the basis of phenotyping a knockout collection as an entree into modern genomics,” Sachs said.
See Motorcycle on page 2
this day in
US
history “The advantage of doing it in a course format is that it is possible to give lectures alongside the lab work to provide a context for those experimental studies.” Phenotyping the knockout deletion mutations allows fundamental biological questions to be asked, said Deborah Bell-Pederson, a biology professor involved in the project. These questions can help gain knowledge about the same processes in humans. “This fungus is a non-pathogenic fungus but it’s a model system for many different things, such as a model for fungal pathogens in plants as well as in humans,” Bell-Pederson said. “It’s also a basic biological system, a eukaryotic organism, so a lot of genes and proteins and pathways and the stuff that the organism does is actually very similar to humans.” The research experience gained in this class is unique to other research opportunities for undergraduates because students are doing an experiment where the answer is not known — which is not true from most standard chemistry and biology lab work, Bell-Pederson said. “Multiple goals are met in this course. By achieving the goal of understanding what the
April 19, 1995 The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Okla. was destroyed by a bomb hidden in a rent-a-truck. The blast was the worst bombing on U.S. soil: 168 people including 19 children died in the blast. Four hundred and ninety were injured. Timothy McVeigh was charged with murder.
See Fungus on page 2
4/18/10 8:16 PM