news for you inside Chabad group shares Hanukkah tradition Tonight at 5 p.m. the Chabad Jewish Student Group will have an celebration open to the public to kick off the start of Hanukkah, concluding with the lighting of the on campus menorah by H2O fountain.
lifestyles | 3
Cotton pickin’ The Aggies’ selection for the 75th Cotton Bowl shows that the program has taken the key next step and is beginning to gain respect on a national level.
sports | 5
Care for your hair Too many students are spending too much time in front of the mirror, damaging their hair with chemicals and dyes. Give your hair a break and go with a more natural color and look.
thebattalion ● wednesday,
december 1, 2010
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Cotton Bowl bound The Texas A&M football team was selected Tuesday to play in the 75th Cotton Bowl Classic, according to multiple sources. “As a football team we are very excited about playing in the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic,” Head Coach Mike Sherman said. “This is a great reward for a group of players and coaches who have worked hard. Our players have family and friends who will be able to attend and we know we will face a quality SEC opponent.” A&M will play against a Southeastern Conference opponent yet to be determined. However, the opponent is said to most likely be either LSU or Alabama. “As a senior, I am very excited about playing my final college football game in my backyard, the Cotton Bowl,” senior ‘joker’ Von Miller said.
“This team is a family and just getting a chance to prepare with them is a blessing. We know a big challenge is ahead from the SEC.” The Aggies finished the 2010 season 9-3 with six consecutive victories and were the tri-champions of the Big 12 South. The Cotton Bowl is slated to take place at 7 p.m. on Jan. 7 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. “We couldn’t be more thrilled to have the Aggies back in the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic,” Chairman Tommy Bain said. “Texas A&M has had a remarkable season and they deserve to be rewarded for their tremendous efforts. It’s going to be quite a celebration at the 75th Classic.” David Harris, sports editor
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texas Astros sign Quintero HOUSTON — The Houston Astros have signed catcher Humberto Quintero to a one-year contract for $1 million. Quintero played in a career-high 88 games for Houston last season and hit .234 with four home runs and 20 RBIs. The 31-year-old has hit .232 with 13 homers and 69 RBIs in 300 career games with San Diego and Houston since 2003. He has been in the Astros’ organization since 2005. Quintero was the backup to Jason Castro last season.
nation &world Guards watch inmate attack BOISE, Idaho — The surveillance video from the overhead cameras shows Hanni Elabed being beaten by a fellow inmate in an Idaho prison, managing to bang on a prison guard station window, pleading for help. Behind the glass, correctional officers look on, but no one intervenes when Elabed is knocked unconscious. No one steps into the cellblock when the attacker sits down to rest, and no one stops him when he resumes the beating. Videos of the attack obtained by The Associated Press show officers watching the beating for several minutes. The footage is a key piece of evidence for critics who claim the privately run Idaho Correctional Center uses inmateon-inmate violence to force prisoners to snitch on their cellmates or risk being moved to extremely violent units. Staff and wire reports
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After an exhilarating six-game winning streak, including wins over Nebraska and Oklahoma — both ranked No. 8 at the time — Texas A&M has accepted a bid to play in the 75th Cotton Bowl Classic in Arlington on Jan 7. The Aggies will face a team from the Southeastern Conference TBD.
Finals are approaching Choose procrastivity over procrastination
All-nighters are bad for student health ing major, starts her studying a week before each test. She said The Battalion Between the carols and the she also reviews old tests and lights, the frenzy of shoppers and suggests that students do not the excitement of children and procrastinate. “Study the hardest things first adults alike, the winter season and the classes with the most brings with it one foreboding notion: finals. For students, the material first,” Bell said. “You’re last few weeks of the fall semes- going to have to stay up late ter present a dichotomy of emo- studying, so you might as well tions. On one side, the promise get used to it.” Rhonda Rahn, health eduof the winter holiday season, cation coordinator for Student including spending time Health Services, said with loved ones and getting the approrelaxing. On the priate amount of other side, howFour to six hours sleep is very imever, many stuof uninterrupted portant in staydents spend the sleep is the ing healthy durfirst two weeks minimum amount ing finals. of December students should “There’s a cramming for lot of research aim for. tests and sacrificout there correing health and haplating sleep patterns piness for a few extra to health,” Rahn said. “If points on a final grade. they really feel they have to pull JD Meyerdirk said grades are an all-nighter, they need to have not the end of the world. Meyerdirk, a senior recreation, park four to six hours of uninterruptand tourism science major, said ed sleep.” Bob Bustion, agraduate stuhe always tries to do well on dent in public administration, said his finals, but he does not make he slept through a final his freshhimself ill over the prospect. “Freshmen should remember man year as an undergraduate. “My roommate woke me up it is just their first semester and because he knew I usually had they have plenty more to come,” class at that time. I ran to class he said. Meyerdirk makes flashcards and the teacher thankfully let me from his reviews to study. Lindsey Bell, a sophomore accountSee Finals on page 4
Katie White
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PROCRAST… big scary paper-monster, and there Procrastivity, procrasare actually quite a few people who tination’s marginally usedon’t possess the imprudent tenful relative, might actualdency to put things off. ly be good for something. “I try to get projects done in Often times, when faced small increments, that way I’m with a task perceived to Ryan Seybold not cramming at the last minbe difficult, people find ute,” said Katie Jacob, sophosenior philosophy themselves taking refuge major more general studies major. in household chores, the Procrastivity is, at least, a gym or other tasks with better option than its ugly, illess imminent deadlines. Of course the legitimately conceived stepbrother, promost advantageous thing to do would crastination. In some cases, it might be a be to immediately set to work on the See Procrastination on page 4
Miki Fan — THE BATTALION
Q&A Professor gives information regarding malignant breast cancer research Stephanie Massey The Battalion Dr. Vijayanagaram Venkatraj is a genetics professor at A&M. He does research involving molecular biology alterations and malignant breast cancer. Q: What does your research focus on? A:The main focus of my laboratory is to explore the possible connections between molecular biology alterations that drive malignant breast cancer cell proliferation and the cellular metabolic switches that accompany these alterations. I collaborate with Dr. Aniruddha Dutta, associate director of Genomic Signal Processing (GSP) laboratory from our electrical engineering department. He supports our molecular transcriptome (gene expression analysis) by providing dynamical modeling of gene networks. This in turn allows for efficient ways to explore potential avenues for therapy. Q: What got you interested in the field of genetics and your research? A: A great teacher enticed me into genetics. As a veterinary student in India we had to take a course called genetics and animal breeding. Most of us dread it assuming it has boring mathematics (a typical biologist view point). By the time he was through explaining Mendelian Genetics, epistasis and multifactorial traits and how they relate to Animal (phenotype) breeding, I was sold. Still three decades later the relation between the genotype and the phenotype is work in progress, but every day there are intriguing connections made that shed more light on this question, we still are far from untangling the layers of complexity that bridge them. He encouraged me to think about genetics as a continuum with adaptive evolution. See Q&A on page 4
Chancellors rate profs as profit or loss Ty Petty The Battalion In the business realm, profit is referred to as being “in the black” and loss is referred to as being “in the red.” When it comes to rating professors in terms of profit and loss, a recent report has A&M students seeing red. In September, the A&M University System Chancellors office released a report that rated every faculty member in terms of profit and loss to the University system. This massive spreadsheet weighs the annual salary of professors and lecturers against the number of students taught, the amount of tuition revenue generated and the amount of research money brought into the University. “I’m completely against it,” said Marshall Sales, junior political science major. “If you’re just measuring how profitable a teacher is based on how much money they can bring in — I don’t think that’s fair. [A professor’s] job should be to educate and that’s the sole purpose for it.” In 2008, Gov. Perry invited the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a
conservative think-tank, to a summit on state universities. The report might have stemmed from the results of this summit. The report appears to push for a radical reshaping of higher education, placing more emphasis on practical information versus less practical pursuits such as the liberal arts. “Taxpayers of the state of Texas [need to know if] they should be spending two years paying the salary of an English professor so he can write a book of poetry simply to add to the prestige of the university or the body of literature out there,” said Bill Peacock, vice president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Some students feel that it is not about how much money the University is receiving or if professors should keep their jobs. They said University officials should examine the inequity of salaries between professors and start any changes there. “I would be absolutely fine with lowering some salaries,” said Logan Jack, junior political science major. “I don’t think we need to eliminate some professors. Profit/loss is certainly not a good way to improve See Profit on page 2
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