thebattalion ● tuesday,
campus
Guest speaker discusses terrorism
september 28, 2010
● serving
See Terrorism page 2
Dorms conserve energy to win prize
Paula Harman Pau Special to The Battalion Spec The Fall 2010 Residence Life L Energy Challenge, coordinated by ResLife in conjunction j with the Residence Hall H Association, Sustainability Office, Facilities ServicesUt Utilities-Energy Management and Student Stu Government, kicked off Sept. 13. It combines utilities monitoring, recycling pprojects and a series of events to promote sustainability su awareness. The challenge will run r until National Campus Sustainability D Sus Day on Oct. 20. There are several dimensions to the Th challeng challenge enge th this year, with a competition betwee between een the dorms being the main aspec aspect. c Utilities are monitored an and nd compared to the numbers fro from 2009 as students try to dev develop good habits that hel help cut back on unnecessary usage. C Carol Binzer, director of admi administrative and support servic services for the Department of Residence Life, stresse stresses that the Energy Challe Challenge is about more than ju just saving money. “In the previous years, w hen we said we were doing when an en eenergy challenge, it soundedd lik like we were only interested in savi saving the University money,” she said. “But really, the point of the energy challenge is to foster leaders — if we ll want excellent global leaders, we need to teach and promote sustainability.”
Christina Fuentes — THE BATTALION
Thus, the focus in 2010 is on raising awareness and showing students why sustainability is so important. A series of sponsored events such as film screenings, recycling events and farm workshops are available, and students are encouraged to sign an e-pledge to show their commitment to sustainability. All of these aspects allow students to earn points toward the challenge for their dorms. “We have added new elements to the challenge,” said Katherine Gnadinger, senior university studies major, Residence Hall Association president. “Instead of basing the winner purely on a percentage of energy conserved as compared to the previous year, we have allowed students to actively get involved with sustainability initiatives on campus to further their development and knowledge. This allows for a greater understanding and appreciation of sustainability initiatives, as well as ideas and plans for after college, when [the students] have moved out of the residence halls.” The Energy Challenge was typically conducted during the spring semester before being reschedulded in 2010. “This is the first time to do the Energy Challenge in the fall, but we thought it would be better to get on campus students interested in sustainability as early as possible,” Gnadinger said. “By holding it in the fall, we are able to put the thought of sustainable residence hall living in [the students’] minds early on, and our goal is that it will affect how on-campus students live throughout their time here at Texas A&M.” Because of the many new opportunities for involvement, students who do not live on See Energy on page 4
College Station, Texas A&M join together to recycle Katie White The Battalion With the talk about reducing our carbon footprints, College Station and Texas A&M provide students living both on and off campus with easy ways to recycle household items and help save the planet one plastic bottle at a time. Heather Qualls, recycling coordinator for College Station, said students living off campus who want to recycle can sign up with the College Station recycling program at the city’s website. “All single family homes, duplexes and four-plexes receive curbside recycling by the city,” Qualls said. The service does not have any extra cost and is picked up the same day as bulk trash. Upon signing up, students will receive clear plastic bags from the city in which to sort recyclables. “I like doing it because it’s really easy, since all you have to do is put the bags out on the curb,” said
ALS Association event to raise awareness and support The Greater Houston Chapter of the ALS Association will hold its fifth annual Bryan-College Station fundraiser walk to defeat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 2 at Central Park in College Station. ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, affects nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Approximately 5,600 Americans are diagnosed with it annually.The ALS Association holds 150 fundraising walks per year to raise money for research and to spread awareness about the disease. The walk in College Station will have entertainment, a raffle and refreshments. Central Park is located off Krenek Tap Road. Students wanting to participate can form or join a team to walk and raise money for research and community-based patient services programs. Katie White, staff writer
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$aving with sustainability
Stephanie Massey Special to The Battalion Steven Block, the S.W. Ascherman chairman of sciences at Stanford University, spoke on biological warfare, the U.S. government’s involvement and potential methods to reduce biological warfare in a lecture Sept. 16. Block gave his lecture, “Facing the Growing Threat of Bioterrorism,” at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center in the George Bush Library. Block is a professor in the department of applied physics and biology at Stanford. “Biotechnology is very powerful … It is cheap. It doesn’t require special infrastructure. It’s not like building a nuclear weapon. It’s based on public knowledge, and it doesn’t require rare materials either,” Block said. Jay Szule, a post-doctoral fellow in the biology department with a PhD in neuroscience, attended the address and emphasized the significance of such lectures in educating the public. “These lectures are important so that the general public feels that the government agencies are doing what they can to protect us from such a threat either through pre-emptive measures or preparedness through public health measures,” Szule said. Biological terrorism, although not a new form of warfare, is an escalating issue in the U.S. “After hearing the talk, I am a firm believer that bioterrorism is a growing problem, and the issues seem to present themselves as needing attention,” said Annamarie Cowart, sophomore engineering major and member of the Undergraduate Science Research Club. “To think that all of these things are going on without our knowledge is beyond belief.” Better informing the public will prevent prevalent panic of perverse pathogens. “I think that the general public does need to be educated about bioterrorism because ignorance of a topic as emotionally-charged as terrorism — in general — can lead to fear and paranoia, which in my opinion, is not very useful to our society,” Szule said. Deadly bacteria and viruses, like smallpox, will have devastating consequences to a country’s population and economy if unleashed in an unethical man-
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Conner Price, senior psychology major. “Plus, it cuts back on the amount of trash we have each week.” All paper items belong in one plastic bag. These include newspapers, phone books, white paper and magazines. The city accepts aluminum and tin cans in another bag, as well as glass items. Clear glass must be separated from brown glass. Plastics must be crushed before going in a bag, and the city accepts car batteries, but only one per bag. Another option for recycling is to drop off items at the Brazos Valley Recycling Co. Amanda Mancuso, public relations worker for Brazos Valley Recycling, said their facility is open to the public, with no charge for household item drop-offs. “About 90 percent of everything that comes to our facility we are able to recycle,” Mancuso said. A&M recycles items from the bins across camSee Recycle on page 4
Photo illustration by Matt Young— THE BATTALION
Sophomore water resource management major Bryce Angel, displays how he recycles his paper items.
Students react to International Justice Mission’s video on human trafficking Joyce Go Special toThe Battalion When Americans think of crime, human trafficking is not one of the first thoughts that comes to mind. Texas experiences human trafficking in the forms of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation due to its geographic location, demographics and large migrant labor force. International Justice Mission held an awareness event on human trafficking at Muldoon’s coffee shop Thursday in College Station. Jessica Birdwell, sophomore finance major and treasurer of the organization, helped to enlighten guests about human
trafficking at the awareness event. the documentary for reasons ranging “There are 27,000,000 enfrom representing other social justice orslaved just for human ganizations to mere curiosity about “Human trafficking,” Birdwell what human trafficking is. trafficking said. “People just “I’m coming into this event is what piqued my don’t know about with no expectations,” said that, and I think Sierra Kedroske, sophomore interest, because it’s people should biology major. “There is something that’s not close be more aware so much we don’t know to us, so we don’t think of it.” about it on a daily basis, but about human trafficking, Social juswhat it involves, and what it is a big problem” tice seems to be organizations can do to help. a growing interest I just want to learn how I can -Sierra Kedroske in the Bryan-Colbe involved so that I can help lege Station area. The the situation.” event’s guests consisted of See Trafficking on page 9 students and faculty who came to watch
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