thebattalion l friday,
october 4, 2013
l serving
texas a&m since 1893
l first paper free – additional copies $1 l © 2013 student media
Position shift paves way for Groom’s offensive burst Clay Koepke The Battalion
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ontrary to popular belief, some people around the nation — clearly not from Texas — are oblivious to Texas A&M. Coming out of high school, this was the case for junior center-attacking midfielder Shea Groom. Although Groom may not have been familiar with the Aggies, A&M was well aware of her. As a junior, she led her high school squad to a 2010 Missouri State Championship. She was named the Gatorade Missouri State Player of the year in 2010 and again as a senior in 2011. As the No. 10 prospect on Top Drawer Soccer’s Top 100 list, Groom drew heavy attention from the A&M coaching staff, among many others. Growing up in the small town of Liberty, Mo. — with a population of just more than 29,000 people — Groom knew she wanted to use her athletic abilities to experience life outside of Missouri. When head coach G Guerrieri and the A&M coaching staff brought Groom on campus for the first time, it didn’t take long for her to fall in love with Aggieland. See Groom on page 3
SET IN
MOTION Chris Findeisen, sophomore computer science major, founded StudyOnBoard, which seeks to be a virtual whiteboard.
Photo illustration by Jonathon Sheen — THE BATTALION
SEC schedule heats up as October begins Page three: Soccer, volleyball prepare for weekend road trips
Jonathon Sheen — THE BATTALION
entrepreneur
Student’s virtual study aid launches StudyOnBoard promises online white board capabilities Aimee Breaux
The Battalion etween the late nights and the scattered Greek symbols, library whiteboards are something of a hot commodity in the world of mathematics and engineering study groups. But with a little student ingenuity and some beta testing, the campus market for study group whiteboards just might go virtual. Chris Findeisen, sophomore computer science major and founder of StudyOnBoard, an online white board program capable of displaying abstract symbols, said even though the beta site still requires substantial improvement after the Thursday launch, the end game is to provide students with a free learning resource. “In its essence, we offer online study rooms,” Findeisen said.
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Findeisen said his struggles as an off-campus freshman without a car last year sparked the idea for StudyOnBoard. Faced with only textbooks at home, Findeisen said he wished it had been easier to work with classmates on assignments. He said the ability to work online would have been an ideal solution, but faced limited options for online group study. “The stuff that they are using, all the fun notation that our professors throw at us is not supported online,” Findeisen said. “Your keyboard has 63 special characters on it and none of those have theta, mu, nor have your integral sign. All of that stuff is not supported by your traditional text editor.” Findeisen said while StudyOnBoard’s Thursday launch exposed bugs, several hiccups in the site were expected and dealt with. Findeisen said the server crashed on day one, but they managed to salvage the situation by putting up the old version of
athletics
Habit of winning
Athletes discuss pregame rituals
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Sophomore outside hitter Sierra Patrick rises for a kill in the conference opener against Georgia.
See StudyOnBoard on page 4
texas gubernatorial race
Finances, Republican sway could hamper Democrat Davis’ chances Professors, students discuss Davis’ candidacy
Caroline Corrigan
The Battalion exas A&M students participate in a variety of unique traditions, and Aggie athletes are no exception. For some athletes, food does more than provide the necessary energy to make it through the game — it contributes to their mental preparation for the match. For sophomore basketball player Alex Caruso, a specific pregame breakfast meal is a must-have, day or night. “I love omelets,” Caruso said. “Whenever we would go on road games, we used to play at night, so we would have omelets at 10:30 or 11 at night.” While the basketball team is flipping their omelets, the volleyball team has a similar gameday ritual. Hannah Hood, junior volleyball player, said it doesn’t necessarily matter what the team eats, just that the meal is shared. “I think for the team, it is just that we all eat together, no matter what it is,” Hood said. “We all eat together exactly three hours before every single game.” Junior relay runner and long jumper, Jena Hemann, turns to Italian food when preparing for a
Wafi Alzawad — THE BATTALION
John Rangel
The Battalion endy Davis announced Thursday her intention to run on the Democratic Party ticket for governor of Texas in 2014. After an impromptu filibuster against Texas abortion restrictions flung her into the national spotlight, her gubernatorial prospects have been discussed by politicos around the nation. Texas’ journey from Red state to Blue state, however, may require much more than a pair of pink running shoes. “A Democrat running statewide has an uphill battle simply because of the current disproportional support among Texans for the Republican Party,” said Ann Bowman, Texas A&M professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service. “There has to be some issues on which she can generate support, or some event or series of events around which she can rally people to her cause.” The top fundraiser to date for the 2014 office is Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, with a campaign war chest of more than $20 million. In comparison, Wendy Davis has $1
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William Guerra — THE BATTALION
game. “We usually compete early in the morning around 10:30 or 11, so I usually just have oatmeal,” Hemann said. “But I always make sure to have pasta the night before.” Sophomore middle blocker Shelby Sullivan said the volleyball team has integrated finger tape into the list of gameday traditions. “I wear black finger tape on my fingers,” Sullivan said. “People say it helps you not break when we block, but it has become more like a tradition now that all the See Rituals on page 3
Wendy Davis
million, according to the Texas Ethics Commission. Bowman said Davis’ most likely means of bridging this budget shortfall is through out-of-state means, a trend increasing in statewide political races. Several students looked past Davis’ fundraising dollars, however, and pointed to past and present situations that make politics unpredictable. Justin Carpenter, senior political science major and Texas Aggie Democrats officer, said the time is ripe for Davis to make a serious bid at Texas’ top seat. “She’s probably currently at the height of her popularity statewide just because of everything that happened last summer,” Carpenter said. Carpenter said while Davis does face several large obstacles, the nature of politics acts as an equalizer against any advantages the other
candidates may hold against her. “If you think back to [the early ’90s] when Ann Richards was projected to lose by a huge amount to Clayton Williams, and then Williams made his famous ‘rape’ comment, it ended up being a blowout in favor of Ann Richards that no one could have seen coming,” Carpenter said. Antonio Martinez, junior finance major and supplemental instructor for state and local politics classes at Texas A&M, said Davis’ success will depend in large part on her ability to move the campaign issues toward other topics besides her actions at the state Capitol this past June. “I think she should try to disconnect herself from the abortion issue since it’s not going to fly in Texas right now,” Martinez said. Martinez said Davis’ best chance of winning would be to instead focus on issues such as education and infrastructure. “From what [Davis] has been focusing on in the speeches she’s given after her filibuster, education will be one [of her top campaign issues],” Martinez said. “Two years ago she filibustered a bill in the Texas Senate that was going to reduce funding for Texas education, so I believe she should focus a lot on education because she has history on record that she has supported education in the past.”
10/3/13 10:12 PM