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H-E-B
BEST GROCERY STORE: H-E-B
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Robert O’Brien — THE BATTALION
The H-E-B located at the intersection of Wellborn Road and Harvey Mitchell Parkway is the first-ever winner for the Best Grocery Store in the ‘Best of Aggieland’ magazine.
Here, everything really is better
Partners, community valued above business at Aggie-run grocery store
By Caleb Powell
@calebpowell23
Despite newcomer Brookshire Brothers joining Texas A&M’s campus in April of 2021, Aggies still prefer Texas staple H-E-B.
The votes are in, and the Jones Crossing H-E-B has been chosen as the best grocery store in Aggieland. The store, located off Wellborn Road, is open from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. Managers, employees and customers alike are drawn to its person-first customer service approach.
Francisco Hidalgo, Class of 2007 and general manager at the Jones Crossing H-E-B, said in an email to The Battalion that the store is successful because of its goals to serve the community.
“We are a purpose-driven company,” Hidalgo said. “We want to make every Texan’s life better. We do it through the products we sell, hunger relief, emergency response, health and welfare and public education.”
H-E-B is able to serve a myriad of customers and drive community outreach because of its employees, or partners, Hidalgo said.
“Our partners are our greatest competitive advantage,” Hidalgo said. “We invest in our partners, and they are the heart of everything we do.”
The partners at H-E-B couldn’t agree more, many of whom are current students at A&M. Human resources and sociology junior and H-E-B partner George Crump said his team works well because of the manager’s hands-on leadership style.
“The main store director, or store manager, is very vocal that he wants all of us to succeed,” Crump said. “He motivates us every day. He even works out there with us sometimes.”
The team at the Jones Crossing H-E-B operates effectively because of their personal bonds, both inside of the store and outside of the workplace, Crump said. This social aspect is an asset to the store’s day-to-day operations.
“We all know each other outside of work, and we do so much team building,” Crump said. “Team bonding, like anything, is essential because you’re building up your traits and characteristics … such as leadership skills, communication skills, mostly your everyday type of skills that you need to inherit … while you’re working your way up toward your career.”
Building relationships at H-E-B extends beyond the trust he has with coworkers, Crump said.
“I like being a cashier, being up front or welcoming people,” Crump said. “I have time to get to know customers, know the people who could potentially work at H-E-B. I call everybody family for a reason, and I use that characteristic at work, too, for a reason.”
Customers can feel the passion H-E-B partners pour into their store. Geography junior Jared Collinge said he’s always had good customer service.
“My main experience with employees is speaking to cashiers, and they’re professional,” Collinge said.
The main draw of the Jones Crossing H-E-B is the convenience factor, due to location and wide availability of products, Collinge said.
“It’s really easy to just pull in there and leave,” Collinge said. “It’s really convenient to go there for gas — they usually have good rates — and then just stop by for groceries. It’s my one-two punch.”
H-E-B was able to still effectively serve its customers and provide convenient service during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic because of good preparation, Hidalgo said.
“The most obvious adjustment was having a plan for a pandemic long before it started,” Hidalgo said. “Our company had the foresight to prepare for the unthinkable.”
Those preparations proved to be a significant help as Collinge said he relied heavily on H-E-B’s alternative services during lockdown.
“I had to rely on H-E-B delivery, and that became really affordable and my go-to option when the pandemic hit,” Collinge said. “Everyone was really cautious about the virus, especially back then, so it provided the best way for me to get healthy food.”
Although the delivery services H-E-B provided were helpful, Collinge said he still preferred shopping for groceries in the store.
“I like retail environments, I guess,” Collinge said. “Especially during the pandemic when I wasn’t doing much, it would be fun to go outside [and] have a purpose to go do something.”
The partners at H-E-B also love working face-to-face with their customers; Crump said he enjoys his role because of the people he meets.
“It doesn’t feel like work because every time I’m there, I’ll be learning something,” Crump said. “I’m always having a great time, interacting with customers and getting to understand individuals besides myself.”
Perhaps most significantly, the Jones Crossing H-E-B serves Aggieland as well as it does because it’s run by Aggies. Hidalgo said being a former student influenced his decision to come back to College Station and help other Aggies climb the chain at H-E-B.
“[We have] set up a lot of processes to help my fellow Aggies succeed in getting a job with H-E-B,” Hidalgo said. “[Being an Aggie] has impacted me greatly. It’s one of the reasons why I came back to Aggieland.”
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Aggies defeat No. 1 Crimson Tide 41-38 in instant classic ROLL TEARS ROLL
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“... he would do and say these things with intent to get me more comfortable with him.”
“I thought I could trust him.” “He was bragging about it.”
“He was reported to the chairs two times and those chairs did nothing.”
A TRADITION, TARNISHED
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Saturday was an upset nobody expect-ed. Texas A&M football defeated thenNo. 1 University of Alabama in front of a sold-out Kyle Field on Saturday, Oct. 9 with 106,815 fans in attendance. The last time A&M defeated the Crimson Tide was in the 2012 upset in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s previous record against his former assistant coaches was 24-0, with Texas A&M head coach Jimbo
Fisher recording the first-ever victory over his former boss. While the win is great, Fisher said he will not be fully satisfied until he sees how his team performs throughout the rest of the season. “We can be special. Our football team is learning to play against other great football teams and have success. That’s what matters to me,” Fisher said. “It shows a lot of character, and it shows a lot of belief in themselves. It shows a lot of belief in their teammates.” At halftime, Alabama went into the locker room trailing on the scoreboard for the first time since Oct. 17, 2020, when the Tide took on Georgia in an eventual 41-24 victory over the Bulldogs. For the Aggies, it all came down to the fourth quarter, with A&M only leading by one touchdown, 31-24. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Zach Calzada found his groove. With the 12th Man behind him, the signal caller led the Aggies to score in all three possessions during the first quarter. Additionally, Calzada was 10 for 10 before throwing an interception in the middle of the second quarter.“There is not a harder position in sports to play than quarterback,” Fisher said. “[I’m] very proud of Zach. He’s a high-character
By Jennifer Streeter @jennystreeter3 Senior defensive back Leon O’Neal Jr. recovered the ball fumbled by Alabama at the end of the first quarter. O’Neal returned the ball to Alabama’s 41-yard line allowing A&M to score a touchdown in the following drive. Robert O’Brien — THE BATTALION young man. He cares, and it matters to him.” For the ground game, junior running back Isaiah Spiller and sophomore running back Devon Achane stole the show. Spiller ran for 46 yards and one touchdown. One highlight of the night for the maroon and white was Achane’s 96-yard kickoff return for a touch-down in the third quarter. Achane said he was in disbelief with the amount of open green available to him. “I couldn’t believe it because the hole was so big,” Achane said. “After scoring that, the feeling was just amazing. It gave us a lot of momentum. It was a big opportunity for us.” GAME RECAP ON PG. 3
The Aggies’ 41-38 victory over the Crimson Tide was the result of months of hard work put forth by the A&M football team. Robert O’Brien — THE BATTALION
Over five months ago, Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher made a bold promise: “We’re going to beat his ass.” On the surface, this claim lacked substance, with many left wondering why Fisher would single out one specific coach — Alabama’s Nick Saban. After all, Fisher had already accomplished almost everything there is to do in college football — two national championships, three conference titles, nine bowl wins and a College Coach of the Year award. But beating Saban, his former boss, in headto-head competition had significance of its own. “I have the utmost respect for Nick Saban. I always have, I always will and I consider us friends,” Fisher said. “But we’re competitors. That’s ball, and I respect him for that.” Starting in 2000, Fisher worked under Sa-ban as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Louisiana State University. The two won a national championship together with LSU in 2003, but after Saban left for the Miami Dolphins, the duo’s path split. Even apart, the two men’s coaching styles remained similar, something Fisher attributes to the pair’s similar upbringings from the “same neck of the woods” in West Virginia. Nearly a decade later, Saban went on yet another streak of success as a college football
coach. Starting in 2010, Saban began terrorizing his former assistants who had since taken over their own programs as head coaches. With 24 straight wins and an undefeated record against his earlier protégés, including four wins over Fisher, Saban’s dominance threatened to continue with no end in sight; beating the seven-time national champion seemed to be a feat unconquerable to those who, at one point, worked under the man. Even so, in Fisher’s words, Saban’s downfall “was inevitable” because “someone was going to do it, in time.”And though he didn’t necessarily expect it, Fisher himself became the grand champion whose arrival was foretold in his own proph-ecy. From Jimbo, with love By Ryan Faulkner @ryanfaulk03 Jimbo Fisher celebrates 56th birthday with win over former boss Nick Saban On Saturday, Oct. 9, the unranked Aggies upset the undefeated No. 1 Crimson Tide in front of 106,815 fans at Kyle Field. Not only did the win put A&M back on track after two consecutive losses to open its SEC campaign, but it also gave Fisher another win of his own — proof he could do what was thought to be impossible and take down his former boss, mentor and colleague.Saban said he had no choice but to praise his former assistant, impressed with A&M’s ability to snap Alabama’s 19-game winning streak. “I have great respect for [Fisher]. I always say that. He is one of the best who ever did it,” Saban said on the postgame CBS broadcast. “I learned a lot when I coached with him, and we had a lot of good times.” By finally defeating Saban, Fisher
FISHER ON PG. 3
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“... while traditions are important, sometimes traditions need change.”
Failures in reporting process, unbalanced power dynamics create culture of sexual assault, harassment in Fish Camp
By Myranda Campanella
@MCampanella_
Power dynamics, grooming, hookups
Editor’s note: The Battalion does not publish the names or identifying information of rape and sexual assault victims. The names of victims and assailants in this article have been altered or removed to protect the subjects’ identities.
Content warning: This article discusses sexual violence and predatory behavior.
“I thought he was someone I could trust.”
Journalism junior, “Ashley,” said this of the male counselor in her 2018 Fish Camp Discussion Group, who was supposed to “offer advice about classes, College Station and anything else you need as you begin your journey as an Aggie,” according to Fish Camp’s website.
Ashley’s D.G. dad sexually assaulted her four months into her freshman year at Texas A&M — the unwanted campus welcome that she said stole her joy about the school.
Boldly stated on the front page of its website, Fish Camp, founded in 1954, is “A freshman’s first tradition” at A&M. However, sexual assault and harassment have woven their way in as a hidden part of the tradition as current students — D.G. “moms” and “dads” — are placed in positions of power over incoming freshmen. The result is an established culture of hookups, grooming and sexual assault and harassment among counselors that extends well beyond the four-day summer retreat held two hours away from College Station. In addition, a failure to adhere to proper protocols — in which claims of abuse and harassment against counselors are passed along to director staff and faculty advisors — has created a climate that protects abusers from repercussions and subjects freshmen to predatory behavior.
Lauren Carroll Spitznagle, executive director of the Brazos Valley Sexual Assault Resource Center, said it is “common knowledge” among her peers that students have been assaulted by Fish Camp staff.
The unequal power dynamic that Fish Camp creates between counselors and incoming freshmen makes it easy for someone who has not learned healthy boundaries to assert predatory behaviors, Carroll Spitznagle said. “Whenever you have someone that’s in a position of power like that — especially with students that come from all over the world with different cultures and backgrounds — it becomes, unfortunately, a way for survivors to be preyed upon,” Carroll Spitznagle said. Ashley said when she met her D.G. dad on the first day of Fish Camp, she thought he was nice and trustworthy. Once classes began, Ashley said her D.G. dad remained in contact with her and often told her to call him if she ever needed a ride from Northgate, which he insisted was commonplace between D.G. parents and their freshmen. On the night of Dec. 1, 2018, Ashley called her D.G. dad for a ride home from Northgate, but when he picked her up, he locked Ashley inside his car and tried to force her to kiss him and perform oral sex. Afterward, he drove them to his apartment in Park West instead of to her house, as she had asked, and attempted to rape her. In hindsight, Ashley said she realized there had been red flags, like how he would ask the freshman girls if
COMMON TERMS: they had boyfriends and when he saved his contact name in Fish Camp - Texas A&M’s Ashley’s phone with a smiley freshman orientation program face. Ashley said she now sees these subtle actions as her D.G.
D.G. - discussion group dad grooming her because he was ultimately able to build D.G. dad - male discussion trust and put her in situations group leader that would have otherwise been weird.
D.G. mom - female “I was a freshman. I was discussion group leader young, you know? I was coming into this camp as brand new; I hadn’t been fully educated on the concepts of grooming and sexual assault, so I never thought it was weird,” Ashley said. “Looking back now, he would do these things and say these things with intent to get me more comfortable with him.” After confiding in other members of her D.G. following the assault, Ashley said she was told her counselor had also assaulted his Fish Camp partner and another freshman in their D.G.
“His D.G. partner was very uncomfortable with him from the start. [She] asked to get a new partner, and they told her no,” Ashley said. “The organization told her no, and she had to stay with him.
“After Fish Camp, he sexually assaulted her.”
Additionally, Ashley said she was told by her D.G. mom that her assaulter was also reported to chairs for sexually assaulting freshmen in 2017 and 2019. Because of those chairs’ failure to report up to the director staff, as is protocol, he was able to re-apply to be a counselor again and again. Ashley said he ultimately graduated from A&M in May 2020 with no consequences.
“He was reported to chairs two times, and those chairs did nothing,” Ashley said. “And because those chairs did nothing [in 2017], I was sexually assaulted.”
Ashley’s D.G. dad denied the allegations against him in a comment to The Battalion and declined to comment further.
Even though Ashley reported her assault to Title IX two years later, Fish Camp’s current Head Director Eric Muñoz, Class of 2021, said it is not common for victims of Fish Camp-related sexual assaults to report their offenders. However, he said if someone told him assault is common within the organization, he would be “very saddened, but I also would not be as surprised as others.”
In addition to sexual assault, Fish Camp is also a common place for counselors to meet dating or hookup partners, either among other counselors or, sometimes, even the freshmen, as was the case with now-junior “Grace.”
Grace said she began hooking up with her D.G. dad within the first month of classes her freshman year, which Muñoz said is against Fish Camp policy — counselors cannot be romantically involved with any freshmen until their continuity program and membership ends in October each year. However, this policy is not listed in Fish Camp’s Constitution or by-laws.
Grace said she quickly figured out her D.G. dad had ulterior motives for being a Fish Camp counselor from the start.
“He told me he did it to [hook up with freshmen] … and also to make friends,” Grace said. “He was bragging about it.” Muñoz said Fish Camp has a strict no-dating policy, and counselors are encouraged to “keep it PG” with the freshmen and other counselors during camp until continuity ends. “Counselors are told time and time again that their role is to serve freshmen, it’s to be a resource and to be a mentor,” Muñoz said. Despite these policies and constant reminders about Fish Camp’s main missions, Grace said she has discovered it’s really common for students to pursue leadership roles within the organization for the wrong reasons and to overlook its dating policies.
Reporting sexual assault on A&M’s campus
Denise Crisafi, Ph.D., a Health Promotion coordinator within the Offices of the Dean of Student Life, said A&M
FACULTY ADVISORS defines sexual harassment in University Rule 24.4.2 in accordance with federal law as
DIRECTOR STAFF “any type of unwelcome sexual advance” made by students, faculty, staff or campus visitors. CAMP CHAIRS This includes sexual favors as well as verbal and non-verbal communicative conduct of a
CAMP COUNSELORS sexual nature that is “severe, persistent or pervasive enough to [prevent access to] an educaINCOMING FRESHMEN tional, living learning environment,” Crisafi said. Separately, sexual assault is definitively three different acts, Crisafi said: rape, fondling and incest. She said there is no scale for these acts in terms of importance, so no one’s trauma is invalid. “I think it’s really important for our campus community to understand that a lot of times, our initial reaction is to think of [sexual assault] as rape,” Crisafi said. “And that’s true, and it’s incredibly valid. But it also includes other things that can happen in connection with it … or without the definition or action of rape being present.” Crisafi said national statistics show the risk of sexual assault goes up within the first six to eight weeks of the fall semester, particularly among freshmen. “Usually the risk of experiencing sexual violence and or alcohol poisoning and FISH CAMP ON PG. 2
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