thebattalion l monday,
december 2, 2013
l serving
Wafi Alzawad — THE BATTALION
Patty de Veyra, senior allied health major, donated her Aggie ring fund to Philippines relief.
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l first paper free – additional copies $1 l © 2013 student media
Student sacrifices personal Aggie ring fund for Philippines typhoon relief
FAMILY: AGGIE AND OTHERWISE Allison Rubenak The Battalion
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cross the Pacific on an island country, homes and belongings lay damaged and farms are destroyed. Distributing food remains a priority. This was on Patty de Veyra’s mind when she made a commitment to donate money she had saved for her Aggie ring to support her family, which was affected
by Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. De Veyra, senior allied health major, said after she saw photos of and heard about the destruction caused by the Nov. 8 typhoon, she knew she wanted to find a way to help her family. She knew she would be applying for her ring in January and had money saved. “To me it’s not like I’m giving it up,” de Veyra said. “It’s like I’m getting my
ring, but it’s going to people who actually need it, so that was the very first thing that popped into my head when I wanted to figure out a way to help them out.” De Veyra said the knowledge that her parents and grandparents watched the places where they created memories be torn apart catalyzed her decision to start a fundraiser and donate her ring money. She and her siblings wanted to show her parents that they were not alone in their
relief efforts. “It’s kind of like the marriage thing, ‘What’s mine is yours,’” de Veyra said. “It’s kind of like that for our family. Especially in the Philippines … everybody shares everything and you’re not just providing for yourself.” Lindsay Davenport, senior biomedical science major and de Veyra’s roommate, See Typhoon on page 3
A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin will patrol the sidelines beyond 2013 after agreeing in principle to a six-year contract extension Saturday. William Guerra — THE BATTALION
research
Impulses drive men to cheat more, study says Lindsey Gawlik The Battalion
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nfidelity has always proved a controversial topic. From women’s magazines to serious research, statistics tend to show that men are more likely to cheat. Noting this trend, psychology graduate student Natasha Tidwell wanted to find out why this seems to be the case. Tidwell and her research partner Paul Eastwick, a UT psychology assistant professor, decided to conduct research after finding gaps in the literary claims made about infidelity. “I have always been interested in self-regulation as well as sex differences and this was an
important gap in the literature that I thought needed to be addressed,” Eastwick said. “Researchers would often make claims about men having stronger impulses than women or women having stronger inhibitory control than men, but these claims largely had gone untested.” The study consisted of two experiments conducted on A&M students. In the first study, the subjects were asked to think of a time that they were attracted to somebody who it was wrong for them to be attracted to. “We asked them to think about that time, See Cheating on page 3
Bryan Johnson — THE BATTALION
MIDDLE OF THE PACK Sean Lester: Lost in the SEC gauntlet, Sumlin’s extension means bright future
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he fluidity of sports, and more specifically college football, was on full display Saturday with Texas A&M finding itself somewhere in the middle. On a day that saw top-ranked Alabama fall at the hands of Auburn in one of the most spectacular finishes in sports history, a resurgent Missouri team continued its strong play hours later against the Aggies in a 28-21 win. I have a theory that, like many things in history, sports repeats itself. The worstto-first stories are few and far between, but in the world of sports there is a cycle. It may take years, decades even, but no one team will forever be the worst and
the best teams can’t peak forever. A season ago, Missouri and Auburn were cellar dwellers combining for a 2-14 conference record. Auburn didn’t win a single SEC game all season. Fast-forward and the two teams will be the only SEC teams playing next weekend in Atlanta, vying for the conference championship. In both of the past two seasons, A&M See Sumlin on page 2
writing center
Contest opens scope to broadly gauge student writers Bradley D’Souza
The Battalion o give recognition to writers at A&M and project their pieces to a broader audience, the University Writing Center will conduct a writing and video contest open to all undergraduate students, titled “Aggie Voices,” until Feb. 4.
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Whether students want to display personal pieces or submit an essay from a previous course, written or video entries can be submitted on any topic for the chance to win a $100 gift card. “The reason [the writing center] is holding this contest is because we want to encourage students on campus to write and we want them
to think about writing in a broader way,” said Valerie Balester, writing center executive director and Texas A&M English professor. Students can send in any piece ranging from a creative essay to an old lab report as long as it meets the desired length guidelines. The contest criteria was made with students in mind and requires no specific topic
for entry. “In an entry, the most important thing we would be looking for is a message that comes through clearly, lets us know what it’s really about and addresses an audience we’re familiar with,” Balester said. “We want to know what its been written for and it will be judged according to what it was trying to accomplish and
if it succeeded.” Nancy Vazquez, a writing consultant with the writing center, said the center hopes to make students aware of writing center resources and encourage them to think in a way that opens their minds to different forms of expression, and potentially gain See Contest on page 4
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