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Morgan Engel — THE BATTALION
Students can use the Spitball app to share study guides and talk about classes.
‘Spitball’ app to bring new study platform to A&M By Dani Manley @danimanley18 A new outlet for studying can be found with the tap of a finger on an app and is now available to Texas A&M students. Spitball, a free communication and group study app, allows students to share study guides, create custom quizzes and talk to fellow students about classes. Jordan Weiss, head of U.S. Operations for Spitball, said the app is launching at 13 schools around the United States and chose College Station as a testing ground because A&M is a large school with a high-level of academics. “Spitball originally launched in Israel and we already have two-thirds of Israeli college students using our platform, and those are students all across the country,” Weiss said. “A&M has really strong academics and a vibrant culture and campus life. We found that Spitball is most successful on campuses where there is a campus community and students are working together and studying together.” Weiss said Spitball got its name for being an open space where students can communicate ideas and find help with academic issues. “The platform is called Spitball because to spitball means to brainstorm together in an open, non-judgmental environment,” Weiss said. “Spitballing and the idea of working together are some of our core values.” Students can access Spitball from any location at any time that posts the most relevant information first, Weiss said. “[Students] can use Spitball wherever they are, at any time, to study at their own pace while still being a part of a larger group,” Weiss said. “We rely on students to upload the content. We have, similar to Facebook, a ‘like’ feature. The algorithm is such that the documents that are downloaded more often, liked more often, commented will be promoted.” Jennifer Gonzalez, biomedical sciences senior, said she does not use study apps often. “I do think they’re helpful; I just personally mostly prefer doing stuff on my own. But I do think they are helpful,” Gonzalez said. “I think it depends on the course. I know last year for one of my classes we would share stuff through a Facebook page and we would all collaborate and I thought that was useful and fair in a way because we were all doing it together and putting stuff we can all think about and contribute. I don’t think it’s as helpful if only one person is contributing everything.” Cynthia Maldonado, biochemistry sophomore, said she does use study apps, but found that many of them lacked the information she was seeking for her major. “I think it would be useful as long as there’s material that helps,” Maldonado said. “If I have questions with regards to a problem and I can’t find an answer or I can’t seem to get help, I could just put my question in and use it, and people could just answer it and it could be faster than going to office hours.”
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As a sophomore in 2015, Emma Douglas was involved in multiple J-Court cases during the spring elections.
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‘Let’s talk about when things get tough’ Former election commissioner Emma Douglas approved as chief of staff, opens up about sexual assault By Sam King @Sam_King372
T
he spring 2015 semester was a turbulent time for the Student Government Association, enough so that the time period between student elections and the end of the semester became known as “Koldusgate.” And at the center of it was then-sophomore Emma Douglas. But it wasn’t until one year later, at a May 2016 Student Senate meeting, that Douglas revealed she had been sexually assaulted during the same time period Koldusgate was at its highest amount of controversy. In the spring of 2015 Douglas served as the election commissioner, a position which put her in charge of running the student elections. Errors in the online balloting process, campaign violations and rumors led to multiple SGA Judicial Court cases. Although each case found in her favor — in some cases through close rulings — Student Senate later called for Douglas’ impeachment. In a move to “save the Student Government Association from further perpetuating unhealthy and destructive dialogue,” Douglas resigned as election commissioner March 11. A few weeks later, then-student body president-elect Joseph Benigno put Douglas in front of the Student Senate to become a member of his executive staff
Emma Douglas, now a senior, was confirmed as executive chief of staff for SBP Hannah Wimberly. FILE
as the operations executive vice president. His nomination was denied by the senators of the 68th Session. Current SBP Hannah Wimberly put Douglas forward once again, though this time for the position of her chief of staff, late in the spring 2016 semester. During the first meeting in which Wimberly put Douglas forward, Douglas was again turned down, this time by senators of the 69th Session. But when Wimberly put Douglas forward once again at a May 2, 2016 Student Senate meeting, Douglas
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was unanimously approved as chief of staff. It was during this meeting that Douglas opened up about her sexual assault. “If things get tough this year, how can you convince me that you’re not just going to resign?” Grayson Blair, student senator of the 69th Session asked Douglas during the May 2 meeting. Douglas was quick in her response. “Let’s talk about when things get tough,” Douglas said. DOUGLAS ON PG. 4
BLUFFING AT BARS Bouncers, local police discuss illegal use of fake IDs at Northgate bars By Christine Doran @cndoran
Northgate bartenders and bouncers say they see fake IDs four to five times each week. Morgan Engel — THE BATTALION
Northgate is teeming with them, the bouncers and bartenders expect them, it wouldn’t be a college town without them — fake IDs, as Sergeant Jason Summers with the College Station Police Department said, “come with the territory.” So when one Texas A&M student began making them, he said, “It was really easy.” The anonymous source said he began making “papers,” the printed, paper version of a temporary driver’s license, as a freshman. According to the fake ID producer, he received a template via email from a friend and simply typed up the basic information typically found on a driver’s license. These fake IDs expire after one month, similar to official temporary paper IDs, so they were sold for
only approximately $10-$20 each, the source said. A finance senior who had one of these paper fakes said he got a fake in order to avoid pricey cover charges at bars for minors. “When I had my paper fake, the first time I used it was one of the scariest moments of my life,” he said. “Because everyone’s done it, they don’t feel like it’s that big of a risk.” He said while some places are easier to get away with a fake ID, the paper IDs aren’t entirely foolproof. “I only used it at gas stations that everyone knew were sketchy,” he said. “Bars are different. It all depends on who the bouncer is.” Two bartenders at Dudley’s Draw, Nate Hahn and Thomas Ayars, said they only encounter fake IDs about once a week, while Zach Barnett, a bouncer with Icon Nightclub and Lounge, said their weekend bouncers frequently find four or five of them each night. Barnett said fake IDs have a range of tell-tale signs FAKE IDS ON PG. 2
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Srivyas Sriyathson, economics senior, said he would be hesitant to try a new app. “It would depend on testimonials — I would have to know people who recommend the app, like telling me, ‘Oh, this is good, you should download this,’” Sriyathson said. Weiss said there are a variety of features that are designed to help students study smarter. “We like to call Spitball a crowdsourced learning platform,” Weiss said. “There are a variety of features that are designed to help students study smarter, not harder, and so students can share study guides and notes on Spitball, either with the entire class or selected friends in a private study group.”
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indicating their lack of authenticity. He said many of the fakes are from Oklahoma, Louisiana or Florida, and when a bouncer or bartender sees that state on the license, extra time goes into examining it. Icon Nightclub and Lounge has a book with an accurate picture of each state’s driver’s license, to verify anything that looks questionable, said Jimmy Ryan, a manager at Icon. Often, minors using their friend’s ID will approach nervously, immediately explaining why they don’t look like the individual in the picture, said Barnett. He said one girl tried to justify the obvious differences in the ID picture by saying she was a hair stylist. Bartenders and bouncers used the term “fake ID” loosely — they include minors using their friends’ IDs. In fact, bartenders say the vast majority of minors use their friends’ IDs rather than a fake.
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“One girl left her wallet on the counter and there were three IDs inside it,” Hahn said. Ayars, who has worked at Northgate for four years, said some bar-
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THE BATTALION is published daily,Thursday Monday during throughtheThursday the(except fall and spring semesters and Tuesday and summerduring session spring semesters Tuesday and atThursday during the College summerStation, session University holidaysand and exam periods) Texas A&M University, (except University holidays exam periods) Student at Texas A&M University, TX 77843. Offices are in Suite and L400 of the Memorial Center. College Station, TX 77843. Offices are in Suite L400 of the Memorial Student Center. News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at Texas A&M University in Student Media, a unit of the Division of Student Affairs.
tenders allow their underage friends to drink. “Bartenders who serve underage people make it hard for the rest of us,” said Ayars, who has worked on Northgate for four years. Although having fake IDs is a popular trend in college towns, it doesn’t come without consequences. Summers, who worked with the Northgate unit of CSPD for four years, said the punishments can range anywhere from six months in jail and a $2,000 fine to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. “That’s a pretty steep price for just having one,” Summers said. Summers said punishment depends on the situation in which the fake ID is used. “When you reference a Class C misdemeanor there’s something that’s on the books called ‘misrepresentation of age by minor’ and that is where you not necessarily presented to a policeman, but you presented to maybe the doorman at a bar or a cashier at a liquor store … and you misrepresent your age as older than you really are, and that is a ticketable offense,” Summers said.
News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at Texas A&M Newsroom phone: 979-845-3315; E-mail: editor@thebatt.com; website: http:// University in Student Media, a unit of the Division of Student Affairs. Newsroom www.thebatt.com. phone: 979-845-3315; E-mail: editor@thebatt.com; website: http://www.thebatt.com.
Despite the possible consequences, Summers said minors are often not ticketed for possessing a fake. He said those who get arrested or charged for having a fake ID are typically arrested when the use of a fake is in conjunction with another offense. “Maybe it’s because they’re being obstinate with a doorman or a bartender or something like that and they’re proclaiming that they are who they’re not to be, so then the bartender or doorman calls us over to come investigate,” Summers said. Summers said he and fellow CSPD officers have had comical experiences with catching fake IDs. One of the experiences was with a Louisiana fake ID. “The picture was a little bit off, and the lettering was obviously that of a fake and they had some kind of a watermark with something reflective on it that was supposed to look like the state of Louisiana, but it looked like an old sock,” Summers said. “It was terrible. I was like, ‘Really?’”
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Eid Al-Adha celebrated Monday
STORY AT THEBATT.COM James Bryer — THE BATTALION
Muslims in Bryan-College Station gathered Monday to observe Eid Al-Adha, which celebrates the story of Abraham.
LIFE&ARTS
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The Battalion | 9.13.16
College students offer inspiration for local tattoo artists.
Behind the ink
Hede goes here hede goes here hede Bryan-College-Station tattoo artists reflect on their experiences and inspirations in a college town By Alice Corcoran @AliceJCorcoran For tattoo artists in a college town, working at a parlor comes with a unique customer base, and with it, a unique set of experiences. The results from a Harris Poll conducted in Oct. 2015 showed that three in 10 adults in the United States have a tattoo, and nearly half of millennials — 47 percent — have at least one. Chris Casazza has been a tattoo artist in the Bryan-College Station area for a little over a year. Casazza said tattooing college students has its pros and cons. “I like that they’re more open to different ideas, but at the same time, a lot of the time they don’t know what they want and they don’t do too much research,” Casazza said. T.J. Strey, a tattoo artist of 15 years and owner of Big Daddy’s Tattoo Company, said some college students get tattoos because they feel a sense of freedom as soon as they get to college. “I think the worst part of dealing with college students is the whole newness of being away from home, being an adult, and wanting to do adult activities right away because, ‘I’m 18; I’m gonna do what I want to do and nobody can tell me I can’t,’” Strey said. “But then tattoos aren’t usually what that decision should be.” Strey said if a customer asks for a tattoo he believes they will regret, he won’t do it. “I’ve had that situation many a times,” Strey said. “There was a younger guy that came in —had been in Afghanistan I believe— and he was drawing in his ar-
mored vehicle a picture when three of his friends were killed. And he brought it in and he goes, ‘I want this exact picture. This is what I was drawing the night my three friends were killed.’ I said, ‘I won’t do it’ because it was an absolutely horrible picture.” Strey said he will offer to redraw a tattoo based off the idea the customer has, but ultimately the quality of the tattoo reflects the quality of the artist. Steven Dafdarian, a tattoo artist of seven years who currently works for Ink Dream Tattoos, had a similar experience in which he refused service to a customer. “A girl wanted a pentagram on her throat,” Dafdarian said. “She was 20 and had one tattoo …There’s no way we’re going to do that. You have to have a line.” Strey said his favorite customers are the ones who get a tattoo with a symbolic meaning behind it. “I did a rose on this lady’s back and just sketched it right on her. It was about her daughter who had M.S. Samantha Phelps-Hereera gets a tattoo consultation. [multiple sclerosis],” Strey said. “I got done and I did the final wipe and I was like, ‘Wow. Look at that,’ because it was all freelance, and she looked at it and she started crying, and she had told me a good story with it.” Casazza said the best experiences he has as a tattoo artist are when a client chooses an original tattoo that he designed. “That hits close to home,” Casazza said. “I really feel like that means the most because it’s what I put out and they thought it was good enough to keep for the rest of their life.” Strey said being a tattoo artist in a college town provides a lot of inspiration. “The good part about the college students is we do meet up with that special group that’s more artistic, a lot of forethought into their tattoos,” Strey said. “Every four years there’s a new 120,000 people to talk to, to Tattoo artist Steven Dafdarian prepares a design for a tattoo tattoo, to pierce, to find out their story.” at Ink Dreams Tattoo parlor.
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Douglas revealed that during the spring 2015 election week she was helping a close friend through reporting her sexual assault. “It was something that I had known and it was something that I had been pressing her to come forward and she finally did,” Douglas said during the May meeting. “I was with her every single night until 2 a.m. making sure she fell asleep, and yet I still ran those elections.” Douglas then revealed that later in the semester she was raped, but continued her work as election commissioner. She said when she did eventually decide to resign, it was because of the dialogue within student government. “Later that semester, I was raped. Violently,” Douglas said. “And I did not quit ... Whether it was dealing with the police with my own case. Whether it was wondering, ‘Am I going to live through this day?’ I did not quit. I quit because of what was happening in SGA, not because of what was going on in my life.” Douglas said she chose not to press charges. “I filed a report, got the pregnancy tests and the STD tests and then … They asked me if I wanted to press charges or not and I didn’t. Partly because I wanted just to move on and forget about it,” Douglas said. “At the time I just wanted to pretend like nothing ever happened.” Several student senators withdrew their questions for Douglas following her admission. Debate was one-sided and Douglas was unanimously approved as Wimberly’s chief of staff. At the end of that same meeting, a motion was called forward by student senator and chair of the legislative affairs committee Caroline Turpen to reconsider the minutes of the meeting wherein Douglas was confirmed as the executive chief of staff. The motion was seconded and with that Douglas’ confirmation would be reconsidered at the next meeting, which was held Sept. 7, 2016. During open forum Douglas spoke once more, not about her sexual assault but instead highlighting the key aspects of her resume which she believed qualified her for the position. After the open forum, senators were asked to vote on whether or not to uphold Douglas’ confirmation. If the senators voted to reconsider, Douglas’ confirmation would have been scrapped and they would have moved once more to vote on whether or not Douglas should be executive chief of staff. Turpen spoke in favor of reconsidering the confirmation, claiming Douglas “politicized her rape” which she believed in turn made senators — “especially the men” — uncomfortable with voting against Douglas. “This was a tremendous slap in the face to sexual assault victims everywhere. Whether intentionally or unintentionally — I believe it was the latter — this had the effect of politicizing her rape and
it ended up using it for political gain. So I moved to reconsider … I just need to know that [Douglas was approved] because she was a qualified candidate and not because she politicized her rape,” Turpen said. Douglas said despite years of people talking about her behind her back, calling her incompetent for her actions during the spring 2015 election season and being turned down multiple times for positions within SGA, Turpen’s comments were the most hurtful she’d endured. “That’s probably the worst thing anybody’s ever said about me,” Douglas said. “I can take calling me incompetent or whatever. I can take, ‘She manipulated the votes so that Benigno would win.’ I can take all that because it’s obviously not true. But saying something like that — that was rough.” Turpen defended her comments and said her intention was to facilitate more dialogue and discussion about Douglas’ qualifications. “I would like to be clear that my motion to reconsider was not debate against the candidate; rather I believe that the manner in which the subject was brought up had an effect of making senators feel unable to speak out because of the emotional feelings associated with rape,” Turpen said. “No fewer than 12 senators reached out to me, and I felt that it was my job to try to help their voices be heard. I felt that more dialogue should be allowed and was greatly saddened that other senators were unwilling to listen to the views of their peers.” Ultimately the majority voted not to reconsider Douglas’ May 2 confirmation, though 12 senators voted in favor of reconsideration. Wimberly, who was not present for the beginning of the Sept. 7 meeting nor the debate but was watching it on a livestream, spoke at the end of the meeting, highlighting her disgust with the treatment of Douglas throughout the process. “I was absolutely distaste to hear the claim that Emma ‘politicized her rape’ to accomplish something as trivial as a position in student government,” Wimberly said to the body. “It’s a loss for Student Senate, it’s a loss for student government, because of the comments that were made and because members of this body thought it was appropriate to make their own point by ruthlessly shaming a survivor of sexual assault.” Douglas said despite all the comments that have been brought before her following her admission during the May 2 Student Senate meeting, she does not regret telling her story. “On a bigger picture level, if this changes the direction of student government and what is allowable in student government and how personal attacks can happen, if it changes that — definitely worth it,” Douglas said. “If it allows other victims or survivors of sexual assault to see, ‘Yeah, I’m not weird, I am part of a group of people who are just moving on with their lives.’ If it helps those [people], then yeah it was definitely worth it.”
PHOT0S FOR THE 2017 AGGIELAND SEPT. 19th thru OCT. 13th Monday thru Thursday 10am - 3pm Should any student be unable to make the specified times on campus they can contact Specialties directly to set up a complimentary in-studio appointment at 979-696-9898. Any graduating seniors who wish to set up a cap/gown photo will need to contact the studio at 979-696-9898. Cap/Gown sessions cost $21.95. ALL CLASSES will be in the yearbook. Photos are taken at the SANDERS CORPS MUSEUM LIBRARY!
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