thebattalion l monday,
september 16, 2013
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soccer
Receiver Mike Evans, shown celebrating his 95-yard touchdown catch, hauled in 279 yards Saturday, but downplayed his performance, saying it “wasn’t enough.”
Jonathon Sheen — THE BATTALION
Freshman forward Liz Keester scored A&M’s opening goal Sunday against Cal Poly.
Photos by Tanner Garza — THE BATTALION
’BAMA KNOWS MIKE
Evans remains humble despite record-setting day Sean Lester The Battalion
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exas A&M wide receiver Mike Evans departed Kyle Field Saturday exhausted, requiring intravenous fluids and oxygen just to make a late appearance at the post-game press conference. Evans’ effort, though, paid off in his stat line, as he completed the biggest day from any Aggie wide receiver in program history. “I gave it all I had,” Evans said. “I caught cramps at the end of the fourth. I feel kind of beat up, like I played a whole season.” Finishing with a school record 279 receiving yards, Evans did it all against the top-ranked Crimson Tide. Combined with a former career-best 155 yards receiving last week against Sam Houston State, Evans has emerged as the nation’s leading wide receiver, accumulating 518 yards over three games. See Evans on page 1
syrian civil war
Syrian student shares conflict perspective Family among millions forced to relocate due to violence
While his father still lives and works in Damascus, Syria’s capital, his mother and sister moved to Lebanon to escape from the violence in the region. “Because of the situation and security, it is not
Annabelle Hutchinson The Battalion
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hile most A&M students have watched news on the Syrian conflict unfold on their TV screens, an international student from Syria gets a firsthand account of the crisis every time he speaks to his family late at night. The Student — who requested to remain anonymous for personal reasons — and his family have a firsthand experience with the conflict, which has been waging for over two years between the Syrian government and the civilian opposition. The United Nations estimate that more than 100,000 have been killed in the conflict and about two million have fled from the country because of the violence. The Student said he left Syria before the revolution began to study engineering at A&M. His main concern has not been whether or not the United States will intervene, but about his family and the lives of his fellow Syrians.
Graphic by William Guerra — THE BATTALION
Graph indicates the approximate apportionment of Syrian refugees to neighboring areas, based on UN data.
safe to live in Syria anymore so they moved to Lebanon,” he said. “All of my family left. Everyone left.” More than this, he said the conflict has relocated many all over the globe. “I don’t have any friends in Syria anymore,” he said. “They went everywhere from Cyprus, Canada, London and Turkey.” The Student said his father, who recently found out a manager at his job was kidnapped and held for ransom, now works at home to avoid the threat of violence. Even so, he said his family is doing well, especially in relation to the two million refugees who have fled Syria and the thousands who have been internally displaced within the country’s borders. “I’ve heard stories about middle class people that lost their houses when one missile came to the building,” he said. “Thank God they were not in the building. But in like one minute, everything was gone and they were refugees. They went from middle class to nothing.” The Student said he is able to keep in contact with his family regularly, with some exceptions. See Syria on page 3
student government association
A&M thrashes Cal Poly, UMass Monogue scores twice in 4-0 Sunday romp over Cal Poly Clay Koepke
Special to The Battalion fter a strong start to the weekend with a 3-1 Friday win over UMass, No. 20 A&M passed its final weekend test with a 4-0 win Sunday against Cal Poly. Rachel Lenz and the Aggie defense were all but unaware of the challenges they would face when taking on the nation’s No. 1 attacking team and leading scorer, Elise Krieghoff. “We’d seen film, and we knew that [Krieghoff] was their leading scorer,” Lenz said. “I mean, she is the nation’s leading scorer — ten goals in four games, which is awesome for her. So we had to give her respect and know that she was good and force her to play to our advantages, so we just knew that we weren’t going to let her have a sniff at the goal.” Following a 0-0 defensive bout in the first half, the Aggies came out on fire in the second half when freshman forward Liz Keester scorched the nylon with an upper-90 shot from inside the 18. The 54th-minute goal set the pace for the Aggies, and the goals started rolling in. After the ignition goal from Keester, junior Kelly Monogue found the back of the net, giving the Aggies a 2-0 edge over the Mustangs with 35:12 remaining in the second half, but she wouldn’t be finished. Following a red card in the box, junior forward Shea Groom stepped up once again, tucking the ball into the side netting to give A&M a 3-0 lead. In the 68th minute of action, Monogue put the dagger in the coffin with her sixth goal of the season, putting the Aggies on top for what would be the final score of 4-0. “The keeper had been bobbling a lot of balls, so she hit the ball out and I was there to tap it in,” Monogue said. For some Aggies, Friday night was full of anticipation for what would come on the gridiron the follow-
A
See Soccer on page 4
File period for fall SGA election opens Monday Runoff-free system enters second year Homer Segovia
Special to The Battalion
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he opportunity to choose student senators for the 66th session will return with the opening of a filing period for the fall election cycle. Filing begins at 10 a.m. on Monday and will continue until Friday. A mandatory candidates’ meeting will then be held Sept. 22, followed by a week of campaigning. Voting will open on Sept. 26 and continue to Sept 27. Results will be announced that Friday night. Allison Krenzien, election commissioner and senior biomedical sciences major, said the election process is designed to avoid runoff elections that take place when there is no majority between candidates. Krenzien
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said candidates are ranked from most preferred to least preferred. “Those with the least amount of No. 1 votes will be eliminated and their ballots are then recounted, with their vote being reassigned to the number two choice on those ballots,” Krenzien said. “This process essentially eliminates runoff.” A total of 13 seats are vacant for this election cycle, including two seats reserved for freshmen at the start of each year. Former student senator and senior agricultural leadership and development major ,Robbie Cimmino, gave some insight as to why seats may be vacant. “The most common reason is due to absences, in which case they’re removed from the senate. Graduation is another,” Cimmino said. “One extremely uncommon reason is that students would run for senate, vote on whatever issue they wanted to vote on and then leave.” Campaigning begins Sept. 23 and a period of modified campaigning
and voting begins Sept. 26. During the general campaigning period, students can pass out fliers and make themselves known, but during the modified campaigning period, students will no longer be able to hand out fliers, and signs will have to explicitly state voting is open. Cimmino said the experience of campaigning for Student Senate was unique. “When you campaign, there are people that desperately want you to win,” Cimmino said. “It was interesting to talk to complete strangers and get them motivated to vote for you. It was cool to see.” This is the second year fall Student Senate vacancy seats are filled through an election process, as the previous method was through an application. Christopher Russo, speaker of Student Senate and aerospace engineering graduate student, explained how senate responded to student feedback on the application process.
“There were a lot of accusations that these processes were not carried out correctly or thoroughly enough, so it was decided in the 64th session that it would be easier to fill vacancies through fall elections,” Russo said. Russo said students with the desire to serve and gain exposure to the way campus, city and state government works should run for a vacancy spot. “The Student Senate is a very good leadership opportunity and an opportunity to change our campus for the better,” Russo said. Students interested in filling a vacancy for the Student Senate or any other position must go online at election.tamu.edu and pay a $10 filing fee.
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Page 2: What did you think about Alabama fans and their interactions with Aggies on Saturday?
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