thebattalion l thursday,
september 26, 2013
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¡CALIENTE!
Cultural event celebrates Hispanic dance, music, food
Caroline Corrigan The Battalion
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ith the smell of fajitas in the air and Hispanic music in the background, the night was one that Tadeo Huerta, the president of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, said was perfect. ALPFA, an association for Hispanic business students, hosted on Wednesday the seventh annual “Caliente,” a celebratory event for Hispanic Heritage Month. The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Mexican Student Association served as co-hosts for the event and provided support to ALPFA. Huerta, senior mechanical engineering major, said Caliente is important because it is the largest and most visible event the society helps host. The event celebrated Hispanic heritage and culture at Rudder Fountain with cultural reenactments, displays, dance performances, music and food. Local restaurants sponsored and donated food for the event. There was also a jalapeño eating contest, which featured volunteers from all of the organizations. Alex Almendarez, senior accounting major and president of ALPFA, said the Hispanic organizations have grown tremendously since he first joined his freshman year. “When I joined ALPFA as a freshman there were about 20 people in it,” Almendarez said. “Now I am a senior and we have about 80-plus members. This year, we are looking to grow even more.” See Caliente on page 2
thebattalion asks
Q:
Page 2: Why is it important to celebrate Hispanic heritage?
The dance group Ballet Folklorico performs in Rudder Plaza at the Caliente event hosted by various student groups to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Photos by Jenna Rabel — THE BATTALION
SGA seeks expansion with limited funds
research
William Guerra — THE BATTALION
Relaxation is the name of the game A&M researchers gear video game for stress relief Kadie McDougald The Battalion
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exas A&M researchers are designing a video game to function as a tool to teach stress management skills, giving video games the potential to be more than just a hobby or a guilty pleasure.
With the help of students, the group of researchers created the game, “Chill-Out,” as part of a stressmanagement project. Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna, computer science professor, is the creator of “Chill-Out.” The project, “Promoting Stress Self-Regulation with Physiological Training Games,” was first thought of by Gutierrez-Osuna about three years ago after he observed the many See Video games on page 4
Shelby Knowles — THE BATTALION
Cash Fields, senior university studies major, explains why Fish Aides should be allocated funds to provide an annual banquet for all custodial members at an SGA finance committee meeting.
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t a time when Student Government Association committees are seeking to expand their impact across campus, the Student Senate finance committee is faced with the question of how to allocate the same annual $50,000 budget. In addressing this issue, the Student Senate finance committee convened Wednesday to hear appeals from various committees for a higher allocation of funds than those allotted in the current draft of the allocation bill. Among the committees present to explain why increased funding is imperative was the Muster committee, the Big Event committee,
Aggie Replant and Fish Aides. Finance chair and senior political science major, Cary Cheshire, said the meeting provided the committee with a better idea of how to fund these organizations. “It’s commendable that all of these committees want to grow,” Cheshire said. “However the amount we have to allocate does not grow every year, and we have to function under the basic rules of economics.” Aimee Breaux, city editor For the full story, go online at thebatt.com
grad students Let’s be friends
International students transition to American life Allison Rubenak
The Battalion hile many students will learn a foreign language or study abroad for a semester, few will spend their undergraduate or graduate years immersed in a university somewhere else on the globe. International graduate students make up approximately 4,000 of the more than 50,000 students at Texas A&M, said Bill Taylor, director of international student services. Having spent the majority
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of their lives in another country, this small portion of the Texas A&M population faces a level of challenges not often experienced by the average graduate student. Taylor said international graduate students must take an English proficiency test for admittance into the University and that admitted students are able to communicate well in an academic setting. “They have the ability to come to another school, speak other languages — be able to pursue physics, mathematics, engineering — and do that
in a foreign language,” Taylor said. “So they are pretty smart.” Though they have mastered academic communication, international students often face an entirely different challenge in everyday conversation. Raj Shah, computer engineering graduate student, said even though he knew English when he arrived to Texas in fall 2010, he was not accustomed to idiomatic expressions frequently See International on page 3
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