WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2017 STUDENT MEDIA
The Academic Building may soon become an official Lego set thanks to doctoral candidate Luke Lyons.
TRADITION IN MINIATURE Cassie Stricker — THE BATTALION
A&M Ph.D. student brings campus home with Lego Academic Building By Sanna Bhai @bhaisanna Luke Lyons, a doctoral student for the department of education, said he wanted to see the Academic Building more than just everyday when he walked through campus — he wanted to have a piece of it at home. With that desire in mind, Lyons built a Lego model of the Academic Building over a two year period with over 3,000 pieces of Legos. Now Lyons is gaining support to have his miniature Acadmeic Building become an official Lego set. The university model needs 10,000 votes to get approved and at time of
press has 1,027 votes. As of now he has 6 mothnds to reach 5,00 votes. If he hits that goal, his timeframe to reach the 10,000 votes will be extended. If the set reaches its goal, it will be reviewed by the Lego Review Board, consisting of set designers and marketing representatives, who will evaluate the project and then hand pick certain designs to be made into official sets. In 2015, Lyons created a Lego model of the 1930 Navasota High School, which now serves as the administration building of the district where he once taught high school biology. Now his second custom design is the Academic Building. “I just decided that I wanted to do something A&M,” Lyons said. “Everyday I would walk past the Academic Building and I just decided ‘Yup, I’m gonna build that.’ It is the center of campus. It is iconic.”
Building things with Legos has been a hobby for Lyons since he was a child, it continued to grow through the years. Kenneth Flemings, doctoral student in the College of Education as well as a friend and colleague of Lyons, said that even as an undergrad Lyons was part of the 12th Man Student Foundation and knew everything about the Academic Building, which sparked his desire to make another building of Legos. “He would take [prospective students] out and give them a campus tour of all the facilities and tell them all the stories and legends and traditions,” Fleming said. “He became the go to guy for it. Then he kind of got an itch for building another building and he knew a lot of the history behind the Academic Building.” Maria Lyons, wife of Luke Lyons and academic advisor for the College of Biomedical Engineering, said making Legos is Luke Ly-
ons’ outlet from school. “At the end of the day, it is one of those things that it’s just a hobby,” Maria Lyons said. “He is a Ph.D. student and it’s one of those that he needs as an escape from his writing.” This design features everything from the Liberty Bell to the university seal. Every intricate detail that is etched in the Academic Building is seen in this design. Creating this type of model allows an escape from school work, while still keeping your mind active, according to Luke Lyons. “This was my stress relief from my studies,” Luke Lyons said. “Lego was kind of like my creative escape so my mind stayed active and a lot of times during this process was when I would get an idea for a research project I wanted to attempt, a lesson that I wanted to LEGOS ON PG. 2
Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION
Main campus had no air conditioning for the better part of Tuesday, Sept. 26 after a fire started in the power plant on the east side of campus before 6:30 a.m., which shut off the cooling system.
BRIEF
C. Morgan Engel — THE BATTALION
True freshman Kellen Mond received the position after starting quarterback Nick Starkel became injured. Mond finised the UCLA game and started the three subsequent games.
Freshman star continues growth despite a rough start to season By Alex Miller @AlexMill20 To say Kellen Mond has transformed into an entirely different player in just four weeks time may be an understatement. Less than a month ago, the true freshman quarterback was thrust onto the field in primetime at the Rose Bowl after Nick Starkel suffered an ankle injury. His opening act was rough, going 3-for-17 and 27 yards. Mond was unable to win, as the Aggies squandered a 34-point lead to UCLA — the second-largest comeback in college football. Shades of that shameful Sunday were seldom seen from Mond this past Satur-
day in Texas A&M’s 50-43 overtime win over Arkansas. “He was kind of tossed into the fire as a true freshman. He was just pushed in there and had to go into the game at a big-time moment,” sophomore running back Trayveon Williams said at Tuesday’s press conference. “Now he has a different look in his eyes, he looks at the game from a whole other aspect, he’s become way more vocal, he’s becoming just a leader he was born to be.” A&M trailed the Razorbacks six times, and Mond helped the Aggies come back from each deficit. “I’ve seen a lot of improvement just off his mindset and how he goes into MOND ON PG. 4
FIRE IN POWER PLANT CAUSES NO A/C The cooling system failed on main campus Sept. 26, creating discomfort for students, faculty and staff. The standing heat in yesterday’s classrooms across east portion of campus between Wellborn and Texas Ave. was due to a small electrical fire before 6:30 a.m. at the central utilities plant. Karen Bigley, communications manager for the division of finance and operations, said that everything was back up and running by noon, and by approximately 3:30 p.m. the buildings affected were back to their normal temperatures of 70 to 75 degrees. Bigley said the crews immediately extinguished the fire and began running undamaged portions of the system on an alternative energy source. “That fire took out power to the chilled water system,” Bigley said. “So they brought up some of the chilled water system on an alternate power source, until they could correct the problem where the electrical fire had happened, and then they brought up the
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rest of the system.” The unit runs on a chilled water system rather than individual central air conditioners. “The chilled water system is a little different than your traditional air conditioner,” Bigley said. “Chilled water actually circulates through the campus to cool the buildings. It’s not like at an apartment or a house where there is an individual air conditioning unit for a building.” Rangeland ecology and management junior Eric Lindley said the heat and humidity became difficult to bear in classrooms and some professors even canceled class because of it. “In my architecture class, my first class of the day, it was so hot in there that I couldn’t pay attention,” Lindley said. “I literally was sitting there sweating and I couldn’t focus because I was so worried about getting my paper wet or something like that. It was that bad.” — By Katie Garcia & Savannah Mehrtens
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