The Battalion - April 15, 2021 by The Battalion

Provost Award recipients honored Ten A&M faculty recognized with life-long titles, $5,000 By Lauren Discher @lauren_discher Recipients of the 2021 Provost Academic Professional Track Faculty Teaching Excellence Award feel excited to be among inspir-

ing honorees. Ten Texas A&M faculty members were chosen to receive the award this year, including Don Conlee, Ph.D.; Tatiana Erukhimova, Ph.D.; Simi Gunaseelan, Ph.D.; Soon Mi Lim, Ph.D.; Sharon Matthews, Ph.D.; John Murphy, J.D.; Jayne Reuben, Ph.D.; Dr. Jennifer Schleining; Kristi Shryock, Ph.D.; and Radhika Viruru, Ph.D. These individuals will be able to use their titles as award

winners for life, as long as they remain in good standing with the university. According to the Office of the Provost’s website, winners will also receive a $5,000 cash stipend. “This award encourages, recognizes and rewards faculty who provide students with meaningful learning experiences, embrace PROVOST AWARD ON PG. 2

PUBLICATION NOTICE The Battalion will publish its next print edition on Wednesday, April 21 for Texas A&M’s 2021 Campus Muster.

EDITOR’S NOTE The College Station City Council will vote on the proposed Restricted Occupancy Overlay on Monday, April 19. If you would like to speak for or against the policy at the upcoming meeting, visit tx.ag/PublicComment.

A campus club’s historic stunt Kyle Field, Bolton Hall played role in early radio history with play-by-play broadcast of rivalry football game in 1921 By Hannah Underwood @hannahbunderwoo

ithout a “stunt” pulled by Texas A&M electrical engineering students during the annual A&M-University of Texas rivalry football game in 1921, broadcast as it is known today might not exist. About 50 feet away from the War Hymn statue hundreds of A&M fans pass on game days is a monument of a different kind. A historical marker at the northeast entrance to Kyle Field describes the 1921 broadcast and the attempts at play-by-play that came before it. What began as experiments by electrical engineering students in A&M’s amateur radio club which operated under the call sign 5YA, now called W5AC, became instrumental to the current state of broadcasting, said the club’s historian David Gent, Class of 1975. “It showed what was possible,” Gent said. “Christopher Columbus didn’t sail across on a gigantic cruise ship. He didn’t have any radios or anything. But somebody has to be first.” The game in question was part of the annual rivalry series between A&M and the University of Texas, which in those days often decided the winner of the Southwest Conference. According to 12thman.com, the game resulted in a scoreless draw. On game day, Harry M. Saunders and other members of the amateur radio club executed the broadcast using their station 5XB, the “X” designating it as an experimental station. Despite the professional setting, Saunders couldn’t help but stoke the rivalry between

Abbey Santoro — THE BATTALION

A historical marker outside Kyle Field, erected in 2005, details a play-by-play broadcast of a 1921 Texas A&M - University of Texas football game.

A&M and Texas. In a 1954 article in The Battalion, Saunders described some of his press box antics meant to upset Texas fans. “Texas had a star quarterback named, I believe, Elam,” Saunders said. “In reporting some of his plays, I would send, ‘Elam passes 50 yards.’ Then after half a minute just add, ‘Incomplete.’ Or ‘Elam long end run’ and several seconds later report, ‘No gain.’ I knew these reports were giving Texas supporters at

the old play-o-graph board in Austin a bad afternoon. “At one point in the game, the University operator wired us and asked if we couldn’t be a little less biased.” The broadcast “was just like seeing the game, and lots more comfortable,” said a listener in Austin, according to the 2003 document “Early play-by-play radio broadcast of a Texas college football game” by Charles R.

Courtesy of Theresa Williams, W5AC

Texas A&M’s amateur radio club, W5AC, was founded in 1912 and has the oldest active call sign in the fifth district.

W5AC continues A&M’s amateur radio tradition A&M claims oldest college radio club title, still operating original call sign By Hannah Underwood @hannahbunderwoo As the first public institution of higher education in Texas, Texas A&M is a pioneer in many ways. A&M’s amateur radio club, called W5AC,

is an example of this. The club was involved with the 1921 playby-play broadcast of an A&M-University of Texas football game — the first of its kind by an amateur radio station. However, a commercial station in Pittsburgh beat it out to be the first in the nation. But the club’s history runs deeper than that. Founded in 1912 in Bolton Hall, W5AC is the oldest college radio club that is currently operating under its original call sign, though

there is some debate surrounding that fact. Harvard claims its radio club, W1AF, was founded in 1909, but W5AC historian David Gent, Class of 1975, said there are issues with that claim. “They did not have a station, they didn’t operate, they didn’t have a call sign in 1909,” Gent said. “What they did is they had some of their students that were interested in what was called wireless telegraphy and they met and talked about it, and they said that was the

Schultz. Although it was originally intended to be received by only the University of Texas’s club station 5XU, around 275 amateur operators ended up receiving the broadcast, Gent said. “This became much bigger than what the students thought at the beginning,” Gent said. “They thought they would just have the station in Austin wanting to know the outcome of the game, but they really had people all over listening to it.” The Bryan Daily Eagle ran a brief article announcing the game prior to the Thanksgiving Day matchup, and as a result, 5YA received “several dozen” requests from amateur operators for the list of abbreviations. “Overnight we were doing a land office business,” club member William A. “Doc” Tolson wrote in a letter posted to W5AC’s website. “We ground the mimeograph until our arms ached, and we licked envelope flaps until I can still taste it. I suspect that Dr. [F.C.] Bolton’s stamp budget was over-expended for the next three years.” The broadcast required an equal amount of effort from the listeners — a far cry from the broadcasts of today. Operators on the receiving end first had to translate Saunders’s Morse code into letters, then look at the abbreviation sheet to see what those letters and numbers meant before they understood the message. One of those operators was W.P. Clarke, call sign 5ZAF in Waco, according to Tolson’s letter. Once he discovered the broadcast he was receiving was way ahead of the Associated Press’s account of the game, Clarke put a speaker in his car and drove to the local newspaper’s office and gave the crowd there an almost-live play-by-play from Kyle Field, causing a “near riot.” “It really irritated the people at the newspaper in Waco because they were waiting for the account to come through from the Associated BROADCAST ON PG. 3

beginning of their club.” Gent said A&M’s club also has the oldest call sign still in operation in the fifth district — which encompasses Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi — and is potentially the oldest in the country. In the early days of its existence, the club used the call sign “5AC,” which makes it the third station in operation in the fifth district. “5AA” was the first, but the station ceased operation within two years, according to an excerpt from “Radio Stations of the United States” released by the federal government in 1914. The “W” did not come into use until 1928, when the Bureau of Navigation in the Department of Commerce began assigning all stations in the U.S. the prefix “W” to distinguish them internationally. As interest in amateur radio grew, stations to the east of the Mississippi River began receiving the “W” prefix and stations to the west, the “K” prefix. W5AC and local Bryan-College Station station WTAW, which also has its roots at Bolton Hall, are now outliers in modern radio because they have the prefix “W” despite being located west of the Mississippi River, Gent said. “Most people today have no idea just what a treasure we have in having the oldest call sign, just like most people that listen to the radio today have no idea how much of a pioneer WTAW was, having a ‘W’ instead of a ‘K’ like everybody else,” Gent said.

Lending a helping hand Throughout its 109-year history, W5AC has taken part in communications for various natural disasters and emergency events such as hurricanes, earthquakes and a revolt in Nicaragua. However, Gent said one of his most “priceless” memories during his time at A&M was helping soldiers in the Vietnam War contact their families during his freshman and sophomore years. Using what was called a phone patch, an operator on a military base camp would call out over a frequency for amateur operators located near a soldier’s hometown. Once an operator was contacted, the soldier would provide a phone number for them to call. The operator would call the requested number and W5AC ON PG. 5

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Collage by Abbey Santoro — THE BATTALION, Photos via cte.tamu.edu

Ten Texas A&M faculty members were honored with 2021 Provost Academic Professional Track Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards.

PROVOST AWARD CONTINUED effective teaching approaches and value student-centered learning,” the website reads. Although law professor John Murphy said he never planned on teaching as a profession, he’s grown to love it over time. “I always wanted to be a lawyer,” Murphy said. “So when I was in law school, if you had asked me, ‘Do you ever want to come back and teach law school?,’ I would have said, ‘No.’” After he received his Juris Doctor, Murphy said he practiced law and was “living the dream,” before burning out quickly. After a colleague tried teaching twice, he said he followed suit and enjoyed it on the second try. “Mostly, I teach first-year law students, but in the past, I’ve also taught advanced legal

writing in the form of appellate advocacy,” Murphy said. “I’ve taught remedial legal reasoning skills, and now I teach students to get ready for the exam right before they graduate.” In response to receiving the 2021 Provost Academic Professional Track Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, Murphy said he feels honored to be among such deserving recipients. “I work with a talented group of people and probably don’t deserve this,” Murphy said. “It’s truly humbling.” Pharmacology professor Jayne Reuben also said she didn’t see herself as a professor, despite being raised in a family of academics. “My father was president of Morris College, which is a small [historically Black college] in Sumter, South Carolina, and my mother was an academician as well,” Reuben said. “I have

siblings who are former provost and dean, so it’s kind of in our blood.” Although she initially fought against the path of teaching, Reuben said she has found it enjoyable. “I’m from South Carolina originally and went to Congress College, which was a small woman’s college at the time,” Reuben said. “[I] majored in chemistry, but I really was interested in how I could apply my knowledge of chemistry to help improve quality of life.” After graduating, Reuben said she went on to pursue a doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences with a specialization in pharmacology and toxicology. She said she then studied forestry at A&M for a short time. “I left to start a medical school in my state of South Carolina, the University of South Carolina,” Reuben said. “I was one of the founding faculty members for that school where we

have created an integrated curriculum.” Reuben’s biggest interest, she said, is in pharmacology. “Pharmacology is powerful,” Reuben said. “Medications are powerful, and they can have an adverse effect on people’s lives depending on how you use them, so a lot of what I focus on is safe prescribing of medication.” Upon receiving the award, Reuben said it is nice to be recognized for the work she has done. “The awardees are just really inspiring to me as I read their profiles,” Reuben said. “Thinking about all the things that they’ve done, it is such a humbling experience to be included. I’m very excited and honored for the recognition.” For a full list and biography of each award winner, visit tx.ag/ProvostAward.

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BROADCAST CONTINUED Press telegraph, which of course was not live,” Gent said. “Everybody in Waco started listening to the account of the game that we were sending.”

Courtesy of David Gent, W5AC

Amateur radio operators often trade contact confirmation cards, also called QSL cards, after making contact with each other.

The 1921 broadcast wouldn’t have been possible without the groundwork laid by David J. Finn in 1920, when he attempted to make A&M’s amateur radio club the first to deliver a college play-by-play for the Aggies’ game at Oklahoma A&M, now known as Oklahoma State. The game was Finn’s second attempt at play-by-play, according to Schultz’s document. In the Aggies’ previous game against SMU in Dallas, he had arranged for a telephone hookup between SMU’s stadium and a stock-judging pavilion on Texas A&M’s campus. For 35 cents a piece, A&M fans could hear live reports of the game from A&M students Othman C. Thompson and Arthur C. Keith through an amplifier Finn had installed at the pavilion. On a miniature football field he designed in the pavilion, Finn demonstrated each play relayed by Thompson and Keith. That first attempt wasn’t enough for Finn, though, and he decided to change up the format of the broadcast for the Oklahoma A&M game. He arranged for a ham operator in Blackwell, Okla., call sign 5ZZ, to send wireless reports to 5YA, which was housed in the Electrical Engineering Building, now Bolton Hall. There, Tolson and Joe Woods would await the reports, and once received, Aubrey S. Legg would deliver a transcription of the plays to the waiting A&M fans at the pavilion. The endeavor was ultimately a failure, though, as 5YA was unable to “raise” the Oklahoma station, according to Schultz’s

document; Finn had to settle for telephone reports from A&M alum “Bean” Harkrider. “Nothing is said in the reports of this event about a special code or set of abbreviations for the transmission,” the document reads. “Thus, it was not likely intended to be a true play-by-play account but probably similar to the frequent summaries sent by the Associated Press to newspapers.” Although Finn didn’t achieve his goal, the effort was far from over. With lessons learned from his predecessor, Tolson took over the reins when Finn graduated. After Finn’s attempts, A&M’s amateur radio club received so many requests to provide the final score of the Thanksgiving Day game to stations across the southwest that Tolson and his cohorts decided to go all-in and provide play-by-play in real-time, according to a Nov. 26, 1953, article in The Battalion. First, for this to be possible, the students needed a transmitter. They had to make it themselves.

window, where it had been carelessly placed by someone. When the fan was retrieved from the sidewalk, it was found that the blades were hopelessly damaged. There was no reason, however, why the motor could not serve a useful purpose as the prime mover for a rotary spark gap.” New hurdles were leapt on the way to the finish line of a live broadcast. With most of their equipment housed at Bolton Hall, which now houses the Department of Communication, they had no way to control their transmitter from Kyle Field. And since vocal broadcasts weren’t yet plausible, they had to rely on Morse code to relay each play of the game. Typing each individual letter of every word would take too much time, so they needed a way to quickly transmit the information. To solve their first issue, the students decided to run a pair of twisted wires, obtained from the Signal Corps, from the then-Electrical Engineering Building to Kyle Field, where Saunders would operate the key on game day.

Courtesy of David Gent, W5AC

The early setup of W5AC included a pair of 175-foot antennas on top of Bolton Hall and Legett Hall.

The club members started by stealing a high-voltage transformer from Professor O.B. Wooten’s office that had been built by twoyear engineering students, according to a letter written by Tolson. There, the plan hit a snag. The transmitter needed a motor. An electric desk fan with a “beautiful overgrown motor” in Professor W.G. James’s office was perfect for the job, but James refused to allow his fan to be placed in winter storage until the weather got cool. Fate lent the students a hand. “If my memory does not play me tricks, fate intervened in favor of science,” Tolson said in a Nov. 8, 1979, article in The Battalion. “It seems that the fan accidentally fell out of the

The abbreviations absent from the 1920 attempt — which kept it from being a “true” play-by-play account — were a key part of the 1921 broadcast and helped in solving the club’s second issue to make play-by-play a reality. Saunders worked with an assistant of thenhead football coach Dana X. Bible to create the code, according to Tolson’s letter. Saunders’s abbreviations would speed up the transmission of the plays and be able to keep up with the pace of the game. “Harry was by far our best operator, having had considerable experience as an A.P. operator, and he had a beautiful ‘fist,’” Tolson wrote in 1947. “He was an enthusiastic ham,

and we sat out many a watch together until the wee sma’ hours when we got tangled with a real DX station.” Saunders and Bible’s assistant created a list of shorthand to describe each gametime scenario. A message of “TB A 45 Y” meant “Texas’s ball on the Aggies’ 45-yard line,” and “T FP 8Y L” meant “Texas forward pass for an eight-yard loss.” Once the students had set up the key at Kyle Field, they ran into another issue. Without a receiver on his end, Saunders couldn’t hear what he typed into the key. “Most radio operators and telegraph operators have to hear what they’re sending,” Gent said. “Otherwise, they’re just tapping, and they hope they get it right.” The solution to this issue was simple. The students wired a receiver from Bolton Hall to Kyle Field so Saunders could hear the feedback of the transmission. That made the setup “perfect,” Tolson wrote. Although the broadcast was historic for A&M, it missed out on being the first of its kind by just a month. In October of 1921, Pittsburgh commercial station KDKA broadcast a college football game between Pittsburgh and West Virginia, becoming the first to do so. However, A&M still made history as its broadcast was the first done by an amateur station, Gent said, sparking an increase in interest in live radio broadcasting. “People liked the idea of getting live accounts of things,” Gent said. “Football is just one of them, but it rapidly moved to election returns or crop reports or weather. Imagine today if you didn’t get weather reports on time, if you found out two days later what the weather forecast was. It was information that people wanted to get, and they didn’t want to wait. Once they saw that it was possible, they didn’t want to wait.” The A&M amateur radio club’s stint with sportscasting essentially ended after that 1921 broadcast, Gent said, because the club knew its role was remaining in the amateur side of radio rather than branching out and commercializing the business. “People had to see a demonstration of what was possible, and that’s where we played a part,” Gent said. “We had something that nobody had ever thought about doing. And then after that, other people did it.”

For more information on A&M’s amateur radio club, W5AC, visit w5ac.tamu.edu.

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As of March 29, COVID-19 vaccination eligibility is open to all adults in Texas.

Students, professors respond to expanded vaccine eligibility Texas has opened COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to all adults By Jack Corrales @JackCorrales11 On March 29, COVID-19 vaccines were opened to all adults in Texas, as stated on the Texas Department of State Health Services website, making it easier for Texas A&M students to receive the vaccine. Oceanography junior Christopher Crain said he took advantage of this new availability and received the Pfizer vaccine at A&M’s All Faiths Chapel on April 5. “It wasn’t difficult at all,” Crain said. “I just walked up, they gave me some forms to fill out. [It] took five minutes to go there, and they just checked me in and gave me the shot.” Before this announcement, it was harder to get the vaccine, said business freshman Adriana Pueskens, who also

received her vaccine at the All Faiths Chapel. “I had tried to get the vaccine before they made it more available for college students,” Pueskens said. “I was on the waitlist in my hometown, and I had been put on the waitlist at local distributors such as CVS and H-E-B.” Pueskens said she is happy vaccines have been made more accessible to the general public. “I’m glad that the newest round of vaccines have been more available to Texas A&M and other college students,” Pueskens said. “The vaccination process at All Faiths Chapel was very convenient and efficient, so I’m glad I made the choice to get vaccinated there.” The vaccine did have side effects, said Andy Weaver, an accounting professor who has received both of his doses. “The first vaccine wasn’t very bad; I felt a little tired for a couple of days, but no other noticeable symptoms,” Weav-

o May Minimester classes begin May 17 o Summer I classes begin June 7 o Summer II classes begin July 12 o Fall classes begin August 30

er said. “The second vaccine triggered a flu-like reaction a little over 12 hours after receiving it, [and] I had a fever and chills but slept under an electric blanket for a few hours and felt better in [the] morning, though I was a little tired again for a couple of days.” Even after receiving his first vaccination, Crain said he continues to wear his mask while in public. “I still go out and wear masks whenever I go out to a grocery store, or I’m out in public,” Crain said. “I’m a little more relaxed than before whenever I’m seeing friends or people like that, but when I go out in public to actual stores and businesses I still wear masks.” Weaver said he and his family are excited for the additional vaccines becoming available. “My wife and I have received both doses and look forward to approval for younger persons since our son is only 13,” Weaver said. “ I encourage everyone, including students, to get vaccinated as soon as they can.”

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W5AC CONTINUED allow a channel for soldiers and their loved ones to communicate. “After a minute or so, they’d forget that we were there,” Gent said. “They’d just talk like you would expect if you had just talked to a loved one for the first time in months, maybe years.” The club didn’t just help soldiers contact their loved ones. Then-W5AC member Maria Madrano from Cochabamba, Bolivia, had a radio license from Bolivia and used the club’s equipment to call home. Her friends began doing the same, and the news that W5AC could make international calls spread from there. Soon, the club was flooded with students wanting to call their families. “We used to spend hours up there doing that for our students,” Gent said. “Of course, we can’t collect any money, and we didn’t want any money. We just wanted to give them a taste from home.” Gent said during his time at A&M, he communicated with amateur operators from all across the world, trading contact confirmation, or QSL cards with those he contacted. Gent said the connections he made with people around the world helped him learn geography as he tracked the countries he had reached. As a student, Gent also helped with communications during the Student Bonfire season to determine which cut sites needed supplies, such as chainsaws, and with patient transport when the new St. Joseph’s hospital

was built. His expertise at amateur radio also allowed him to work on communications at the Bryan Christmas Parade until 2015.

Continuing tradition through COVID-19 In a much different setup than it had in 1921 when a pair of 175-foot antennas sat atop Bolton and Legett Halls, W5AC’s shack is currently housed behind Century Square near Hensel Park. Due to COVID-19 gathering restrictions for organizations on campus, W5AC hasn’t been able to return to full operation from its shack since before the 2020 Spring Break. “We’re like the swimming team without a pool or a basketball team with no court,” Gent said. “We have students that are interested, but there’s a lot that we can’t do.” Despite the limitations COVID-19 has placed on the club, recruiting new members hasn’t been a difficult task. In fact, fourth year member and chemical engineering senior Jace Nelson said the club is seeing more students interested in joining the club than before the pandemic. The club used to get a few emails a month from people interested in taking the technician license exam, which the club conducts, but Nelson said students looking to join the club began emailing almost daily last summer. “During the pandemic, things went quiet for the first few months, but over the summer sometime, we started receiving emails basically every day from one person or another,” Nelson said. “Interest has actually gone up a little bit, especially from people who want to

l a u e Per tion Mo

tions like WTAW or KANM typically feature just one personality speaking over the airwaves to an unknown number of listeners, W5AC and other amateur stations provide two-way communication between operators. “Amateur radio does not mean less quality than professional. What it means is you do not collect money for it,” Gent said. “All of the Olympics were amateur — you were not allowed to be a professional. In the early days, professionals were not considered the best. It was the amateurs that were the best. Our term ‘amateur radio’ today, people think we know less about it than the people that work at the broadcast station, but actually the inverse is true.” Although it played a hand in the early days of sports broadcast, the club essentially abandoned the practice almost immediately after its first successful attempt during the 1921 rivalry game between A&M and the University of Texas. However, Gent said that is not a fault of the club — instead, it shows the students’ commitment to the heart of amateur radio. “This was our Thanksgiving game so it was the last one of the season, but I’m sure everybody went home and said, ‘We should do this for every game.’ … And then the market was recognized by commercial people, and they started making things and putting things in place. That’s why we didn’t continue with it,” Gent said. “It’s not our place to sell radios. We’re amateurs. But we develop it. We show it can be done. That’s what we do.”

take command and help people out by volunteering or by people who just want to be prepared in case something happens.” Nelson said the increase in interest goes back to the club’s history of serving others. Even amid the pandemic, there have been plenty of opportunities for the club to help the Bryan-College Station community. “Especially with the various weather things that have happened over the last year and a half or two, between the wildfires in California and Australia, the tornado outbreak in the north, what’s happening today in Louisiana, as well as the ice storm in Texas a couple weeks ago, I think a lot of people are seeing these kinds of things and saying, ‘How can I help others?’” Nelson said. “Ham radio is just one way to give back.”

Role of amateur radio Although social media has paved the way for a more-connected world, the role of amateur radio is “invaluable,” Gent said. “To be able to talk to somebody in Germany or Russia or Japan all in the same day, that was magical,” Gent said. “People say, ‘Oh, I can email them.’ But who do you know over there? See, I don’t have to know somebody in Japan. I can get on and listen and I can call for a station in Japan, and if somebody over there wants to talk to me, they’ll answer … You can’t do that over email. You can maybe do that on a message board where you post something and somebody answers back.” Though its name suggests otherwise, Gent said amateur radio is not to be taken any less seriously than professional radio. While sta-

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23 25 Kind of center 27 Solo in space 28 European 30 freshwater fish 32 Free from restraint 35 Book of Judges 37 prophetess 39

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OPINION

The Battalion | 4.15.21

Via Unsplashed

Opinion writer Zach Freeman says people should show support for Texas House Bill 1686.

The fight for more perfect poultry policies Opinion writer Zach Freeman says College Station City Council’s recent chicken-keeping legislation will help community

Zach Freeman @ZachAtBatt

rowing up, some of my earliest memories involve chickens, specifically how clear their kinship with velociraptors is from the perspective of a five-year-old. Not only will they chase you down, they will enjoy the sport of it. Despite my trauma, I learned to love the little cluckers. My family kept backyard poultry for big portions of my life in rural and semi-rural settings, so I was interested when I heard the city council discussing the topic during a recent meeting. On March 22, the College Station City Council decided to reduce the minimum distance between chicken enclosures and adjacent houses from 100 feet to 50. The council also put a limit on the number of domestic fowl one could have to six. If any complaints are filed by neighbors, residents’ permits are subject

to revocation. Currently, College Station requires a permit for chickens outside of rural zones, Wellborn estate zones and estate zones. A currently pending state proposal, Texas House Bill 1686, will allow six or fewer chickens or rabbits and three or fewer beehives on any Texas property. If passed, the bill would still allow College Station to uphold its distance limitations and its prohibition of roosters. The proposed bill is the perfect solution for College Station residents afraid of running afoul of city ordinances. Without the extra paperwork and fees of city permits, citizens will feel more incentivized to keep birds, rabbits and bees. Chicken-keeping is a fantastic way to establish a more interconnected self-sufficient community. On a good day, six chickens will leave you with a half-dozen eggs. Most families will have more eggs than they know what to do with, resulting in them sharing the wealth with

their neighbors. Chickens are also great conversation starters, and will likely make all the miniature-dinosaur enthusiasts on your block take notice. After all, birds of a feather flock together. Community building is vital in a time when fewer Americans know their neighbors than ever. Keeping chickens also encourages people to do away with the environmental malpractice of cookie-cutter American lawns. Chickens keep pest populations in-check and naturally till the earth. By strategically moving these bird-dozers around your yard, you can prepare a small plot of land for gardening with little effort. Poultry will also eat any leftovers that would otherwise go to waste. The end result is a true golden egg for any gardeners or regenerative agriculturists. Chicken poop can be composted into an effective and free fertilizer. Finally, backyard chickens offer a safer, more sustainable alternative to factory farming. There is less risk of the

spread of diseases and antibiotic resistant bacteria from small-scale chicken husbandry. Additionally, factory farming of poultry is one of the largest sources of water pollution in this country. Smaller operations can better manage their waste outputs, preventing ecological disasters we’ve seen in East Texas. The city council was right to allow homes with smaller yards to have chickens. Proposed TX House Bill 1686 makes me even more hopeful, though. Every Texas household should have the opportunity to reap the rewards of chicken-keeping. Eliminating pesky permits will bring us closer to a vision where sustainable home agriculture is commonplace. It’s cliche, but I encourage all of you, to call your congressperson, reach out to your local representatives and show your support for Texas House Bill 1686. Zachary Freeman is an anthropology junior and opinion columnist for The Battalion.

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