The Battalion - April 1, 2021 by The Battalion

Silver Taps

Claudio Romero Nov. 12, 1999 - Feb. 11, 2021

Benson Chan March 26, 2000 - March 11, 2021

WILD ART

Photos by Abbey Santoro — THE BATTALION

PROVIDED

Members of the Asian Presidents’ Council reflect on identity in response to the Atlanta shootings.

Texas A&M baseball defeated No. 5 Texas 2-0 on March 30. The Aggies, who have an 18-9 record at time of publication, currently lead the NCAA in total shutouts with five.

Asian American student leaders reflect on Atlanta spa shootings Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Aggies condemn anti-Asian hatred, discuss dangers of stereotypes By Kathryn Miller @Kathrynmiller0

n light of the recent anti-Asian attacks in Atlanta, Asian Pacific Islander Desi American, or APIDA, students reflect and give insight into their personal experiences growing up as members of this marginalized community. On March 16, a series of shootings occurred at three massage parlors in Atlanta. The rampage killed eight people, six of whom were Asian. While authorities state the motivations of the suspect are still unknown, many believe the incident was an anti-Asian hate crime. Texas A&M’s Asian Presidents’ Council, or APC, President Ritika Gangarapu said she

believes the March 16 rampage was a racially motivated hate crime. The police statement that the shooter’s motivations were derived from a “sex addiction” calls for the public to empathize with the shooter, Gangarapu said. “[Law enforcement stating] the shooter ‘had a bad day’ left a very poor taste in my mouth,” Gangarapu said. “The shooting demonstrated how dangerous the stereotypes surrounding Asian women can be. In the media, Asian women are often sexualized and seen as meek and subservient individuals with no sense of self. This can make it really easy for others to dehumanize them.” Despite growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood, Gangarapu said her family ensured she was involved in her local Indian community. Since coming to A&M, Gangarapu said she has met many people who have helped further her journey in developing a stronger sense of self and growing her cultural identity. “I grew up listening to people mocking Indian accents, making fun of ethnic foods and calling me a terrorist,” Gangarapu said. “Since coming to Texas A&M, the dis-

crimination I’ve faced is more subtle but still prevalent. I’ve had people comment on how good my English is and been in classes where students have mocked my [teaching assistant]’s accent.” These instances, along with the feeling of constant pressure to meet peer expectations of being the model minority student, have had a negative effect on her mental health, Gangarapu said. International studies sophomore and APC intern Stella Lee said the recent shooting heightened her fears and anxieties of being an APIDA woman. She said the “sex addiction” comment augments the constant degrading rhetoric from racially dominant groups about the APIDA community. “Having an Asian community through APC means that I can help others embrace the APIDA community present on campus,” Lee said. “The contrast from high school to college can be a big jump, but having APC and the APIDA community [at A&M] feels like I can have my home community with APIDA ON PG. 4

Campus Muster makes comeback

FILE

Although lighting candles is a tradition for each Muster, lit candles will not be permitted for Aggies attending the live-stream event in Kyle Field.

Kyle Field hosting Aggies for live-stream of Muster ceremony By Julia Potts @juliaapotts Returning to some pre-COVID-19 nor-

malcy, Aggies will gather for the 2021 campus Muster in Kyle Field to watch a livestream of the ceremony. The ceremony will occur in its usual venue in Reed Arena on April 21, with only the honored families, members of the Class of 1971, the Ross Volunteers and event speakers present. Kyle Field will open at 5 p.m. for

all other attendees, and the ceremony begins at 7 p.m. The seating at Kyle Field will be first come, first served, and free parking will be available in Lots 48 and 62. Those in attendance are required to wear masks, maintain social distancing and adhere to all A&M and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, COVID-19 health protocols. “Texas A&M and Campus Muster are dedicated to the safety and health of all Aggies. CDC and Texas A&M [COVID]-19 safety guidelines will be enforced at all times during the 2021 Campus Muster Ceremony,” the Muster website reads. Only clear bags will be allowed in Kyle Field, and lit candles, which are part of the typical Muster tradition, will not be allowed at the live stream viewing. Those who cannot attend in person can watch the live stream of the event online at Muster Live. In a March 30 press release, Muster Chair Lauren Kraus said the number one priority of the ceremony is to honor the families and the fallen Aggies. “We are thankful to our Texas A&M partners as they helped us open this way for our peers to safely engage with the ceremony,” Kraus said. “Kyle Field participants will feel as if they are right with our honored families on the floor of Reed Arena. We know the act of gathering in person somewhere with fellow Aggies feels just as part of the Muster tradition as a solemn ‘here.’ We are excited to broaden Muster to meet this current moment.”

Via today.tamu.edu

Kathy Banks will be the second woman to be A&M president in university history.

Kathy Banks to serve as 26th A&M president Board of Regents unanimously confirms new university president By Julia Potts @juliaapotts Vice Chancellor of Engineering and Dean of the Texas A&M College of Engineering M. Katherine Banks, Ph.D., will serve as the university’s 26th president beginning June 1. The A&M Board of Regents confirmed her position in a March 31 press release from the university system nearly three weeks after she was deemed the sole finalist in the search for the next A&M president. In addition to her position as president of the university, she will also serve as the vice chancellor of National Security Strategic Initiatives. Regent chairman Elaine Mendoza said the Board unanimously confirmed Banks for the position. “With her decade of accomplishments evident right here on campus, Dr. Banks will be ready and able to move forward from day one,” Mendoza said in the press release. “Texas A&M is a great university and under her leadership, we are expecting it to be even greater; we are excited to see this next chapter unfold.” System Chancellor John Sharp said Banks’ work in the College of Engineering shows her potential to improve the university as a whole. “We have all worked with Dr. Banks for many years and we know what she has done to transform our engineering college, which this week the U.S. News & World Report ranked as the best in Texas,” Sharp said. “Dr. Banks is going to do for the university what she has already done for engineering.” In a message from the Office of the President, A&M interim President John Junkins thanked the search committee and congratulated Banks on her new position. “I truly believe this is the beginning of a KATHY BANKS ON PG. 2

SILVERTAPS

The Battalion | 4.1.21

Silver Taps March 26, 2000 - March 11, 2021

BENSON CHAN

FILE

Silver Taps ceremonies are held on the first Tuesday of each month in Academic Plaza. April’s honorees are aerospace engineering junior Benson Chan and statistics junior Claudio Romero. Editor’s Note: A Silver Taps tribute article for Benson Chan will not be published at this time at the family’s request.

KATHY BANKS CONTINUED new era of optimism and advancement for Texas A&M,” Junkins said in the message.

“Dr. Banks is a renowned and respected scholar, educator and innovator. She understands the inner workings of a major research university, as well as the challenges and opportunities of being a student in a lecture hall or

laboratory.” Banks said she was honored by the Board’s appointment. “Crucial listening sessions will begin soon with key stakeholders across campus and be-

yond to gather perspectives concerning the issues, challenges and opportunities that we face today,” Banks said. “I look forward to working together as we take Texas A&M University to new levels of preeminence.”

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SILVERTAPS

The Battalion | 4.1.21

Silver Taps November 12, 1999 - February 11, 2021

CLAUDIO ROMERO An intelligent friend with limitless compassion By Bec Morris @BecWrote

s a dedicated, caring individual, Claudio Romero strove for excellence and fun while staying a role model to his friends and family.

Since he was a small child, Claudio’s mother Gabriela Romero said she admired his natural intelligence and curiosity that led him to plow through piles of books, puzzles and other challenging tasks. “From a very young age, he loved doing puzzles,” Gabriela said. “And for Christmas, he would always ask for books. I remember when he was little and we would go to Walmart or Target, he would go and grab a book from the book section and come to me and sit next to wherever I was and read the book. By the end of the shopping trip, I would ask if he wanted me to buy him that book, and he would say, ‘No, I already finished it.’” Claudio’s love for knowledge only grew. As he got older, he found his niche in the world of numbers, deciding to study statistics at Texas A&M. “His passion was math and just numbers in general, and he was very good at it,” Gabriela said. “He probably chose that because it was a branch of math, and he excelled at it and it was easier for him to do. Challenging in a way, but he liked that because it was what he knew best.” At A&M, Claudio never hesitated to get involved and make connections, participating in Philosophy Club, Student Bonfire and tutoring other students as a peer mentor. Outside of intellectual pursuits, Claudio dedicated his time to interacting with his friends and making everyone around him feel safe, welcome and content, Claudio’s aunt Gloria Espino said. “He wanted to live life to the fullest. He was never worried about anything,” Espino said. “He was very outgoing and close with his friends, and they say he was the life of the party and that he was always smiling, making jokes and being happy.” One high school classmate, Krysten Creen, said she admired Claudio’s fiery spirit and all-in attitude that he exhibited day-in and day-out. “He always carried around rather large sizes of drinks for such a small person,” Creen said. “Like I picked him up one time and he got in with a two-liter bottle of lemonade and he

PROVIDED

Statistics junior Claudio Romero will be honored at the April 6 Silver Taps ceremony.

drank right out of it. I feel like that goes with everything else about him: small, but that didn’t scare him. He jumped into the deep end with everything. He was fearless in everything he did, and he did not care who was watching him.” Everyone in his family looked up to Claudio, whose fun demeanor and intelligence stood as a figurehead for his younger cousins. “He was a genius,” Gabriela said. “He didn’t care what others thought about him. He just did what he wanted to do. He was a role model for all his cousins, the little ones and the older ones that were just a few years younger than him. They would always look up to him to get help.” No matter what, Claudio valued everyone in his life, especially his family, despite growing further from them as he grew older, another high school friend Zivan Zúñiga said. “He loved his mother and father so much, and he would tell

me he wished for a better life for them where they wouldn’t have to work as hard as they do,” Zúñiga said. “He was worried that his parents would never understand him, but one day he came to me crying, saying he told his family how he truly felt in Fort Worth when they were celebrating his birthday and that he was so glad to have told them before he left to College Station.” Claudio will be remembered as a compassionate friend, stellar student and hardworking son. “To me, Claudio was the most selfless person I ever got to meet,” Claudio’s friend Brayan said in a document shared with Gabriela. “He was someone you could always count on and wouldn’t judge you. He didn’t really have any hobbies besides always [being] with friends, and I loved that about him. He didn’t care what we would do, he would always just say yes and just enjoy life and everything around him no matter what.”

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The Battalion | 4.1.21

recognizing the community and work to provide more for us.” Biomedical sciences junior Megan Lopez, APC external vice president, said she doesn’t think A&M has done its best at giving the APIDA community the guidance and resources it needs. Lopez said she wants purposeful cultural conversations on campus and for A&M to provide the space to educate about the disparities between APIDA students’ backgrounds. “It’s already a difficult task to unite the APIDA organizations on campus considering our diverse backgrounds,” Lopez said. “Asking to expand our numbers puts a heavier burden on a foundation we are still trying to create. I don’t particularly care about the overall [APIDA percentage] of our school, as long as each individual finds their second home in some of our APIDA organizations.”

APIDA CONTINUED

Via Unsplashed.com

Following shootings at several spas in Atlanta that killed multiple Asian Americans, protesters held demonstrations across the country in support of the Asian community and against anti-Asian hate.

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me as I go through tough times.” APC’s presence at A&M is significant because the council can make direct changes and movements toward the growth and development of the university’s APIDA community, Lee said. Through APC, Lee said the APIDA community has become more united as they collectively learn the importance of understanding the challenges and prejudices their community faces. “A&M can benefit from having a bigger, more diverse APIDA community,” Lee said. “The APIDA community is vast in its own cultural subsets. I believe it may be difficult for A&M to expand its AAPI population due to the lack of resources that exist for the group. To draw more APIDA students in, A&M should work on

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SPORTS

The Battalion | 4.1.21

Courtesy of Ben Solomon, 2021 NCAA Photos

Following A&M’s buzzer-beating win over Iowa State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, members of A&M’s women’s basketball team dogpiled on top of sophomore guard Jordan Nixon, who led the Aggies with a career-high 35 points.

Texas A&M women’s basketball displays Aggie Spirit Amid COVID-19 pandemic, women’s basketball adapted, gave fans something to root for Hannah Underwood

@hannahbunderwoo

decade after Texas A&M women’s basketball’s first and only national title, the Aggies fell short in 2021 despite their best regular season performance in program history. But they may have given fans something better. While the men’s basketball team struggled to overcome a series of positive COVID-19 cases facing seven cancellations this year, coach Gary Blair and the women’s team were the unsung heroes of the season. And they battled through adversity to do it. Eight days before the Aggies’ 20202021 season opener against Lamar, the SEC’s coaches picked A&M to finish third in the conference behind South Carolina and Kentucky. By the time the conference tournament rolled around, A&M had collected statement wins over both the Gamecocks and the Wildcats and wore the SEC regular season crown. Once the Aggies got to tournament play, though, everything changed. With

a six-point loss to Georgia in the second round of the SEC Tournament, A&M was unable to capitalize on its promising regular season and entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed. A pair of close wins followed for the Aggies before their season came to a heartbreaking end with a 74-59 loss to Arizona in the Sweet 16. Prior to the loss, Blair said the Aggies’ best basketball was still ahead of them, and although they didn’t make good on that this season, that sentiment could still ring true. The future remains bright for Texas A&M women’s basketball. A&M knows it will be without seniors forward N’dea Jones and guard Aaliyah Wilson, who declared for the WNBA Draft on March 30 and 31, respectively. But as the Aggies showed this year, they have no trouble replacing key playmakers. Heading into the 2020-2021 season, all eyes were on who would step up to replace three-time All-American guard Chennedy Carter, who exited the program early for the WNBA. Sophomore guard Jordan Nixon answered the call when she catapulted the Aggies into the national spotlight with

a game-winning buzzer beater against Iowa State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. However, Nixon is not the star of the A&M women’s basketball team. Yes, she has had clutch moments in games and received congratulations from the likes of Lebron James and Gabrielle Union following her heroic efforts to get A&M to the Sweet 16. But what made the 2020-2021 squad special was its balance — the Aggies didn’t have a Chennedy Carter or an Aari McDonald on their roster. There was no one player they relied on to get through tough situations like the close first and second round games in the NCAA Tournament — they all shared that responsibility. When one player was having a bad night, someone else stepped up and took her place. As Nixon, who has a team-high 91 assists in addition to her 297 points on the season, reiterated after her game-winning shot against Iowa State, they trusted each other, in a way few A&M teams before them had. “We embody what it means to be a team,” Nixon said. “On any given night, any given person can do something re-

ally special, and I think you’ve seen that all season. Maybe it’s [Aaliyah] Wilson scoring 30, maybe it’s [Ciera Johnson] getting a double-double, maybe it’s [N’dea Jones], maybe it’s Kayla [Wells], maybe it’s [Destiny Pitts].” Building that trust and chemistry was a feat in itself. COVID-19 disrupted the “normal” offseason process, keeping players away from the facilities until early June. Even when they were allowed back in, health and safety protocols disrupted the amount of time they could spend together and what they were allowed to do. Through it all, this team pulled together when many others weren’t able to. In the women’s basketball sphere, Vanderbilt’s program ended its season on Jan. 18 due to COVID-19, opt-outs and injuries. Various A&M sports teams had several cancellations disrupt their seasons — from men’s basketball missing eight games due to COVID-19, to football last fall, women’s golf, men’s tennis, volleyball and more — but the Texas A&M women’s basketball program did not miss a single game due to COVID-19 protocol among its members. Blair called it “unbelievable.” To me, that shows just how special this team was. Each player showed their dedication and commitment not only to each other, but to Blair and the rest of the coaching staff, to the support staff and the entirety of the program, to the fans, to the university and to the sport of basketball as a whole. Texas A&M lives and dies on its Core Values: respect, excellence, leadership, loyalty, integrity and selfless service. Week in and week out, each of the 15 players on A&M women’s basketball’s roster exemplified what it means to be an Aggie, personifying the “spirit can ne’er be told.” Gary Blair agrees. “This year means more to me as a coach than any team I have ever coached because of what these young people have had to go through,” Blair said. “Winning the national championship was great, but that championship team did not have to go through what these young ladies and all the people in our country have had to go through [this year]. There will be a thousand books made on this. CNN, 60 Minutes. … But this team is beautiful. We had zero problems all year. That’s the character and the chemistry and who we bring into this program.” Hannah Underwood is a journalism senior and sports editor for The Battalion.

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The Battalion | 4.1.21

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Students feeling overwhelmed due to academic burnout can contact A&M Counseling and Psychological Services at caps.tamu.edu.

A&M students feel added pressure from pandemic, lack of Spring Break By Aubrey Vogel @aubrey_vogel With all of the challenges this semester has presented, many students are beginning to experience academic burnout while trying to push through to the end. According to the New York Times, college students are beginning to see increased mental health issues due to the environmental changes around them. With academic burnout being a common problem among college students in any given year, the presence of COVID-19 and a lack of Spring Break at Texas A&M has added stress to students who are beginning to feel the extra pressure. With the unexpected curves and navigating online classes, students may experience a lower work ethic and diminishing motivation. In the early weeks of the semester, the winter storm canceled classes for a week, causing many students to feel they were falling behind due to professors’ revised spring schedules. “This can be an overwhelming time. It’s

important that you take care of yourselves, your physical health and your mental health. Please let us know how we can support you,” interim Provost Mark Weichold said in a Feb. 18 press release. Another factor making this semester different from others is the shortening of Spring Break to a single Friday off. Many students, like agribusiness junior Cate Diezi, use a typical Spring Break week to rest and catch up on assignments. However, Diezi said that was not possible this year. “The hardest part of the semester is just staying motivated,” Diezi said. “I’m someone who’s very type A and ambitious, and I feel like I’m losing a part of myself when I don’t feel like doing anything, from school work to going out and having a social life.” Diezi said she is using her Aggie Ring as her motivator to continue to push through this challenging semester and the stress that comes with it academically. “I have a countdown by my computer that I change every morning and look at when I need the extra push to continue working hard,” Diezi said. In addition to the winter storm and lack of Spring Break, students have also been quar-

antined at various points in the semester due to contracting COVID-19 or being in close contact with someone who has tested positive. As of March 31, political science sophomore Barret Grandstaff has been quarantined on campus due to close contact with someone who tested positive. “Quarantine has demolished my social life,” Grandstaff said. “Of course I still have strong online contact with friends, who now play Minecraft with me and call me just to check in all the time, but it isn’t the same. I can’t go outside, I can’t get the foods I’d like to eat, I can’t go near my friends and I can’t really feel the pressure of needing to do my work. Without my scheduled out-of-dorm things [like] running to go grab dinner with a few friends at the same time everyday, attending my in-person [classes] and going to work out, I don’t feel the low level stress that gets me motivated to do homework.” Grandstaff said during her quarantine, motivation has been hard to come by due to the isolation and the lack of an organized schedule. “I lack the drive to get me out of bed simply because it’s like time doesn’t exist outside of my little dorm room,” Grandstaff said. “It

could be entirely a personal feeling, but I assume others have felt the same way. It’s just dreary despite all my friends do to try and include me or make it up to me.” Counseling and Psychological Services, or CAPS, provides services to A&M students who are in need of someone to talk to. CAPS counselor Michelle Morris said self care is very important, especially now more than ever with everything that is going on this semester. She urges students to practice self care in the way that is best for them because it is not the same for everyone. “It is important to be able to break things up on a daily basis because I think sometimes what we do is we just push hard through the semester and we are relying on those big chunks like Spring Break and summer break,” Morris said. “It is important on the day-to-day to find different avenues for students to take care of themselves.” If students are feeling overwhelmed, there are many resources available through CAPS that are free of charge to students. These can include counseling appointments, online trainings and the CAPS HelpLine. More information on CAPS services can be found on caps.tamu.edu.

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