WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2019 STUDENT MEDIA
Cassie Stricker — THE BATTALION
Texas A&M’s Student Media won 36 awards for their 2018 work at the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association conference.
Student media shines at TIPA Battalion, Aggieland receive honors at annual collegiate press conference By Sanna Bhai @BhaiSanna Texas A&M Student Media received 36 awards from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association for their work throughout 2018. Representatives from Texas A&M Student Media — which includes The Battalion, the Aggieland yearbook and Maroon Life Magazine — went to Corpus Christi for the annual TIPA conference from March 13 to March 16. The conference encompassed competitions, workshops and discussions about student media with 30 schools from around Texas. Conference organizers also judge work from the previous calendar year that schools submit prior to the event. A&M’s three dozen awards included an individual excellence award, 13 first place awards and four overall excellence awards. The Battalion took first place in overall excellence among newspapers. Battalion editor-in-chief Megan Rodriguez said it is exciting to see A&M’s student media staff recognized for their content. “Everyone works tirelessly to serve the student body, and knowing that the stories we share are competitive among other universities is extremely rewarding,” Rodriguez said. “I’m proud of everyone’s commitment to student media and the results that we’ve seen from their hard work.” In open division, The Aggieland received first place for inside news page design and overall design. Maroon Life magazine won best overall AWARDS ON PG. 3
Kaylee Cogbill — THE BATTALION
Libraries and educational institutions across America celebrate National Reading Month each March.
Books open up worlds Librarians and students discuss their favorite authors and books By Hollis Mills @sillohsllim Whether it be a fresh printing right off the Barnes & Noble “best sellers” shelf, or pages hanging from the loose thread of a worn spine, National Reading Month encourages everyone to pick up a book and delve into a new literary adventure. Every March since 1997, libraries and educational institutions across the United States have celebrated National Reading Month to promote the strength and conditioning of good reading skills, particularly among young people. The month is an extension of Read Across America Day on
March 2, a commemoration of the life and achievements of Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known by his pen name, Dr. Seuss. Deborah Callaway, youth services librarian at Clara B. Mounce Public Library in Bryan, said Seuss’s books, alongside a few Nancy Drew mysteries, were must-haves whenever the “Bookmobile” would roll in from the county over. “I was never without a book when I was a kid,” Callaway said. “In the summertime when it was too hot to go outside, which was most days, I was reading. When it got cool enough, I’d run through the forest and play, and I had a whole lot of imagination from the books I read.” Though she prefers a good sit down with the work of James Patterson and Nicholas Sparks these days, Callaway said she hopes to instill her admiration of reading in today’s
youth. “When kids come up to talk to me, I tell them to let me know of the books they want,” Callaway said. “If there’s a new series, I ask them to let me know what the series’ name is and I’ll get them, because if you buy books that kids are really excited about, they’re not going to sit on the shelf; they’ll be read.” Hilary Anderson, reference and adult services librarian, said her job doesn’t end outside of the library’s walls, because when she is not helping others discover their next literary obsession she is gushing over “Harry Potter” novels with her nieces. Anderson said reading should be an important part of everyone’s lives, and National Reading Month helps to highlight that. READING ON PG. 2
A grand new exhibit Bush Library displays photo series celebrating legendary national park By Savannah Mehrtens @SJMehrtens
FILE
Jay Maddock, then-dean of the School of Public Health, gave a presentation as part of the fall 2017 Achitecture for Health Lecture Series. Today, the series is broadcast by KAMU-TV.
Designing a healthy future Lecture series explores connections between architecture, public health By Savannah Mehrtens @SJMehrtens The Architecture for Health Lecture Series is an interdisciplinary weekly event held by the College of Architecture and the School of Public Health that aims to explore ways in which the built environment can have positive impacts on public health. Held on Fridays at KAMU-TV’s on-campus studio, this semester’s series is titled “Health Systems and Networks: The New Clients” and presents case studies by architects and health care administrators. By using case studies rather than information from a textbook, the lessons are more relevant to current issues within the field. On Friday, three speakers from architecture, planning and design firm CallisonRTKL will discuss their relationship with Mainline Health, a health system that serves the suburban Pennsylvania area. Dana Brandle, associate vice president at CallisonRTKL, will be one of the speakers on
Friday alongside vice president and healthcare director Dan Thomas and Don Debord, senior vice president for healthcare practice. Brandle said their company’s relationship with Mainline Health is unique because they have been working together since 2004. “It’s been really great, and we’ve done lots of different types of projects with them and developed a lot of really good standards and best practices and lessons learned over the years,” Brandle said. George Mann, AIA series coordinator and Ronald L. Skaggs FAIA Endowed Professor of Health Facilities Design in the College of Architecture, said the dynamic and changing system of healthcare is one of many topics discussed in the lecture series. “Systems are another way of delivering health care,” Mann said. “If you take technology and put it into the system, you can do remote diagnosing through telemedicine, you can multiply the effectiveness of health education programs, and in a way I think our program is a health education program.” The lecture series began about 10 years ago LECTURE ON PG. 3
The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum’s newest exhibit, “Grand Canyon Photographs: Celebrating the Centennial 1919-2019,” honors the 100th anniversary of the designation of the national park. The photography exhibit opened on March 1 and will be running until June 9 in the Fidelity Gallery. Mark Burns, photographer of the exhibit, previously had his series on American national parks at the museum from Nov. 30, 2015, to March 21, 2016. The photography was shot half on 8x10, 4x5 and 6x17 panoramic film cameras and half on medium format digital cameras and DSLR digital film cameras. Burns said he had a variety of experiences in the Grand Canyon over his time capturing the national park that were both challenging and rewarding. He said the previous exhibit he had at the museum covering all U.S. national parks led to the current exhibit focusing solely on the Grand Canyon. “I’ve had many, many experiences that have been wonderful,” Burns said. “They’ve been hot; they’ve been freezing cold; they’ve been everything in between. It’s a whole lot of work doing what I did and just about every experience as a photographer you can think of but very rewarding in the end.” As most of his work is in black and white, Burns said he likes for viewers to look into his photographs and see the detail in the pieces. “I deal on a lot of subtleties, so you have to spend some time looking at the photographs to really understand a lot of the subtleties that are going on with them,” Burns said. “I like to say that I sometimes prefer to print smaller photographs because I like people to look into my photographs rather than to look at them.”
Olivia Treadwell — THE BATTALION
The newest exhibit at the Bush Library celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Grand Canyon National Park.
Warren Finch, director of the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, said after being the first to host Burns’ exhibit on the national parks from late 2015 to early 2016, they were glad to have his work on the Grand Canyon as well. “We’ve had experience with Mark, we know he’s a great photographer,” Finch said. “When we found out he was doing photographs of the Grand Canyon, we were happy to bring them in.” David Anaya, director of marketing and EXHIBIT ON PG. 3