The Battalion - September 17, 2020

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2020 STUDENT MEDIA

AGGIE RING COLUMNS ON PG. 5 & 6

RHIAN MURPHY ON PG. 4

Ring Day Week Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

Aggie Ring recipients traditionally dunk their rings in a pitcher of beer.

Dunking in a new era Fall ring celebrations to look different with gathering limits

By Shelby McVey @shelbyxbreann Ring dunk. Two words that describe a new beginning for Aggies with their newfound gold.

The timeless tradition of sinking a brand new Aggie Ring into a pitcher and downing its contents is normally something every Aggie looks forward to. This year, the tradition may look a little different thanks to COVID-19 and the 10-person gathering restriction.

Despite the changes, industrial distribution senior Sierra Travis said she still plans on lining up next to five of her closest friends and roommates to complete the most-anticipated tradition.

“We’re doing a really small celebration with some of our friends and family,” Travis said. “We’ve all been really close since our freshman year so as a friend group we’ve looked forward to this, and now we’re just trying to make the most of it.”

With the pandemic to keep in mind, Travis said planning her ring dunk has proven to be difficult. Although she would like for all of her close friends and family to be in attendance, Travis has had to be mindful of how her celebration will be organized.

“Right now I think that it’s really important to be able to experience [ring dunk] because we only get to experience RING DUNKING ON PG. 3

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

Texas A&M’s Ring Day tradition will now take place over a week-long period to accommodate COVID-19 precautions.

September Ring Day adapts to accommodate health, safety precautions amid coronavirus pandemic

By Grace Carter @gracercarter

A

long-standing tradition at Texas A&M, Ring Day is a memorable day for many Aggies. Despite the current environment, The Association of Former Students is ensuring that students are able to experience Ring Day, even if it looks different this year.

This past spring, the format of Ring Day was changed due to COVID-19 and many received their ring via mail. With students back on campus, Ring Day will look more like the traditional ceremony, just with a few revisions.

Vice President of The Association of Former Students and Class of 1988 Kathryn

Greenwade, said reimagining Ring Day so it could safely proceed this September took some creativity. One of the biggest changes to Ring Day this fall is that it will take place over the span of a week.

“The most significant changes to ring delivery plans for September are necessitated by COVID-19,” Greenwade said. “Rather than a single day experience, we are expanding to a week-long event that will allow recipients to pick up their rings in person, while also adhering to current limits for indoor activities.

The one thing that is not changing is the significance of earning an Aggie Ring.”

Greenwade said the process of receiving a ring has been modified and will be implemented for the upcoming September Ring Day. The recipient will be able to physically enter the alumni center, however they will be the only individual allowed inside in order to maintain health and safety standards. Additionally, the alumni center and the Haynes Ring Plaza will be restricted and will not open for photos.

“Access to the alumni center will be limited to only the ring recipient,” Greenwade said.

“The number of ring recipients in the building at a given time will be greatly reduced, ring stations will be spaced six feet apart and protective face coverings will be required to enter the facility.”

Ring Day typically brings friends and family to College Station to celebrate their Aggie earning their ring. Due to the changes, the celebration can continue, just not on campus.

“Earning your Aggie Ring is, indeed, a family celebration for many,” Greenwade said.

“For this ring delivery, we encourage families to have small celebrations at home to mark the occasion. We saw families create special family memories when rings were delivered to homes in April, and I’m confident they will find creative ways to celebrate the day while adhering to local limits on gatherings.”

While Ring Day is now Ring Week, business honors junior Sydney Creath said she understands the reasoning behind the new guidelines and procedures. However, Creath said she cannot deny that she feels slightly disappointed that she will not experience a RING WEEK ON PG. 2

Rescue turned social media star A&M student finds special connection with shelter dog

By Amina Butt @awkwardamina

Biomedical sciences senior Bella Boone and her pitbull Baloo have gathered a large following on both Instagram and TikTok.

PROVIDED

When going on her regular trip to the animal shelter to get her “fix” since she’d been missing her pets from home, biomedical sciences senior Bella Boone wasn’t expecting to become a pet parent until she met a pitbull named Baloo that changed her life.

Boone and Baloo’s relationship has grabbed the attention of many major publications such as The Dodo and Vogue as Boone’s posts of her life with Baloo earned the pair almost 800,000 followers combined on Instagram and TikTok (@bully.baloo).

Before Baloo, Boone never owned a large dog and said she wasn’t in a good enough mental state to own a dog, but the connection and love she felt for Baloo was greater than any reservations.

“Usually when I played with a dog, I could walk away feeling much better,” Boone said.

“This time when I walked away, I felt like I was leaving a piece of me behind. I didn’t know why this dog felt so different from the others and I couldn’t explain it. This scrawny, overlooked, flea-bitten pitbull mix was tugging at my heartstrings so hard, I didn’t want to leave him.”

Boone said Baloo came into her life when

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she was her lowest, and she will spend the rest of his life trying to repay him for the light he has brought her.

“When I first adopted Baloo, I was grappling with one of the toughest times, mental health-wise, that I’d ever experienced in my life,” Boone said. “Adopting Baloo gave me a reason to get up in the morning, a reason to be a better person and a reason to keep active, healthy and happy.”

Having no intention of making Baloo an “influencer,” Boone said she created his Instagram so she could document their life together, but he soon gained a popularity she didn’t expect.

“Baloo’s account has officially become one of the biggest names in bully breed and rescue dog Instagram accounts,” Boone said. “It [is] absolutely surreal.”

Boone said brands like Swiffer, Barkbox, Sony and Petco began to reach out to her and Baloo for partnerships and campaigns. Baloo’s Instagram quickly became a part-time job for Boone, who loves highlighting the positive aspects of pitbulls.

“Gaining a following wasn’t my main goal, but it did help me accomplish some of my other ones,” Boone said. “I wanted bully breeds to be included in more pet-related campaigns.

I wanted to challenge breed specific laws and, more than anything, I wanted people to see them as a pet, not a monster. Baloo has since become one of the most popular faces in bully breed advocacy, and my goals to challenge the BALOO ON PG. 6

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The Battalion | 9.17.20

RING WEEK CONTINUED

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

Only the Aggie Ring recipient will be allowed into the Association of Former Students building to pick up their ring.

CORRECTION

traditional Ring Day. “After reading the new guidelines, I was disappointed in hearing that I would have to go alone to pick up my ring instead of having the celebration on campus,” Creath said. “My hard work over the past two years has been building up to getting my ring, and I feel like it’s not as special as it would be if the actual ceremony were able to happen. I think at least one person should be able to accompany the student during pick-up so we are not completely alone.”

After considering the health and safety of her family, Creath said they will not be in College Station for her Ring Day due to COVID-19.

Creath said she wishes there was still an option to receive rings in the mail while the new guidelines are in place.

“I’m glad that I’m able to be in College Station during this semester, but I almost would prefer having my ring mailed to me so I could open the package while being surrounded by my family,” Creath said. “That would make it more special than being alone when I receive it.”

For more information on the new guidelines for Ring Week, visit tx.ag/RingWeek.

In The Battalion’s Fall Sports Magazine, a photo of defensive tackle Josh Rogers was incorrectly used on a feature story about defensive tackle Jayden Peevy.

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The Battalion | 9.17.20

RING DUNKING CONTINUED this kind of thing once,” Travis said. “So finding a way to do that and celebrate with the people we have always planned to, but in a safe and distanced way, is really important to all of us.”

As a first-generation student, sociology junior Nancy Vasquez said celebrating her 90 hours of hard work and dedication with a ring dunk is a tradition she has always wanted to partake in.

“I think it’s extremely important to fulfill this tradition because as a first-generation student and Aggie, I hope that one day I can tell my kids about the traditions I got to be a part of as a Texas A&M student,” Vasquez said.

With her excitement of reaching 90 hours, Vasquez said COVID-19 has played a major role in how she chooses to celebrate.

“My dunk is something that I was looking forward to gathering all my friends and family together to celebrate my accomplishment,” Vasquez said. “So my plan is not like any normal dunk. I’ll only be having my immediate family, and I won’t be having any friends for [their] safety.”

When the day finally comes to dunk her ring, English senior Brinna Gallego said she plans on enjoying the tradition with the safety of her family as her top priority.

“Although I’ve always looked forward to continuing the ring dunk tradition, keeping my family safe and healthy is far more important than fulfilling the tradition,” Gallego said. “I want my grandparents and parents to enjoy the day and stay healthy while doing so. I want my ring dunk to be small, fun, but mostly safe. Even if it means just including family, then I’m open to that as well.”

In preparation to down over 32 ounces of Michelob ULTRA, preferably in under a minute, Travis said she and her roommate have been consistently chugging a pitcher of water to both mentally and physically prepare for the occasion.

“This probably isn’t even going to help us, I’m not sure why we’re doing it,” Travis said. “But I like to think that it’s working even if I know it won’t matter in the long run.”

With high expectations of completing the tradition, Travis said she’s looking forward to seeing how her dunk will play out.

“I feel like I’m going to do really well and I’m also dunking with my roommates so I think they’re going to do really well also,” Travis said. “I think it’s going to be really cool to see how each of us think it’s going to go and then see how it actually turns out.

Or if we’re just going to end up pouring beer all over each other or over ourselves.”

Grad students protest for labor rights

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

On Monday, Sept. 14, graduate students protested for better working conditions.

Student workers protest after A&M declines to act upon grievances

By Myranda Campanella and Brady Stone @MCampanella_ & @bradystonex Texas A&M graduate student workers gathered on the steps of the Administration Building at 10 a.m. on Sept. 14 to protest for better working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This protest comes after Grad Aggies for Worker Safety, or GAWS, sent an open letter on Aug. 14 to university officials with a list of six demands for the protection and compensation of graduate student workers on campus.

“The university’s plan to return to in-person teaching will place its workers in immense danger,” the letter read. “This is of particular concern for graduate teachers, who teach a large number of core classes and, as a result, come into contact with a significant amount of the student body.”

The letter has since received signatures from 658 graduate students, 24 graduate student organizations, five other organizations — including from the Coalition of Graduate Student Employees at Oregon State University — 232 A&M-affiliated sponsors and 146 non-university affiliated sponsors.

Graduate assistant lecturer, Ph.D. candidate in English and media and spokesperson for GAWS Desirae Embree said the administration responded to their letter on Aug. 19 re-emphasising that the university does not intend to do anything more to accommodate graduate student workers than what they have already done.

Additionally, A&M Provost Carol A. Fierke said in a statement on Aug. 14 that graduate student workers have received the same accommodations in regards to COVID-19 precautions that are afforded to full-time faculty members.

“We believe that face-to-face classes are important for providing the best educational experience for many students,” Fierke said. “The university has made an enormous number of alterations to enhance the safety of in-person instruction, including mandating face coverings, social distancing and enhanced ventilation and there is no evidence of disease transmission occurring in the classroom.”

However, Embree said the fact that the university has reported over 1,000 cases on campus in the first month of classes emphasizes the validity of graduate student workers’ concerns.

“An absence of evidence does not mean that it isn’t happening,” Embree said.

“They’ve been saying that the majority of cases are of people in the same households or friend groups, but those are situations

that are easily traceable. Classrooms are not the same kind of situation.”

Despite widespread concern among the graduate student worker population at large, Embree said her requests to move her in-person class online have been stuck in a loophole among the Office for Graduate and Professional Studies, or OGAPS, the Office of the Provost and her academic department.

“One of the things we’re finding is when we start asking questions to figure out what’s possible, we’re being shuffled around between different administrative units,” Embree said. “That’s one of the ways in which they are conveniently not addressing graduate students’ concerns.”

Embree said during OGAPS’ Aug. 14 virtual forum with Karen Butler-Purry, associate provost for Graduate and Professional Studies, and Dr. Shawn Gibbs, dean of the School of Public Health, GAWS pressed Butler-Purry to answer whether all graduate student requests to teach remotely had been honored. Butler-Purry responded that not all the requests could be honored and some graduate students had been forced to teach in person, Embree said.

“Part of the issue is that some graduate students consented to teaching in person, but they did so under very different conditions,” Embree said. “Now that conditions are worsening very quickly and things are getting scary, there’s no way for them to move their classes online.”

Michael Roosa, Ph.D. candidate in physics and astronomy, said he attended the protest despite hearing criticisms of hypocrisy in the community because teaching in an enclosed space is categorically different from protesting outside where attendees are 10 feet away from each other with masks on.

“When people say it’s hypocritical of us, they’re missing the point that the university unilaterally decided that we would have to take on this risk [of teaching in person],” Roosa said. “[Protesting] is a decision that we have control over.This is the safest kind of action we could have made, and that’s why we did it.”

Roosa said teaching in person poses a general health risk to the Bryan-College Station community.

“When your employer tells you that, ‘Oh, sorry, I know that doing your job the way we think you should is more dangerous, but you have to do it anyhow,’ that is coercive. That’s the reason we’re out here,” Roosa said.

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The Battalion | 9.17.20

Murphy’s Law FILE

Senior Rhian Murphy was voted a team leader at the equestrian team’s annual banquet in May 2020.

Rhian Murphy overcomes hip pain while leading A&M’s equestrian team

By Casey Stavenhagen @CStavenhagen At the end of the 2018-2019 season, Texas A&M equestrian made a run to the SEC Championship finals and the NCEA Team Championship finals.

However, during one of the most exciting times for the team, one of its members was going through a season of excruciating pain, which led to a major surgery over the offseason.

At 13 years old, now-senior Rhian Murphy broke her hip and underwent two surgeries, but her problems didn’t stop there. Murphy’s Law was in full effect.

“It was just a matter of time until I had to get a hip replacement,” Murphy said. “October of my sophomore year is when the pain got really bad. My hip just wore down really fast to the point where there was really no joint left.”

She began her sophomore campaign competing in fences and flat riding, but as her hip pain worsened, she pivoted to only riding the

flat, notching six wins for A&M. Murphy, a self-proclaimed leader by example, endured six months of pain, six months of her hip being “just bone on bone,” for her team.

Upon the season’s end, Murphy underwent a full hip replacement and began the process of rehabilitation, hopeful to compete again in the fall.

“I had to rehab the muscles and I had limited mobility for a while, but it was so much better because I wasn’t in pain anymore,” Murphy said. “I was off crutches in a month and back on a horse in 10 weeks.”

Murphy said she had doubts about having the surgery, but the desire to compete for her team and to alleviate her pain made her decision far easier.

“I always really wanted to be able to keep competing and keep contributing to my team,” Murphy said. “So for me, it was never really the option to, ‘Let’s just stop doing this,’ it was, ‘Let’s do everything we can so I can keep doing this.’”

Murphy’s determination to compete no matter what may have been a contributing factor to her hip’s original break almost 10 years ago. Murphy, with a laugh, said the

cause of the original break is not a good story.

“I had a little hip pain for about a month but I kept doing everything on it, and then I tripped getting out of a parked car,” Murphy said. “It was a hairline fracture but I kept pounding it like riding and doing all that, so it finally just gave way. I had an appointment to get it looked at that was scheduled for the next day, but I couldn’t make it that far.”

The end result allows Murphy to look back on the incident with humor. Murphy said everything felt easy when she came back because she no longer had pain weighing her down.

“My first day back on a horse my physical therapist said, ‘Okay, take it easy. Only 20 minutes. I don’t want you doing too much,’ and that was longer than I’d been able to sit on a horse in two years,” Murphy said. “It was really exciting and empowering to go back to being able to do all these normal daily activities pain-free.”

Upon returning to the team as a junior, Murphy was voted team leader and returned to competing in fences, tallying four wins.

Her determination to overcome the adversity she faced makes her an inspiration to the team, senior and Murphy’s roommate Mali Selman said.

“I think everyone on the team looks up to her. I look up to her,” Selman said. “She’s just a really good example of, what I think, and I think the coaches would say this too, everyone on the team wants to be. If we had 25 Rhians we’d be a really well functioning, well-competing team.”

Murphy’s sophomore season of struggle and grit granted her the Lohman Inspiration Award at A&M Athletics’ annual Building Champions Awards that May. With her optimistic nature, Selman said Murphy is someone who unironically enjoys inspirational phrases.

“She drives around with a sticker on her car that [the equestrian team] put on there as a joke and it says, ‘She believes she could so she did’ and it’s glittery,” Selman said. “We joke about it all the time because she’s definitely someone that’s into the inspirational quotes and all that.”

This fall, Murphy will return to competition, continuing her position as team leader.

“I feel super honored,” Murphy said. “All of these girls on this team are all so great.

They’re girls that I look up to everyday. I hold them in such high regard that, to have them think of me as a leader, is just a really great feeling.”

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RINGWEEK

5

The Battalion | 9.17.20

A bright spot in dark times Finding a personal connection to tradition Camryn Lang

A

PROVIDED

While returning to the U.S. from Italy, Camryn Lang tried on the Aggie Rings of her Study Abroad classmates. Lang is the third in her family to receive an Aggie Ring after her brothers Brett and Chris.

@CamrynLang

global health crisis, racial injustice, an economic downturn, raging fires raising concerns for the earth — this doesn’t feel like a time to celebrate.

If someone had asked me last fall about my Ring Day plans, I would have happily told them that I decided to wait a semester in order to travel to Italy with over 30 other students for a study abroad. What was supposed to be a three month trip to a place I’d dreamed my whole life of seeing turned into a brief adventure in a country facing the second largest COVID-19 infection rate. It ended in a three-day panic of students frantically trying to find a way home. For two weeks after our return, our entire group isolated, only for the entirety of Texas to close down on our last day of quarantine.

Through all of this, I couldn’t stop thinking about my decision to hold off ordering my ring. I was determined to have a Ring Day in Aggieland. Waiting for my 10-hour flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Houston, my peers passed their rings over seats and across aisles to help me find my ring size in hopes that a classmate’s connection to The Association of Former Students would help to approve my last-minute ring order. While that didn’t work out, I’ll never forget sitting in that plane, completely exhausted, with a pile of Aggie Rings on my lap. Each had a unique size, style and engraving, and I felt the weight of each connection wrapped around my finger.

That is what an Aggie Ring represents — connection. Whether it be with current and former students, friends, family or a stranger, this small bit of gold is a reminder that Aggies are an ever-growing network of people that represent the Core Values and have each other’s backs.

As I began my journey in Aggieland a little over two years ago, I had no idea what the student network was like. My parents had no ties to A&M (and may have even sported some UT paraphernalia at one point), but I’d chosen to follow in the footsteps of my two older brothers. I won’t pretend part of the reason I wanted my Aggie Ring wasn’t because they had both already earned theirs; sibling rivalry is an excellent motivator. So I owe them a thank you, for taking those difficult steps before me and helping me on my journey. I couldn’t have navigated eCampus, registered for classes or suffered through an atrociously hot football game at Kyle Field without their advice.

I’ve gotten the chance to experience two years of Aggie traditions and be a part of the incredible community of journalists that create The Battalion. This ring is a token of all the late night trips to Fuego after production and early mornings waiting to pull tickets for a football game. Even if I won’t get the traditional, grand moment of receiving my ring and opening up the box in the alumni center, the 90 hours of work I put in to achieve it isn’t any less noteworthy. I can’t wait to share this special moment with my parents as their last kid opens up that little maroon box and to stand by my brothers while the three of us show off our rings.

Going forward, this ring will serve as my own personal reminder of the network I’ve built. I will wear the same ring as my siblings, the same ring as my friends and the same ring as Aggies around the world. While they all showcase the famous A&M seal on the top, there’s a reason every ring has a name inscribed on the interior.

Tradition is incredibly important, but it is every student, past, present and future, that makes me proud to wear the Aggie gold.

Camryn Lang is an English senior and managing editor for The Battalion.

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The Battalion | 9.17.20

PROVIDED

First-generation college student and College Station native Amina Butt says her Aggie Ring will symbolize her experiences — from Hurricane Harvey to a year of Zoom classes.

Fulfilling a childhood dream The Ring Day I thought would never come is finally within reach Amina Butt

W

@awkardamina

hen reflecting back on my past as a College Station native, I wonder what my childhood self would feel about who I’ve become and the fact that I am finally getting my Aggie Ring from that big university across the street.

I know she probably would be shocked by the fact that there’s a pandemic and that I won’t be experiencing

the “normal” Ring Day I was expecting, but I still know she would be so extremely proud of me.

Growing up I never expected to be able to go to college, and those around me didn’t either. I remember my sophomore year of high school, my counselor told me my chances of getting into a four-year university were slim.

After hearing this, I was determined to make something more of my life and work my hardest to get into college.

Before I knew it, my senior year finally arrived, and I fell in love with Texas

A&M and all its traditions. I knew that I wanted to be a part of the Aggie family.

Flash forward to now and I have been able to experience the best three years of my life as an Aggie and the people I have found here, I will hold close to my heart forever. My Aggie Ring will reflect all of these experiences, making this Ring Day so meaningful to me.

As a first-generation college student and Aggie, getting my ring is something that I have long awaited since I began school here. The symbolism of the Aggie Ring will be with me for the rest of my

life. Every time I look at my ring I’ll remember my very unique college experience, which includes Hurricane Harvey, snow on campus, fun nights out at the ‘gate and all of the Zoom meetings.

Instead of receiving my ring among friends and family in Aggieland like generations of Aggies before me, I will be going to the alumni center to pick it up by myself.

I know it sounds a little depressing having to go by yourself for a special moment like this, but Ring Day is so much more than getting dressed up and taking pictures with your friends and family at the alumni center.

I plan to take my Aggie Ring to my parents’ home and have them present the ring to me. We’ll make all of my mom’s delicious home-cooked meals while watching old home videos and FaceTiming with my sisters who live far away.

As for my friends, we will probably Photoshop a hilarious picture with one another and have a socially distanced brunch date to celebrate all of the blood, sweat and tears we faced together when studying at Evans until 2 a.m. and congratulate each other on getting our rings.

Though it’s bittersweet that I won’t have the experience of sharing this moment with all of the people that I love, but I am still going to make the best of the situation I have been presented. I am aware that there are many others who are seriously being affected by the coronavirus, and in all I am just thankful to have my friends and family safe.

Amina Butt is a telecommunication and media studies senior and Life & Arts writer for The Battalion.

BALOO CONTINUED stereotypes of his breed have grown even bigger.”

Boone said she encourages everyone to rescue an animal from the shelter because it can be a rewarding and life-changing experience.

“Rescue dogs cannot be replaced, because each one of them has been through something that makes each of them completely unique to the dog in the stall next to them,” Boone said. “Each of them has a story and a background, just like each of us, that sets them apart and makes them, them. Rescue, because you will never love anything more than you will love that dog.”

PROVIDED

Biomedical sciences senior Bella Boone originally created her dog Baloo’s Instagram account to document their time together.

CELEBRATES CONSTITUTION DAY TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY PROUDLY SHOWCASES a weeklong celebration to mark the 233rd anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution. Born of dedication and service to country, the document was signed September 17, 1787 and guarantees the freedoms that allow generations of students to flourish and learn. Texas A&M joins educators and students across the country to honor the founding document of America’s success. Please join us for celebrations planned throughout the week of Sept. 14 - 26.

2020 CONSTITUTION WEEK EVENTS CONSTITUTION WEEK: SEPT. 14-26

The Division of Student Affairs unveils a new website and information committed to understanding the First Amendment.

MONDAY, SEPT. 14

George H.W. Bush Presidential Library will host a Facebook Live presentation by historian and retired attorney, Thomas Borcher, featuring perspectives on the United States Constitution from the 1st and 41st presidents.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 16 7 P.M.

– The MSC Wiley Lecture Series presents Counting the Votes: The Electoral College, a presentation about efficacy of the Electoral College, by Dr. George Edwards, Texas A&M Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Mr. Darrell West, VP and Director of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, moderated by Meg Penrose of the Texas A&M School of Law. You must RSVP attendance at wiley.tamu.edu.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 17: CONSTITUTION DAY

The College of Liberal Arts will run a story on Hamilton, featuring connection to historical documents and the world-wide phenomenon and Broadway hit play.

9:30 A.M. TO 5 P.M. – The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum will distribute pocket-sized Constitutions to the first 50 visitors.

3 P.M.

– Texas A&M University will join institutions across the nation in Bells Across America playing patriotic music on the Albritton Bell Tower Carillon bells.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 18

Faculty of the Film Studies Program will host a discussion on the documentary, “I Am Not Your Negro” (2016), which focuses on James Baldwin and his efforts to combat institutional racism in America. The documentary is available to all Texas A&M faculty, staff and students through the Evan’s Library KANOPY. Contact the Film Studies Program for more information.

11 P.M. – KAMU-TV will broadcast Inventing America: Making a Nation, which brings our Founding Fathers back to life. This program features three delegates to the Second Continental Congress discussing the lead-up to the Declaration of Independence.

SUNDAY, SEPT. 20 11 P.M.

– KAMU-TV will air Inventing America: Making a Government, which tells the story behind the Constitutional Convention of 1787- four momentous months that changed the world.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 22 11 P.M.

– KAMU-TV will air an episode of Liberty for All, which reveals the conflicts and infighting behind the new U.S. Constitution and how that led to the Bill of Rights. The program features a Q&A with college students in which the Founders apply the Bill of Rights to our own time.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 26

The Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band will showcase patriotic music and excerpts from the Preamble of the Constitution during the halftime show at the Vanderbilt game. The performance is pre-recorded to meet public health guidance.

LEARN MORE AT

PPO.TAMU.EDU