The Battalion: January 31, 2017 by The Battalion

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South By Southwest is an annual conference which merges, arts, entertainment and innovation held in Austin.

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Biomedical engineering freshman Abdelrahman Elagami leads a passionate chant amongst a crowd of several hundred people Monday night in Rudder Plaza.

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“Refugees are welcome here”

need and I think that that’s kind of what we’re supposed to do for people is just open our hands and feet for them and be there for people when they need. The goal was for people of all ethnicities to feel welcome, not only on campus but in the entire country, said Ali Eldouh, biomedical engineering junior and vice president of TAMU Muslim Student Association. “The whole culture of Texas A&M, the whole reputation it has it that it is PROTEST ON PG. 2

SXSW ON PG. 3

By Meredith McCown @Meredithrhoads

Brian Okosun — THE BATTALION

The Bryan-College Station community appeared by the hundreds Monday evening to voice their support for immigrants in the US and abroad affected by President Donald Trump’s executive order.

more than 100 people confirmed their attendance. After four more hours, the number had already risen to 250. Chapman said she hopes the protest will make members of the Muslim community feel welcomed despite the executive action. “I would want it to be to where people can walk down the street and we can smile at people no matter what they’re wearing, no matter how they talk, no matter whether or not they have an accent or not,” Chapman said. “I want us to open our doors to people who are in

By Josh Hopkins @texasjoshua1 Aggies will flock to Austin in March, not to show their prowess on the field or on the court as in the days of old, but instead to demonstrate Aggie innovation on a global stage. Last week Texas A&M announced the school will be hosting five days of events at this year’s South By Southwest Conference (SXSW). The A&M events pull from research and projects all across the college including a chemistry road show, an interactive data display and a project combining art and technology. Texas A&M University President Michael Young said in the announcement that the university’s attendance at SXSW will give students and faculty the opportunity to participate on a global stage. “Our presence during the interactive portion of SXSW places our university among Fortune 500 corporations that can recruit our students, visionary leaders who can grow our already-strong Aggie network and global connections that can further enhance our Texas A&M brand,” Young said. Amy Smith, senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer for A&M, said the university decided to go during SXSW’s interactive week with the hope of reaching more companies. “It’s kind of gotten the reputation as being a hippie event over the years, in reality it has arts and entertainment, and it also has companies and government and universities that are doing cutting edge research and innovation,” Smith said. “And it’s become a place where 200,000 people will be going through and seeing these [exhibits] and those people will be ambassadors that will go back to other parts of the United States them to go back talking about our tier one institution and how excellent it is.” Rodney Boehm, director of Aggies Invent and associate engineering professor, said Aggies Invent will participate at SXSW. Boehm said Aggies Invent is an intensive design competition in which students construct a prototype to solve a need in the world. “We’ve established some need statements, things that we say need to be developed,” Boehm said. “It’s everything from trying to figure out how to detect infant dehydration or to understand how to detect different kinds of pneumonia, to be able to do vibration analysis of various kinds of pieces of equipment to identify maintenance issues, or it could be an idea that comes completely from students that we haven’t even thought of yet.

Hundreds march in protest of Trump’s new Immigration Ban

olding signs that read things like, “Ban ignorance not immigrants” and shouting chants like, “Love, not hate makes America great,” hundreds of students, faculty, children and community members gathered on campus Monday night to protest President Donald Trump’s Immigration Ban. The Immigration Ban, Trump’s latest executive action, bars Syrian refugees from entering the United States indefinitely and blocks citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries from traveling to the United States for 90 days. Of the thousands of people in the United States affected by the ban, roughly 200 of them are A&M students. With news spread by the Facebook page “Protest for the Muslim Student Body and College Station Members,” the crowd flooded Rudder Plaza with the goal of promoting unity within the student body and marched to Evans Library. The Facebook page was created by cinematography freshman Mallory Chapman. Chapman originally made the Facebook page expecting a small group of people to join her in the protest. Within just an hour of the page being posted,

Texas A&M to host 5 days of events at SXSW Festival

Students, professor weigh in after Trump’s first week By Chevall Pryce @ChevallP From suspending the Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days to commencing the Dakota Access pipeline construction, President Donald Trump’s first week has been busy and met with mixed reactions around the country. Within one week the president has brought more than a dozen changes to the United States in terms of national security, immigration policy and global trade. All of these actions have been implemented by executive orders and presidential memoranda, in some cases circumventing congress and traditional governmental decision making. Although he doesn’t expect the wall along the United States-Mexico border to be built before the end of Trump’s

presidency, David Isenhour, chairman of TAMU College Republicans and petroleum engineering junior, predicts border security will reach a more technological, protective state. Isenhour also said suspending the visa program as well as blocking entry to citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days was a good move toward reforming immigration policies. “Do I see a day where we do open our visa program back up to those nations? Yeah, I hope it’s in the near future. There are a lot of good people who are trying to escape violence and to experience the American dream just like our forefathers did,” Isenhour said. Many students on campus are affected by the most recent executive order, as well as their family and friends. According to the

university enrollment profile for fall 2016, more than 200 students are from the countries affected by the ban. Lucas Fernandez, chemical engineering junior and president of Texas Aggie Democrats, said the ban is unacceptable. Fernandez said people who left their country of origin for serious reasons or students visiting home were blindsided. “I think the immigration ban is absolutely ridiculous. You have people that are professionals, professors, students and workers who are stuck in other countries right now. They have jobs,” Fernandez said. “They left on a green card thinking, ‘I’m a resident so I should be fine,’ and now they’re stuck over there.” TRUMP ON PG. 4

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PROTEST CONTINUED a white, Christian, conservative school and hopefully [events] like this will help minorities feel more accepted and welcome here at Texas A&M,” Eldouh said. Saira Ahmed, political science senior and public relations officer of TAMU MSA, said the event was open to anyone interested in the protest. “The event is for all Aggies, all community members in the Bryan-College Station area, not just for Muslims,” Ahmed said. “It’s open for Muslims and non-Muslims. Basically, it’s our response to the acts of hatred that have been showcased by the president and his executive orders, so we want to show that we’re part of this country. We’re citizens of this nation and we’re defending the incredible value of the right to freely practice our religion.” Encouraged by his wife to attend, architecture professor Ward Wells stood in the protest because of what has happened within the first 10 days since Trump’s inauguration into office. “The fact that there’s too many things that are happening within the last 10 days that are fundamentally un-American and that people are strong-arming people into various positions,” Wells said. “Some of which I think are unconstitutional, some of which are just bad for the country, some of which I think actually represent a small, very conservative minority, including the

Brian Okosun— THE BATTALION

Monday’s protest was aimed at promoting solidarity in the community.

‘alt-right,’ which is obviously occupying part of the White House.” While he acknowledges the rights of the protesters, chemical engineering junior Connor Shannon disagrees with the some of the statements they were chanting. “I just don’t like how they’re going out about this protest as of right now,” Shannon said. “The quoting of fascism is just not true. There’s really no fascism going on. Where is the fascism?”

Communication junior Bailey Wolfenson said the march was meant to convey the message that differences should not be divisive. “Because Trump is not my president. This is not our America. This is democracy,” Wolfenson said. “It hurt my soul. Because we’re all the same, we’re one race, this is humankind, we’re not divided. We all hurt, we all feel, we all bleed. Because of your religion, that doesn’t make a difference.”

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Young urges international students to remain in the US Staff report University President Michael Young sent out a campus-wide email Monday offering support and assistance to students who may be affected by President Donald Trump’s latest executive action, which bars Syrian refugees from entering the United States indefinitely and blocks citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries from traveling to the United States for 90 days. The countries on the list — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Sudan — are listed as feeder countries for 220 Texas A&M students, according to the enrollment profile for fall 2016 prepared by the Data and Research Services. “We have, over the weekend and continue to do so today, reached out to those we know to be affected,” Young said in his email. “Attorneys within the Texas A&M System are assisting us in identifying helpful resources that can be made available to those affected. Until we know more information, we advise that students, faculty and staff from the countries named remain in the United States until the completion of their programs or until they plan to move to their home country permanently.” Young also assured faculty, students

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The BaTTalion is published daily, Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer session (except University holidays and exam periods) at Texas A&M University, College Station, daily, TX 77843. in Suite L400 THE BATTALION is published MondayOffices throughare Thursday during theoffallthe and Memorial Studentand Center. spring semesters Tuesday and Thursday during the summer session (except holidays news and department exam periods)is managed at Texas byA&M University, News: University The Battalion students at College Station, TX 77843. Offices are in Suite L400 of the Memorial Student Center. Texas A&M University in Student Media, a unit of the Division of Student Affairs. Newsroom phone: 979-845-3315; E-mail: editor@thebatt.com; News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at Texas A&M website:inhttp://www.thebatt.com. University Student Media, a unit of the Division of Student Affairs. Newsroom Advertising: Publication of advertising doeswebsite: not imply sponsorship or phone: 979-845-3315; E-mail: editor@thebatt.com; http://www.thebatt.com. endorsement by The Battalion. For campus, local, and national display Publication of advertising does advertising, not imply call sponsorship Advertising: advertising, call 979-845-2687. For classified 979-845-or endorsement TheareBattalion. campus, local,through and national display 0569. Officebyhours 8 a.m. toFor 5 p.m. Monday Friday. Email: advertising call 979-845-2687. For classified advertising, call 979-845-0569. battads@thebatt.com. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Email: battads@thebatt.com. Subscriptions: A part of the University Advancement Fee entitles each Texas A&M student to pick up a single copy of The A part of the University Advancement FeeBattalion. entitles eachFirst Texascopy A&M Subscriptions: free, additional $1. of The Battalion. First copy free, additional copies $1. student to pick up acopies single copy

or staff affected by the action the university will work with them to allow them to continue their studies. “For any students, faculty and/or staff who may be delayed in travel to the U.S. because of the current situation, we will work with them to ensure that they may continue their work remotely uninterrupted,” Young said in his email. “We are also working with our congressional delegation for assistance so that everyone affected by this order can continue their work without disruption or delay.” Bill Taylor, director of International Student Services, also sent an email to students from the banned countries, advising against travel unless absolutely necessary. “I do not recommend traveling outside the United States at this time,” Taylor said in his email. “If you choose to travel, please consult an experienced immigration attorney before leaving the United States. Please let me know if you and your dependents are inside or outside the United States. If you travel inside the United States, be sure to have your immigration paperwork and passport.” Taylor also reminded affected students of counseling resources available on campus should they need them. “On a personal note, if you need to talk to someone, ISS and Student Counseling Services staff are available,” Taylor said. “It is normal to be

Michael Young made a statement in a campus-wide email Monday.

stressed.” Young finished his email by reminding faculty, staff and students to be respectful and inclusive. “Finally, and most importantly, we are Aggies united — inclusive of nationality, cultural identity, age, gender identity or expression, physical ability, political ideology, racial and ethnic identity, religious and spiritual identity, sexual orientation and social and economic status — so please respect each other, stay informed and support each other as Aggies do,” Young said.

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SXSW CONTINUED Boehm said Aggies Invent will hold a preliminary competition to narrow the field down to three teams of four students that will compete at Aggies Invent, and he said he hopes the event inspires someone to invest in one of the team’s ideas. “When you are broadcasting to such a worldwide stage at such an important event, we know that by showcasing our students and what they are capable of amazing things are going to happen,” Boehm said. “So we are just almost vibrating with the possibilities.”

Ryan Monheim, 2017 Formula SAE project manager and mechanical engineering senior, said he and his team will unveil the racecar they have designed and built over the past semester as part of Formula SAE. Monheim said while he is excited to be presenting on such a big stage, the team has a lot of work left to do before they are ready. “We go to paint the chassis in about two weeks, and then we’ll have a couple weeks to get the car assembled and we’re ready to go,” Monheim said. “So we’re on schedule to hit that right now, but it’s still going to be difficult because our schedule is more accelerated than it has been in the past so

there is a lot to do.” Smith said many of the exhibits that will be showcased at SXSW will be brought back to A&M and made available for students on campus and for use in the future. “This is about taking advantage of a global event which is really not that far away from us and it is really very affordable to be able to do that,” Smith said. “And then to make sure we are using our investment wisely, to make sure that we get back and are able to show students and then have these things housed on campus so we can continue these exhibits.”

A&M HYPERLOOP TEAM WINS HONORABLE MENTION IN CALIFORNIA TAMU Aerospace team will work to improve design for next phase By Gracie Mock @g_mock2

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Members of the TAMU Aerospace team work on last-minute adjustments to their Hyperloop pod prototypes.

parts, final adjustments. That’s basically what we did every single day until Sunday morning.” While still in College Station, the team’s focus was on testing the parts of the pod, specifically the air bearings to prove the efficiency of the air systems, Ellis said. “At that point, it was a lot of testing,” Ellis said. “We focused our attention definitely on the air bearings. We tested hundreds of times. We tested different scenarios, we tested different configurations and eventually we tested the full pod that we were going to use [Sunday].” Ellis said the team was only able to test for static levitation, not speed while in College Station. “It would [have been] nice, but we don’t have the capabilities there at A&M, we would have to built a little track for us to push it,” Ellis said.

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Coen said it was a shame the team wasn’t able to showcase the air levitation technology on the tube itself. “Our design and our technology is extremely simple and never made before, this is brand new technology that works extremely well based on our static testing at A&M,” Coen said. “We’re going to try again, [we have] special permission from SpaceX to try on the outside track, hopefully, we’ll get good data.” The WARR Hyperloop team from the Technical University of Munich took top speed honors at the competition and while the TAMU Aerospace team did not receive any awards, they were recognized with Honorable Mention for their custom air levitation system.

Team member Farid Saemi said his favorite part of the competition was being in Los Angeles with the other teams. “Talking to them learning about what they did and learning about their systems, and then also SpaceX engineers, Tesla engineers, I mean, as an aerospace major, L.A. is to aerospace what Houston is to oil and gas,” Saemi said. “Just being here, in that community, was really cool.” The next steps for the TAMU Aerospace Hyperloop team will be improving the current pod to take to the next phase of competition that will be held this summer. Ellis said this task will most likely be taken on by an entirely new team as the project’s time commitment is so long.

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A year and a half after the announcement of the concept, the first Hyperloop pods made their way across a one-mile test track and took one step closer to becoming a reality. Hyperloop, a high-speed transportation system that would carry both passengers and cargo through a vacuum tube while traveling at more than 700 miles per hour, is the brainchild of billionaire inventor Elon Musk. In the summer of 2015 Musk, engineer and investor, announced the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition, calling for teams from all over the world to answer the challenge of creating the next wave of transportation. From more than 1,400 entries in the beginning, the TAMU Aerospace team was one of the 27 teams that met this weekend in Hawthorne, CA to send their pod on the test track. While their pod didn’t make the cut for the test track, they still got to be part of the events the weekend. “One of the big issues with our pod was that our brakes were by default on,” said team member Adelin Destain. “They want to make sure in the case of an electrical failure on the main power system, our brakes would remain deactivate. We had with the design of the pod as we shipped over there did not include a redundant system to prevent that.” Team member Mauricio Coen said they knew about the most of the requirements before heading into the weekend and had spoken with SpaceX to ensure their pod would meet the requirements. “Based on our previous responses, we thought our systems were checked out because of the various parameters that we had built to our power systems, but once we were there ...,” Coen said. “They changed their parameters to meet the requirements, that’s why we had to scramble last minute.” The TAMU Aerospace team arrived in California Tuesday to prepare their pod for the weekend ahead. “It was just a big, big parking lot and each team had its own space,” said team member Dean Ellis said. “You had your own trailer, some teams had little machine shops built in there and it was just prepping for [Sunday’s] competition for finishing up the pod, replacing

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TRUMP CONTINUED Isenhour said many of Trump’s actions are in line with republican political desires. Isenhour also said executive orders are the fastest way to undo the previous administration’s actions, and may have been the only way to undo policies. “In the short term, I do not believe it is entirely troublesome. It’s not ideal — however, with the last eight years of an Obama presidency where we saw executive orders increase exponentially,” Isenhour said. “I believe that it is the most efficient way to get us back to a governmental norm.”

Recently, the wall along the United States-Mexico border that Trump promised during his campaign has begun the planning phase, with plans for Mexico to help fund it. Border security has been tightened with local and state law enforcement being given the responsibility of immigration officers and Trump has planned to hire 10,000 new border agents. Zach Russell, president of Aggies for Trump and international studies sophomore, said he is impressed by the speed at which Trump is attempting to change the country. “I like the fact that he’s taking initiative so quickly,” Russell said. “He’s used those order to pull out of certain things we don’t need to

be into, like [the Trans-Pacific Partnership]. It shows his eagerness to help better the country instead of dragging his feet along, like other people. He’s getting so much done, so quickly, it makes everyone else that’s come before him look bad.” Kirby Goidel, a fellow at the Public Policy Research Institute and communication professor, said the days following Trump’s inauguration were fascinating to observe. “I think now we know we should have taken him really literally,” Goidel said. “Across the board he’s been doing everything he can do. It’s interesting that he’s doing this via executive orders which is something republicans were concerned about with Barack Obama

but that’s not at all unusual.” Goidel said Trump is in a peculiar place concerning all of his actions. Goidel said many voters only supported him for specific issues, hoping he wouldn’t embrace others such as the immigration ban or health care. “People support presidents for different reasons, so if you sort of do everything you lose some of your support,” Goidel said. “Someone may have supported him because they were really concerned with immigration but they’re worried about what he’s doing with health care. Protests against the immigration are happening around the country in airports as people can neither leave the country or come back.”

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“We, as Aggies and Americans, are better than this”

Don’t rush to be overly critical of Trump just yet

Trump’s multiple executive orders in his first week draw criticism, global protests

We should all wait before reacting with fear and outrage to Trump’s initial actions

Grace Neumann @GracieEve18

he week began with the largest protest in American history; the Women’s March occurred in nearly every major American city — not to mention internationally — with an attendance of approximately 2.9 million people marching. This would not be the last protest to occur last week. There has been one nearly every day, each following another executive action signed by Donald Trump. As many conservatives argue, he’s simply doing what he promised he would do once in office. While this may be true, more than 65 million Americans voted against Trump and his policies, and now those people are making their voices heard. Just a day after his swearing-in, Trump stood in front of a wall honoring fallen CIA agents, and boasted — falsely — about how large his inauguration crowd was. He stood in front of two stars placed there for two fallen Navy SEALS — Glenn Doherty and Tyronne Woods — who died in the Benghazi attacks, attacks he used as propaganda during his campaign. Wednesday morning, an underground pipeline in Iowa leaked roughly 138,000 gallons of diesel into the environment around it, irreparably damaging that land; it’s the biggest leak in 10 years. This came only a day after Trump signed executive orders to advance work on the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. Even worse, even after numerous environmental disasters involving pipelines, Trump’s Tuesday freeze on all of the Environmental Protection Agency’s funding, grants and research ensures no environmental protection agents will be brought in to oversee the project. It is important to note: This was followed by a media blackout of both the EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. His reasoning for advancing Keystone XL is that it will create roughly 28,000 jobs; the State Department refutes this claim, saying at most it will create 3,900 jobs for only a year during the pipeline’s construction. TransCanada, the company who owns the pipeline, does not dispute these numbers. On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order regarding “The Wall” between the Mexican-American border. This will be a grossly expensive — roughly $25 billion — project, a project Americans will be paying for through both taxes and a proposed 20 percent tariff on Mexican goods. Additionally he ordered all federal grant funding be re-

voked from sanctuary cities, which includes New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Washington, San Francisco and Seattle. Arguably the worst moment of the week came Friday, when Trump banned all incoming refugees and immigrants from seven primarily Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya. What was horrifying about this order was the unconstitutional and illegal provision in the order that included visa and green card holders in the ban. These are people who have come legally to this country, some of whom have been living here for years. This ban affects A&M directly — more than 200 of your fellow Aggies “Imagine being m a y

Matthew Jacobs @MattJacobs3414

egardless of your political convictions, I think all of us on both sides of the aisle can agree that Donald Trump has definitely stayed busy in his first week and a half as president. Trump has signed more than a dozen executive actions so far, all being met with the usual amount of outrage and fear mongering that we have come to expect at this trapped in a forpoint. It seems to have turned

eign country that against you. These are individuals who came here to Texas A&M in search a better life and a good education. Is it okay to turn our backs on them?“ Grace Neumann, student

“He is signaling that ‘The times they are a changin’ .’ And they need to. Our governm ent has frankly become an insuffera ble monster of corruptio n and two-face d politihave cians...” cantheir student visas and green cards revoked; they certainly can’t go home to visit any of their families until the ban is lifted. Imagine being trapped in a foreign country that seems to have turned against you. These are individuals who came here to Texas A&M in search a better life and a good education. Is it okay to turn our backs on them? No. We, as Aggies and Americans, are better than this. Grace Neumann is an English junior and page designer for The Battalion.

not be denied that the president has done some disagreeable things during his short tenure so far, but I would advise people to not rush to overly negative judgments just yet. To avoid coming across as some sort of apologist for the president I will start with criticism. “Alternative facts” may be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Many would agree with me, and while Trump himself did not say this, he should be proactive in preventing such blatant ignorance from being associated with his administration. Conveying maturity should also be a goal for the Commander in Chief, and one practical Matthew Jacobs, student

way to start doing that is to stop showing so much concern about crowd size. Trump’s insecurity that his inauguration crowd may not have been as big as President Obama’s just makes it look like he’s compensating for something. His relationship with Vladimir Putin needs a dose of transparency as well. Everyone also needs to remember that most of Trump’s executive actions do not actually do anything. The orders he signed to start the construction of the border wall, increase border patrol, and “minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens” of the Affordable Care Act are essentially just sheets of paper. What Trump is actually after is making a statement. And that statement I would say needs to be made in Washington. He is signaling that “the times they are a changin’”. And they need to. Our government has frankly become an insufferable monster of corruption and two-faced politics; something I heard at the dinner table growing up was that we “ought to just throw them all out and start over”. This is the closest thing we have to doing that. The political establishment that has protected this disappointing status quo for so long should be afraid, and Trump has made that happen. He is doing some shooting from the hip in the process though, so I would encourage people that some of his attacks, like cutting funding for NPR and PBS or banning social media accounts for the EPA and NASA, will most likely not last. And now the Immigration Ban. All I would say is everyone should react with less outrage and attempt to understand the nuances of this issue. Of course we should all want to accept with open arms those who have been downtrodden and oppressed. But only seeing the refugee crisis as that is over-simplifying the issue. The fact of the matter is that allowing large numbers of people from this region has proven to be very dangerous. Look at Europe and the awful acts of terrorism that have occurred in the last few years there. Their complete open door policy to refugees and immigrants from the Middle East is to blame. And so I support the ban — which, remember only lasts for 90 days — until a long-term policy that protects our national security can be found. Matthew Jacobs is a political science senior and news reporter for The Battalion.

GET YOUR AGGIELAND PHOTO TAKEN NEXT WEEK! Specialties Photography will be set up to have your FREE portrait taken for Texas A&M University’s 2017 Aggieland yearbook. ALL CLASSES: 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Monday - Thursday in the Sanders Corps Museum Library Feb. 6th - 9th & Feb. 13th - 16th

It’s your yearbook. Be in it.

Should any student be unable to make the specified times on campus they can contact Specialties directly to set up a complimentary in-studio appointment at 979-696-9898. Any graduating seniors who wish to set up a cap/gown photo will need to contact the studio at 979-696-9898. Cap/Gown sessions cost $21.95.