thebattalion l february
27, 2013
l serving
texas a&m since 1893
l first paper free – additional copies $1 l © 2013 student media
Swope reaches final round James Sullivan The Battalion
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he NCAA Football 14 cover vote campaign arrived at its final stage with only two contestants remaining on the ballot: Texas A&M wide receiver Ryan Swope and Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson. With the opportunity to grace this year’s cover of EA Sports’ annual NCAA Football video game, Swope and Robinson have ascended through five rounds and two months of non-cumulative voting to one decisive ballot. During the semifinals, which ran Feb. 18-25, Swope and Robinson knocked out Alabama’s Eddie Lacy and Oregon’s Kenjon Barner. The final voting period runs through March 8. Students can vote at the Facebook page, EA SPORTS NCAA Football.
Special to The Battalion
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he unsung artists of A&M have a new outlet with which to share their creative works in The Eckleburg Project, A&M’s newest literary magazine. The magazine was created by eight students, who say the purpose of the project is to open the door for a greater appreciation of the arts. The new student-run and written magazine, sponsored by the University Writing Center, is accepting submissions from creative writers, photographers and artists for its first issue. “The Eckleburg Project will be important for A&M students because right now there are few mediums on campus through which authors and artists alike have the opportunity to express themselves,” said Amanda Yanes, senior psychology and English double major and editor-in-chief of the magazine. “I think that art, in all its forms, is important. Not only because it is beautiful, but because it contains answers or poses questions that only the artist has. In short, art teaches.” The Eckleburg Project takes its name from the pages of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” where the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg look down from a billboard at the world. “We took this symbol and put our own spin on it,” Yanes said. “Part of the job of writers is to examine their surroundings — to see the world around them, and then, through art, tell a truth about what
Ryan Swope 48.45%
Denard Robinson 59k votes
51.75%
Results as of Feb. 26
system news
Sharp named Mr. South Texas Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp was selected as Mr. South Texas 2013 for the 116th Washington’s Birthday Celebration. The Mr. South Texas designation is presented to a deserving individual who has made a significant and lasting contribution
inside life | 3 Showtime at Rudder HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD, a live performance featuring renditions of various film and theatre scenes, will be presented Friday and Saturday in Rudder Auditorium.
sports | 4 A&M visits Ole Miss
FILE PHOTO
Legislators kick off annual game at Kyle Katie Nortman The Battalion
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niversity of Texas graduates brandished “Hook ‘em Horns” while members of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band blared the Aggie War Hymn during Texas legislators’ annual flag football game. Legislators from districts across Texas unloaded a charter bus Tuesday at Kyle Field to take part in the not-so-conventional tradition decked out in maroon and white jerseys: senior legislators in maroon vs. freshman legislators in white. Before the game started, members of the Aggie band marched onto the field and started a pick-up football game of their own. When they arrived, freshman legislator Rep. Trent Ashby, Class of 1995 senior yell leader, ran from the bus straight to the field to join cadets in their pick-up game. “I don’t know how they decided to bring it here, but I’m glad they did,” Ashby said. “It’s a fun way for the freshmen to bond outside the capitol and to get to know our senior legislators.” Legislators wore numbers that represented the district of Texas they serve, with one notable exception. Ashby represents district 57 but wore No. 2 in honor of his favorite A&M football player, Johnny Manziel.
“[Freshmen legislators] are really thrown into a whole new environment,” Ashby said. “There are so many new rules and precedents to learn. It’s really neat to get out here with these senior legislators and not talk about serious issues, but just really focus on camaraderie.” Rep. Ed Thompson, freshman legislator from district 29, stood as one of several wearing burnt orange beneath their maroon jerseys. Thompson said the teams don’t really practice or have plays. “It’s kind of like sandlot football,” Thompson said. “I didn’t graduate from U.T., but I did go there for my first few years of college. It’s quite an honor to get to play on Kyle Field, though.” Chancellor John Sharp said he wanted to bring the game here to draw the legislators closer to A&M so that they could better understand what the University is all about. “It has always been in Austin, but this year Chancellor Sharp got them to come here,” said Steve Moore, A&M System vice chancellor of marketing and communications. The flag football games come during the 83rd Texas Legislative Session, during which Texas A&M among other Texas universities is asking the state for Jenna Rabel — THE BATTALION more financial support after significant Freshman and senior Texas legislators meet to compete in a friendly cuts to higher education in 2011. game of flag football Tuesday evening at Kyle Field.
archaeology
Researchers seek evidence of earlier human presence Chris Scoggins
The Battalion omplete and utter darkness surrounds her. Postdoctoral student Jessi Halligan might as well be swimming through tar as she attempts to navigate the cold darkness of the Aucilla River in Florida. Halligan is a research associate on a team excavating fossil evidence of 14,000-year-old early humans. Halligan collaborated with A&M anthropology professor Michael Waters and other researchers at the University’s Center for the Studies of First Americans in a search for archaeological evidence to suggest that early men crossed over into the Americas more than 1,000 years earlier than was previously thought. Similar expeditions were conducted by the Florida Museum of Natural History at the same site 25 years before Halligan’s team, but no concrete evidence was recovered from these earlier expeditions. “Basically we were going out there to see if we can find anything in that older layer,” Halligan said. Waters said the most commonly accepted theory regarding the first groups of early man — a group of prehistoric people called the Clovis — arrived in the Americas about 13,500 years ago. Waters, Halligan and the other researchers are looking for archeological evidence to prove that an earlier culture may have arrived around
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sports | 5 Aggies down Demons
COURTESY
Jessi Halligan, a postdoctoral research associate, dives into the Aucilla River in Florida to search for archaeological evidence of early humans in North America.
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See Eckleburg on page 3
state
The men’s basketball team will travel to Oxford, Miss., to match up with the Rebels on the hardwood. A&M will be looking for a sweep over the conference’s fourth ranked team.
The baseball team kicked off a two-game series against Northwestern State with a 9-5 victory Tuesday night.
Students launch literary magazine Elizabeth Evans
Ballot standings 55k votes
campus
2,500 years earlier. Halligan said previous digs around the Aucilla River were questionable because the area was an underwater dig site. “It’s a really big deal that they found this, but it was found at a time when scientists were absolutely positive that there was nothing here besides Clovis,” Halligan said. “So basically everybody said ‘It’s an underwater site, they just messed up while digging it.’” Matthew Renfro, sophomore history major, said this research is good for academia because it challenges ideas previously accepted by the scientific community. “I think one major [lesson] would be never to accept what you believe is true to be completely for certain,” Renfro said. “Here at A&M, we do question — we always question and make sure we can confirm what we’ve heard or give good basis for believing that.” Halligan excavates the underwater fossils in full scuba gear and digs the fossils through layers of debris with a pinpoint laser, while using flashlights to penetrate the Florida waters. Underwater sites like these provide archeologists with superior preservation not found in aboveground dig sites. “Everywhere that is dry in North America has a lot of artifacts from that time period, but all you have left is stone because of the See Archaeology on page 3
2/26/13 11:15 PM