thebattalion ● monday,
october 8, 2012
● serving g
texas a&m since 1893
● first paper free – additional copies $1 ● © 2012 student med media
Colorful courage thebatt.com
Sailed the ocean blue Columbus: Success or failure? Evaluate for yourself Columbus’ impact on the modern and ancient worlds.
inside
b!
trends | 3 Debaters control podium
The Texas A&M Speech and Debate Team recently gained national recognition as the group continues to shine bright in competition. The team is open to all students.
sports | 4 New Aggie attitude Aggie fans may not have found Saturday’s 30-27 win over Ole Miss an easy game to watch, but that makes it no less promising going forward.
sports | 5 Soccer splits weekend Riding hot on a 12-game unbeaten streak and a Friday home 5-0 blowout of Alabama, the No. 5 Aggies fell 2-1 to Florida on Sunday.
nation Out of this world A commercial cargo ship rocketed into orbit Sunday in pursuit of the International Space Station, the first of a dozen supply runs under a mega-contract with NASA. It was the second launch of a Dragon capsule to the orbiting lab by the California-based SpaceX company.
Pg. 1-10.08.12.indd 1
Weeklong event highlights GLBT visibility, community Emily Villani The Battalion October is GLBT History Month, and Texas A&M’s GLBT Resource Center has built a week of programming around National Coming Out Day on Thursday. But the Resource Center isn’t the only organization involved in this week’s GLBT-related activities. “The week is a combined effort to promote National Coming Out Day
and has education about what it means to come out and all the experiences that may be associated,” said Ryan Cano, senior architecture major. Although one objective of the week is to promote National Coming Out Day, it’s not the singular focus. “Not all of our events are particularly coming-out related,” said Mickey Belaineh, senior political science major and student worker at the GLBT Resource Center. “It’s encom-
passing all different aspects of being GLBT-identified.” Coming Out Week serves as a platform for GLBT visibility — not just to the A&M community at large, but to the rest of the GLBT community. “Some people are considering coming out, but they’re afraid that they’re going to be alone,” said Steven Ahern, plant pathology graduate student. Belaineh said acceptance of the
Coming Out Week schedule ◗ Film: Raid of the Rainbow Lounge. 7 p.m., Wednesday, HECC 209 ◗ Coming Out Stories. 7 p.m., Thursday, MSC 2404 ◗ Guess Who’s Gay: Faculty/Staff. 7-8:10 p.m., Friday, Rudder 501
See Coming out on page 3
sports
Backs to the wall, Aggies steal win James Sullivan The Battalion The Aggie offense took the field with 8:35 left in the fourth quarter, down by ten and holding not a sliver of momentum. Following last season’s second half debacles, many Aggie fans would consider a comeback at that juncture to be out of the question. Led by redshirt freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel, A&M was able to rack up 13 points on two consecutive drives, pushing the program to a victory during its conference road debut against Ole Miss, 30-27. “We didn’t play as well as we wanted,” head coach Kevin Sumlin said following the win. “But for us to operate, come in [to Oxford], and turn the ball over like that on the road in the SEC and win is something that I think our team can build confidence in.” Over the course of the game, the Aggies gave the ball up six times, increasing their season total to seven
Courtesy of THE DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN
See Ole Miss on page 4
The Aggies saw it off Saturday evening after a victory over Ole’ Miss. The Aggies came from behind in the fourth quarter finishing 30–27.
sports
Two up, two down for A&M Michael Rodriguez The Battalion The Texas A&M volleyball team made a statement this weekend by sweeping South Carolina and Mississippi State and improving their record to 14-2 and 6-1 in SEC play, retaining sole possession of first place in the SEC West. In the process of the weekend matchups and for the fifth time in school history, the Aggies open their first 16 games with only two losses while breaking the program record for least amount of points allowed in a match. The Aggies only allowed Mississippi State 32 total points (25-8, 25-14, 25-10), breaking the previous mark of 41 points allowed to Texas Southern in 2009. “I was really pleased with our execution overall,” head coach Laurie Corbelli said. “I didn’t think there was a part of our game that was subpar for how we’ve been playing in practice and how we’ve been performing in matches.” Chase Krumholz — THE BATTALION Friday night, the Aggies jumped Senior opposite Alicia Kastmo spikes the ball toward Mississippi State Sunday evening at See Volleyball on page 6 Reed Arena. The Aggies swept MSU.
culture
Aggieland welcomes Raga Sarvesh Kaslay Special to The Battalion The Zachry Auditorium was witness to a pool of talent showcasing the classical arts of India, as the Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth organized a concert in which Texas A&M students exhibited their artistic prowess. The event, held Saturday night, commenced with the resonant voice of 11-year-old Srinidhi Narayanan, whose father, Krishna Narayanan, is a professor in the department of electrical engineering. Srinidhi sang a piece of classical Carnatic melody. Indian classical music is distinguished into two main streams, Hindustani and Carnatic music.
The Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth encourages all kinds of traditional Indian performance arts such as classical singing and dance. Srinidhi’s performance was followed by Shakthi, who came from Austin to participate in the event. Other singers who shone bright were Ambika Venkat, sophomore computer engineering major, and Soundarya Ramakrishnan, management information systems graduate student. Bharathi Kalluri, computer science graduate student, sang Indian classical songs in three different languages: Telugu, Marathi and Hindi, representing the southern, central See Raga on page 3
10/8/12 12:57 AM