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Green Dot Students staged a fight Monday to raise awareness for the Green Dot campaign. Get the details at thebatt.com
thebattalion ● wednesday,
october 26, 2011
● serving
texas a&m since 1893
● first paper free – additional copies $1 ● © 2011 student media
Occupied Texans take sides in Occupy Wall Street movement inside
Barrett House
From bottom: A motorcycle patrolman keeps protesters on the sidewalk in New York City. A masked man gestures to the camera in London. James Rawlinson protests in Montgomery, Ala. (top center) Police enforce a barricade in Oakland, Calif.
inside campus | 5 Excellence Students, faculty and administrators discussed students’ responsibilities and accountability at A&M in Tuesday’s campus dialogue.
voices | 6 Green fund Every student pays $3 per semester to the Aggie Green Fund. One columnist loves it, another hates it.
The Battalion Sleeping bags, plastic tarps and clothes are voices | 6 drying on the grass after a harsh Texas storm. Occupy Wall $treet A high school teacher flashes a peace sign to Voices columnists Taylor Wolken and protestors — homeless, educated, young and old — who have set up camp on a strip of Josh Howell take a look at the movement’s grass behind City Hall, which has become composition and chances at success. home to the movement Occupy Dallas. and how that wealth is being used. As he walked to his Pontiac GTO to re“Individuals in Congress are getting montrieve donated supplies, the teacher said he ey from big Wall Street banks and these big makes $50,000 a year and is the wealthiest corporations,” Desai said. “We’re moving occupant protesting in City Hall Park. against everything within corporate greed, Occupy Wall Street, an initially-small like how Wall Street execs are getting the movement that started in Liberty Square of largest bonuses ever, and people in those New York City, spread to Texas in a mat- companies are getting laid off.” ter of weeks. The movement has reached Recently, the Occupy movement reached 82 countries worldwide and more than 100 A&M. On Nov. 3, protesters will march U.S. cities, including Dallas, Austin, Hous- from Academic Plaza to Bank of America ton and Bryan-College Station. and Chase Bank on Texas Avenue, before The protesters supporting the Occupy returning to campus. The “Occupy College movement came from various backgrounds Station” Facebook group had 98 “likes” as of and for different reasons. Tuesday evening. “There’s been unions involved. People Paul Adamski, junior philosophy major think it’s just hippies. But there are iron and student organizer of the Occupy College workers; there are a lot of ex-veterans. There Station movement, said Occupy is about is a great diversity,” said Anup Desai, senior spurring discussion at A&M, across Texas, in lecturer at a Manhattan Community College the U.S. and elsewhere. and Wall Street protestor. “It’s the people “We should be aware that wages have who are the most downtrodden, the people stagnated since 1973 even though we’ve had who are unemployed, the people who have growing productivity in the country. The been forgotten by the economy.” relations between governance and finance Kristian Cavallero, an original member of has been detrimental to our democratic Occupy Austin, said there are students pro- principles,” Adamski said. “We only protest testing, but it is not only students. outside of banks because they are symbols “The diversity is lower working class and of the Wall Street financial district. These professionals, lawyers, teachers. We’ve seen local bank branches aren’t our opponents, city officials, ambulance drivers, veterans, rather symbols.” union workers, ranging from ages 20 to 50,” Justin Montgomery, Occupy organizer Cavallero said. and senior mechanical engineering major, Members of Occupy Dallas said there is no said a large public university is exactly the single leader. However, there were “crews” kind of place where this kind of dialogue assigned to divide the daily operations, such should be happening. as sanitation, food, security and media. “I acknowledge what some have said, that “We have sanitation, the kitchen, the this won’t make a difference on a national sustainability group, which is trying to bring scale and that there is really no ‘one percent’ the green factor,” Desai said. “There’s an art in College Station,” Montgomery said, regroup, who make signs. There are coordina- ferring to the wealthiest one percent of U.S. tors of general assembly. We have an action citizens. “If just one person sees our protest group who organizes marches, along with and it makes them think a bit more about press and media.” how things are and how they should be now There have been similar patterns across and in the future, then I think we’ve accomthe country, using the successes and failures plished what we set out to do.” of Occupy Wall Street as a template. Aggies, both in College Station and Protesters said the main issues are corpo- New York, have varied opinions about the rate greed, the inequality of wealth between the top one percent and the lower 99 percent See Occupy on page 4
From bottom: A protester stands at a downtown corner in Spokane, Wash. A graffitied trash bin proclaims an Occupy message in Oakland, Calif. Protesters in Chicago rally at night.
campus
bryan-college station
U.S., China officials discuss countries’ futures
40 Days campaign intensifies abortion debate in B-CS
Jordan Williford The Battalion Dignitaries and scholars from China and the U.S. gathered Monday at the George Bush Presidential Library Center to discuss the countries’ relationship and environmental policies, and competition between the world’s two largest economies. The two countries — vastly different politically and ideologically — have forged a relationship that balances competition and cooperation. Currently, China
is the world’s largest developing economy while the U.S. is the world’s largest developed economy. The speakers came to A&M to participate in the China-U.S. Relations Conference, held at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center at the George Bush Library and Museum. Discussions followed four plenary sessions. Grand strategy was the topic of the first plenary session.
Justin Mathers The Battalion Against a backdrop dominated by an ominous fence, peaceful protesters with heads bowed in prayer gathered outside the Bryan Planned Parenthood. Protesters have flocked here every Saturday morning since Oct. 1, trying to halt one of today’s most controversial practices. They are the 40 Days for Life protesters, and their mission is to end abortion. Together with the Brazos Valley Coalition for Life, Pro-life Aggies are helping to lead the charge. Although 40 Days for Life has See 40 Days on page 4
See China on page 3
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