Editor's note This is the last edition of The Battalion that will be on stands this week. Check for news updates at thebatt.com and pick up The Batt’s final 2011 publication on Monday.
thebattalion ● tuesday,
december 6, 2011
● serving
texas a&m since 1893
● first paper free – additional copies $1 ● © 2011 student media
Photos by Robert Carpenter — THE BATTALION
Left: Federal agents with bomb-sniffing dogs exit Evans Library Monday after searching the building for explosives. Right: University police enforce evacuations of Evans Library, top, and the Evans Library Annex, bottom.
Bomb hoax empties library 16-year-old arrested, charged with terroristic threat Robby Smith The Battalion Evans Library staff received a bomb threat Monday morning, leading to the library’s evacuation and initiating the University’s emergency response processes for the second time in four days. Following a University Police Department, UPD, investigation, police in Baytown, Texas, apprehended a 16-year-old male Monday evening suspected of sending the threat from a computer in Goose Creek Independent School District. The suspect, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, was charged with terroristic threat — a third degree felony — before being released to his parents later in the evening, according to a UPD press release.
Attempts to contact Baytown police for comment were unsuccessful. Library staff received the threat at approximately 11 a.m. through the Library Chat Resource Service feature, which allows students and faculty to communicate with library personnel through an online chat service. Library staff communicated the threat to UPD, which dispatched units to the location and evacuated the building. Rodrigo Maldonado, junior economics major, said he was studying on the second floor when library staff calmly but firmly instructed students to immediately evacuate. “Everything was pretty calm,” Maldonado said. “Library officials just came to us on all the floors, evacuating us, just telling us to leave calmly and patiently. And that is what everyone did.”
Maldonado said police and library staff did not tell students why they were asked to leave. “The evacuation was pretty efficient if you ask me, but they did not say anything about the bomb threat,” Maldonado said. Maldonado learned the reason for the evacuation when he received a Code Maroon alert on his cell phone approximately a half-hour later. The alert, which had an 11:25 a.m. timestamp, informed recipients of the bomb threat and instructed students to avoid the area. Walkways on all sides of Evans Library remained open to pedestrian traffic. UPD personnel and yellow caution tape prevented students from venturing
Students walk past Evans Library Monday afternoon while bombsniffing dogs sweep the building.
See Hoax on page 6
texas
silver taps
District election to be decided in runoff
Brilliant student, musician, friend
Robby Smith The Battalion There was no decisive winner in the November special election for Texas House District 14 state representative to fill the incomplete term of Fred Brown, as no candidate won a majority of the votes. The runoff election is between Republicans Bob Yancy and John Raney, both local businessmen. Election Day is Dec. 13. Candidates said they have done a few things to change their campaign strategies. “I have remained focused on connecting with each and every voter by walking door to door, listening to their concerns and personally asking for each vote,” Yancy said. “And, I’ve continued talking with groups around town, for example this week
I addressed the student senate at Texas A&M and talked with Aggies about this important election.” “We are going to run some TV ads, which we did not do last time,” Raney said. “We also are going to do some more direct mail. However, Raney said his campaign message remains the same. “We’re sticking with the same message,” Raney said. “Experience of integrity and conservative philosophy.” While the two candidates are working to come out on top in this election, another election is approaching in March. “I’m very focused on this upcoming special election run-off and haven’t given a whole lot of thought See Runoff on page 6
Kevin Smith The Battalion The A&M community lost a great mind and musician when Austin Fannin passed away Oct. 22. Fannin, senior recreation, park and tourism sciences major, left behind fond memories of friendship, intelligent conversation and incredible guitar riffs. He will be remembered at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday at Silver Taps in Academic Plaza. “The greatest thing about Austin was that he had this wry wit, so things would come out of his mouth that you would least expect — he was just so funny,” said Fannin’s mother, Kathy Fletcher. “He was always so great at play-
nation&world
See Fannin on page 5
‘It was impossible not to love him.’ -Cam Fannin Austin Gray Fannin, senior recreation, park and tourism sciences major
Silver Taps
◗ 10:30 p.m. Tuesday in Academic Plaza ◗ Free parking is available to students between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. in University Center Garage. ◗ Students living on campus are asked to extinguish lights between 10:15 and 11 p.m. ◗ Students can write letters to Austin Fannin’s family on Tuesday at the memorial box in Academic Plaza and at tables in the Quadrangle, Koldus Plaza and Wehner Building.
2011 year in review Natalee Blanchat
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sporting a pair of 2011-shaped glasses, this gorilla-costumed partier celebrates the new year in New York’s Times Square.
Pg. 1-12.06.11.indd 1
ing devil’s advocate; I would say something and he would rebuttal it with something else that I never even thought of.” Fannin was said to have had a gift for making acquaintances no matter who they were. “On drives from Midland to College Station, our conversations would fly by,” Fletcher said. “He could talk about anything and was interested in everything like philosophy, religion, politics and, of course, music.” David Whitmore, business management major at Blinn, played in a band with Fannin and remembered his friend as a great musician, which he said spoke well of Fannin’s overall character
Feb. 11, 1989 - Oct. 22, 2011 Austin Gray Fannin
The Battalion Looking back, 2011 was a year full of ups and downs — unrest in the Middle East, including the deaths of Osama bin Laden and Muammar Gaddafi; a North Dakota oil boom; protests that occupied the world; the loss of creative genius Steve Jobs; A&M’s SEC realignment — this year has seen its fair share of historic events. Almost one year ago, on Dec. 18, 2010, an awakening struck the Middle East that would ultimately define 2011 for people across the world. This revolutionary spark of civil up-
risings that stretched from western Africa to Egypt to Iraq was called the Arab Spring. The largest movement during the Arab Spring started on Feb. 26, prompted by the use of social media networks. After eight months of revolt, and with the help of the National Atlantic Treaty Organization, Muammar Gaddafi, the leader of the Libyan Arab Republic, was killed on Oct. 20. Gaddafi’s killing was not the only death of a Middle Eastern leader on Americans’ radar this year. Osama bin Laden, leader of the militant Islamic terrorist organization, al-Qaida, was
responsible for thousands of lives lost during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. On May 2, hundreds of Washington residents flocked to the outside gates of the White House to display patriotic signs after hearing that bin Laden was killed by a team of American operatives in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Michael Greenwald, dean of international studies, said the death of bin Laden was a moment Americans had been waiting for more than a decade. “I think that the death of bin Laden has been a tremendously positive thing,” Greenwald said. “It took 10 years to track him down but we finalSee 2011 on page 4
12/6/11 12:43 AM