Daily Toreador 032824

EMPOWERMENT

Decisions of West impact countries around world

Saleha Soadat stands before a class of college students and begins her story. Soadat shares her experience as a reporter in Afghanistan, having worked in the industry for over 10 years. She talks about life before the Taliban took over — before education, jobs and voices were stripped from women. In a day's time, Soadat was evacuated from Afghanistan by the U.S. government, and the next day, she was rebuilding her career in the

United States as a graduate student at Texas Tech. Her speech comes to an end, and the floor opens for questions. Someone innocently asks, “Where is Afghanistan?”

Civilians around the world are impacted by the political decisions of students within that classroom and those around the world. With a plethora of media outlets and platforms, it can be difficult to obtain accurate internal and international information and understand the impacts of making uneducated decisions.

“I don't see how there's any way to intelligently relate with the world by relying solely on our own perspective and our own reality,” said Eric Rasmussen, professor of media literacy. “We are so connected to each other in ways that we don't even understand — that in order to make a meaningful contribution in society, we have to nurture that connection and be educated about what other people think.”

Echoing similar sentiments is Russian reporter Marina Ovsyannikova. The anti-war

Phillips becomes Tech’s first female hockey player

By GRACE HAWKINS Staff WritEr

At the age of 3, Riley Phillips laced up her first pair of skates. Now 20, she is the first female hockey player in intramural program history at Texas Tech. Phillips fell in love with the rink early on, and by the age of 5, she knew hockey was something she wanted to pursue. Joining the team as a sophomore in college, Phillips said it took hard work and dedication to be successful in the male-dominated sport.

“Don't let the boys scare you off. Push through it,” Phillips said. “They might seem mean, but prove to them that you're worth it and that you can be there.”

As a child, watching her brother effortlessly skate across the rink captivated Phillps, sparking an immediate interest for the wideeyed girl.

“My brother started playing hockey before I was born,” Phillips said. “And I just grew up at the rink and seeing him play and skate just kind of pushed me to want to do that too.”

After two seasons of playing hockey at the age of 6, Phillips decided to focus solely on figure skating.

In 2019, she started coaching hockey skills for beginners and adults, and after starting her sophomore year of college, decided

SENIOR SAYONARA

to try out for the hockey team.

“Being the only girl and joining halfway through, I kind of disrupted their flow of things, and it was tough,” Phillips said. “I had to work my ass off, and prove that I'm worthy to be on the ice with them.”

Phillips said she works out independently two to three times a week and with the team once a week. Because of the distance to the rink in Amarillo, she also utilizes roller skates to train.

“I have roller inline skates,” Phillips said. “And I'll take those around my neighborhood and practice shooting, footwork, and stuff.”

Peter Loncar, both president of the Tech Hockey Club and the team's captain, never anticipated a female player would join the roster, but said she is valued by everyone on the team.

“She's a positive presence on the team,” Loncar said. “She shows up to everything, and she doesn't complain ever. She obviously just loves the game, and that's why she's playing it.”

In the upcoming season, Phillips said she is determined to challenge herself by trying out for the goalie position, a more demanding role, and she's thankful for head coach Scottie Agnew’s encouragement on this decision.

“I definitely have a harder time keeping up with the boys, but Scottie tried to give me ice time and really helped me out,” Phillips said.

Her bravery has served as an inspiration for other young women,

motivating them to continue her legacy and pursue college hockey, despite most universities being against it. “There's a junior in high school who's looking at coming to Tech now

because she saw that I was on the team,” Phillips said.

Toussaint, Washington bid farewell to Red Raiders

By JAMAR BROOKS SportS WritEr

Spearheaded by the leadership of its two most experienced players, Joe Toussaint and Warren Washington, Texas Tech men's basketball made a return to the NCAA Tournament this season. However, following a March 21 defeat to North Carolina State, Toussaint and Washington walked off the hardwood for the final time in their collegiate careers.

Even in the face of defeat, Tech head coach Grant McCasland said not being able to coach another game with the super-seniors is the most difficult aspect of the loss.

“This is always the worst part of it, right here,” McCasland said.

“I’m so thankful for Joe Toussaint and Warren Washington. Two guys that trusted us and literally gave everything they had. There's nothing else these guys could give to give our program a chance to compete for a national championship. … It was never perfect, but it was just a team that loved each other. That part as a coach is what you love, and I’m thankful for these two seniors that led us all year long.”

For Toussaint, his impact is helping Tech back to the big dance just a season after it posted its worst conference record since the 2014-15 season. “We brought a team that was dead last in the Big 12 last year to the tournament,” Toussaint said. “The coaching staff gave us a chance to go to the Sweet 16 if we would’ve won this game. So I feel like people can take it how they want, but we know in the locker room what we did. We know we’re always together. We will always care about each other no matter what.” Through their years at the

collegiate level, Toussaint and Washington made many stops. Toussaint started out at Iowa, where he played for three seasons, before transferring to West Virginia and then to Tech. Washington played his freshman season at Oregon State before he transferred to Nevada, where he played two seasons before spending his last two years at Arizona State and Tech.

During their lone season in Lubbock, Washington and Toussaint flourished as the pair posted career-high averages in various statistical categories while surpassing 1,000 career points, according to Tech Athletics. McCasland said the productivity of Washington and Toussaint this season comes down to their perseverance and determination.

Texas Tech is set to install an art piece at Red Raider Plaza. Titled 100 Reflections, the Alumni Association is aiming to have the piece completed by fall.

Tech baseball’s Washburn brothers play together for the first time in four years despite roadblocks.

JACOB LUJAN/The Daily Toreador

Riley Phillips, a winger for the Texas Tech Hockey Club, is the first and only female on the team. Starting her collegiate hockey career in her sophomore year, Philips hopes to inspire future women by participating in this icy sport.

@GraceHawkinsDT

By NATHAN KENISON

Although the piece falls under the umbrella of the already-existing collection, its construction and upkeep will be entirely funded by donations from the Texas Tech Alumni Association, rather than through a percentage of a construction project budget. The final cost for the project is $336,000, which includes a $25,000 maintenance endowment.

“The idea of wanting the Alumni Association to be able to present a gift to the university in honor of its Centennial, that’s where this originated,” said Curt Langford, president of TTAA.

Emily Wilkinson, executive director of public art for the Tech University System, said she followed the standard process for commissioning 100 Reflections. “Honestly, we ran it the same way we do our others, the only difference was funding and where the money was coming from,” Wilkinson said. “My kind of standard when we’re commissioning a piece, I

want it to have the same quality for our collection as it would if it’s a donated piece versus us doing it for construction. So luckily, we were able to do the same process, have the same kind of caliber of artists applying as they would for any of our other projects.”

Of the 70-plus artists that applied, three were invited to Tech campus to pitch their ideas, Wilkinson said. “I think some of the projects were very artistic, visually. But how much can a project become, you know, something that’s very artistic, very abstract, versus something that tells a story,” Langford said. “And I think 100 Reflections rose to the top because it did a wonderful job of both.”

100 Reflections was pitched by Randy Walker, a professional artist from Minneapolis. Walker’s sculpture will consist of 100 Double Ts mounted on individual pillars, with each meant to represent a different year of Tech’s Centennial.

I whittled down the vocabulary to the number 100 and the

“There’s 100 Double Ts that make up the sculpture, and no two of them are the same height, because they’ve been cut at an angle,” Walker said. “And it’s kind of a double angle. It’s not just in a single direction. It’s a rotated angle, which means that each one is individual. And so that to me,

kind of represented each individual year, that there were no two years alike.”

Wilkinson said construction will begin next semester and ideally finish by Homecoming, but contractually, Walker has until January of 2025 to complete the piece.

“We’re hoping to do something by fall,” Walker said, “and that’s all dependent on many moving parts, but right now, I’m currently working on the construction drawings and the engineering of the sculpture, which is quite complicated. The sculpture is not only the pillars and the reflective Double Ts, but there’s lighting involved. There’s a bench as well. And it’s a very precise operation,

the whole thing.”

All the materials will be fabricated at Walker’s art studio in Minnesota, then transported to Tech to be assembled on campus.

Walker said he expects construction to be primarily concentrated on the Red Raider Plaza pavilion, where the bricks will be removed and replaced with poured concrete.

Wilkinson said the pavilion is an ideal location for a new art piece.

“All three of our finalists actually picked that spot,” Wilkinson said. “From the aerial map, you can see like this octagon, just sitting there without anything in it. And so all three of them asked if they could propose for that spot. And to me it al-

journalist was arrested in Russia for protesting on national television with a poster that read, “Russians Against War.” Ovsyannikova was sentenced to jail for speaking out against the government. Under legal advice, she fled Russia, escaping the country by changing cars seven times in the dead of night.

Outside of Russia, Ovsyannikova uses her story to encourage Americans to make educated votes as the decisions of political leaders in the West directly impact those across the Atlantic. “It depends only on the United States and Western Europe, you know, because the Russian opposition — we’re very weak,” Ovsyannikova said. “We don’t have enough power. We don’t have money for fighting. The future of Russia depends only on the West.”

ways looked like it needed something there.” Walker said he was given flexible parameters when designing his initial pitch, but he quickly narrowed down the focus of the project.

“As I kind of thought more deeply about it, it became simpler and clearer that whatever the sculpture was about, it had to be about 100 as well,” Walker said. “And so really, I whittled down the vocabulary to the number 100 and the Double T logo.”

During his time in Lubbock, Walker was struck by the ubiquity of the Double T and saw 100 Reflections as an opportunity to reinvent the iconic symbol. “I’m interested in three

dimensions, and I thought it would be intriguing to look at the logo itself, the Double T, and really examine it and see, you know, what can be done with that in a three-dimensional way,” Walker said.

“It’s a way to look at where Texas Tech is currently and where it has come from … . It’s also a way to reflect on the future, and what that might bring, and that’s where this idea of the literally highly reflective Double Ts on the sculpture came from. They’re tilted up toward the sky. So there’s going to be a reflection toward a future that’s not defined yet.”

@NathanKenisonDT getting outside of our comfortable circles to expose ourselves to other types of information. I don’t think we do that because it’s hard, right?”

Rasmussen also said there is not a definite way to ensure published information is correct, but there are ways to refine media literacy skills and that begins with adopting a journalistic mindset.

“Let’s take for example, the war in Gaza and Israel, the conflict in Palestine. I’ve seen Israel will share

the world, but it would be a lot more accurate than what we’re getting right now.”

However, for many current events around the world, firsthand accounts are not always readily available. Soadat said this is why she believes in publicly speaking to inform Americans about the climate of Afghanistan as many news stations have removed the country from headlines and replaced it with the next current event.

“I’m requesting for the academic community to please join us and support, especially women, support and just take a look at what is going on in Afghanistan,” Soadat said. “As humans, I think we are responsible to support each other.”

Looking into multiple news sources and understanding the purpose of media platforms are the first steps in becoming media literate, Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen said stepping out of one’s own perceptions largely assists in understanding others and the political climates of not only the U.S. but countries around the world.

“It takes some detective work,” Rasmussen said on how to obtain information surrounding voting. “To educate ourselves, it’s getting online and looking at all the various perspectives and opinions and not staying in our own echo chambers of like-minded people, but

some numbers, and Hamas will share numbers, and then the U.S. will pick what numbers they want, and allies of Hamas will pick which numbers they want in terms of death toll and those kinds of things,” Rasmussen said. “How do we decipher that right? I think the most intelligent thing to do is expose ourself to all of that information. And then see if we can’t get any firsthand accounts to verify, right? As a reporter, you know, you have to have more than one source, right? And so if we were all willing to engage in that journalistic ethic of more than one source, we might not have a totally perfect representation of what’s going on in

And while the choices of media consumption rely on the individual, Soadat, Ovsyannikova and Rasmussen said how citizens apply their knowledge and the decisions they make will impact others regardless of distance.

“The older I get, the more I realize that our actions and behaviors are connected to other people in so many different ways. And life really is so little about us,” Rasmussen said. “And it is so much about how we connect with and interact with other people. Which means we have to learn their stories in whatever way we can.”

RANDY WALKER COMMISSIONED ARTIST

Double T logo.

PABLO MENA/The Daily Toreador Afghan journalist Saleha Soadat (left) discusses her journalism work during the Russo-Afghan war at a research symposim in the Texas Tech International Cultural Center March 19, 2024.

CONTINUED FROM PG. 1

SENIOR SAYONARA have been an everyday guy. They show up every day and they put their heart into it.”

“Warren’s gotten better, and you can say the same about Joe,” McCasland said. “That really speaks to their character because you can’t get better at something unless you are consistent and you show up every day.

You can tell by their careers that both those guys

Furthermore, the duo’s impact on the Red Raid ers was not limited to what they contributed on the court. Because of the adversity they’ve faced throughout their careers, Washington and Toussaint were able to lend their guidance to their team

Second-year transfer from the University of Mississippi Jack Washburn spent his first year donning the Scarlet and Black in 2023, according to Texas Tech Athletics. The Wisconsin native said what made his transition easy was having his brother by his side to help familiarize himself with the team.

“Obviously, having this guy here. He’s my brother, so it’s easy to make friends there,” Jack Washburn said. “But him introducing me to guys early and getting used to the team that way has been really nice. They always welcomed me early, and it’s been smooth sail-

ing ever since.”

Despite both being with the Red Raiders since 2023, the brothers’ reunion was delayed until the following year after each suffered a season-ending injury.

Jack Washburn suffered a fractured scapula that postponed his Red Raider debut, shortly after transferring from Ole Miss. This was followed by a dislocated elbow for Owen Washburn after diving for a ball against North Dakota State early in the season, according to Tech Athletics.

While recovering from their injuries, Jack Washburn said the healing process was good for both since they had each other to lean on.

“It was really tough seeing him (Owen) go down, especially after I was already out the whole year,” Jack Washburn said. “But it was good for both of us, I think to kind of have each other to help each other through it. Obviously, it’s really tough mentally to be out of a sport. But he was there for me, and I was there for him, so it worked out good.”

The brothers finally

got their long-awaited reunion when the Red Raiders played Oregon in the team’s 2024 opening weekend in Arlington, according to Tech Athletics. It was during this weekend Tadlock said the pair showed the type of teammates they are and the uniqueness of having siblings play for the same squad.

“Just really high character kids or young men you might say,” Tadlock said. “Owen put together really good at-bats last weekend (season opener). Kind of a reflection of what kind of teammate he is. I mean he sat over there yesterday and cheered his teammates on and wanted to win the game and was ready to go today. And I think he understands there’s a process there, really again like it’s fun to watch him… .

“As far as Jack goes, I mean it’s just cool like having two brothers on

through the whole deal and was like, ‘Just hang in there, keep getting better and obsess yourself with how you get better.’”

Though he will no longer don the scarlet and black, Washington said the love he and his teammates have for each other will continue to live on. “I told the guys in the locker room to remember this feeling. I know they’re

gonna come back even stronger next year,” Washington said. “I’m proud of all my brothers and what we accomplished this year, but this isn’t the end for any of us. At the end of the day, we just gotta keep pulling for each other, and I love these guys man. It’s been a ride. It’s been a roller coaster.”

@JamarBrooksDT

the same team, it’s pretty neat.”

According to Tech Athletics, Owen and Jack Washburn have been playing quality baseball since setting new career highs in the same game against Texas Southern on Feb. 25. Owen Washburn recorded two home runs and Jack Washburn threw eight strikeouts to tally a 16-5 victory. It was after this game

that Owen Washburn said he’s not only glad to be back playing the game he loves, but playing it with his brother. “We both missed a lot of time last year and a lot of rehab and stuff like that,” Owen Washburn said. “But it’s good to finally be back out on the field. Especially back on the field together. It’s fun to be out there and both doing well.”

@AdamSierraDT

pitch against Texas Southern in a game at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park Feb. 25, 2024.

By ALEX SERRATTI Staff Writer

Joey Graziadei’s season of “The Bachelor” concluded Monday, and some have questions surrounding the season’s end.

Many ask the expected, “Who is the next bachelor?” or “Will Joey

and Kelsey make it?” My main question, however, is why do the show’s viewers realistically think this method of “dating” works? And why do people still watch?

In my mind, the concept of the producers continuing the show for the sake of “love” is genuinely ridiculous; How can anyone date 12 women all at the same time and choose just one to marry in the end?

For how long the show has aired, there have only been three successful

bachelors. The show has a 10.7% chance of ending in a lasting marriage, which is incredibly low for the number of people that actually believe in the show’s match-making abilities.

Granted, most audience members watch for the drama, but I wonder if the people who go on the show to find “the one” understand that there is a chance they are just there for viewers.

Not only is the show obsolete from a love perspective, it also

By ANDREW GOODRICH Staff Writer

With the brunt of the NFL’s free agency period coming to an end, players without contracts have begun to find their new homes. This poses the question of which team found the most success with fresh signing and which team lost the most with little return.

Winner:

The Atlanta Falcons are my biggest winner of free agency as they signed 13year veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins as their new signal caller. A player who will be 36 come the start of the season, Cousins brings experience and production

to the position as the Desmond Ridder experiment flamed out in 2023, resulting in a 7-10 season. Before his season-ending Achilles injury in 2023, Cousins threw for 18 touchdowns and five interceptions for a 103.8 passer rating.

Behind an offensive line with three former first-round picks that graded out as fourth in the league in 2023, according to Pro Football Focus, Cousins should have the necessary time in the pocket to distribute the ball to his playmakers.

An offensive roster that contains young stars such as running back Bijan Robinson, receiver Drake London and tight end Kyle Pitts, stability at quarterback is what the doctor ordered.

Loser:

The Dallas Cowboys have had a quiet free agency when it comes to signings, but that is due to the salary cap hit of

quarterback Dak Prescott. Signing a four-year $160 million contract in March of 2021, the Cowboys elected to push most of his money down toward the end of his contract, and now it’s hitting.

Scheduled to count for almost $55 million against the salary cap in 2024, according to Spotrac.com, if no more restructuring is done Prescott will take up 21.29% of the cap, second in the league among all players.

Additionally, Dallas released wide receiver Michael Gallup, who they signed to a five-year $57.5 million contract in 2022.

With star players’ rookie contracts ending soon, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and linebacker Micah Parsons likely will be the highest paid at their position, and Dallas needs to save money for those players.

@AndrewG_DT

53. “Like finding ____ in a haystack”

56. Flies

57. Tidbits

58. Additional performance

59. Machines used for printing newspapers

60. High-up college faculty members

DOWN

1. Home of Holmes

2. Buys online

3. Thin French pancake

provides a platform for the participating women to be bullied. In this season especially, there were battles between the women for Joey’s final rose.

This season, fan favorite Maria Georgas was accused of bullying and had women verbally attack her throughout the season. Some fans even took to social media to call Rachel Nance racial slurs on her pages just for the way she was portrayed on the show.

More drama was spurred when the “Women Tell All”

episode aired and each of the women, including Maria, Rachel and Sydney Gordon, who accused Maria bullying, had a platform to talk about the situations on set in more depth, feeding the drama-hungry audience even more.

Along with the bullying, there is also the idea of “Why am I not good enough?” for a rose, potentially impacting the women’s self esteem. And something like being on “The Bachelor” can have an impact on a future love life with that question

being in the back of the woman’s mind.

With the concept of “The Bachelor,” I don’t think the idea of finding love is feasible with how the show is laid out. Of course, the show will continue due to views so the real responsibility lies in the hands of the people and maybe, it should start to be time that the audience stops asking “Who will win?” and start asking “Why do we keep watching this?”

@AlexSerrattiDT

Golden calf, e.g.

41. Cuddle

42. Step on the brakes

46. Across the ___

47. Result from lying in a bed?

48. Girl who visited Wonderland

49. Lacking a foreseeable conclusion, or a clue for entering 17-, 29- and 36-across

COLUMN

BurkTech Players breaks autism stigmas

By AYNSLEY LARSEN News, L a Vida editor

The BurkTech Players is a professional theater company for adults looking to express themselves through the arts. Those involved individuals just happen to be on the autism spectrum.

“They saw how some autistic theater productions were a little bit childlike, with people holding cue cards and stuff. And it’s like, you really wouldn’t see that on Broadway,” said Sam Shreffler, co-artistic director of the BurkTech Players and 2013 graduate of the Burkhart Center Transition Academy. “And that’s one of the things that we kind of strived for when it came to the BurkTech Players. We wanted to have it as authentic as possible.”

Pursuing this realworld authenticity, the BurkTech Players pull from professional material, as well as studentdeveloped pieces. The organization has produced short and fulllength plays, dances, improv shows and more, all without yielding the standards habitually expected of neurotypical individuals.

“We’re all people with our own uniqueness about us. So we’re all going to be different, everyone is different,” said Jada Campbell, 20232024 co-artistic director. “And then we just try to embrace that and try to

learn about each other. It’s an exchange.” Campbell, a graduate student in her second and final year with the BurkTech Players, said while the intention is for members to memorize their lines and individual parts, the goal is for the actors to commit to their characters and their roles rather than the rigidity of the production.

Born from an initiative designed to connect the School of Theatre & Dance with the Burkhart Center for Autism Education & Research, Director of the School of Theatre & Dance Mark Charney said he wanted to establish meaningful community connections within his art programs.

In the BurkTech Players’ first semester in 2013, the impact of that connection was felt by everyone involved.

“There was a young man in his teens who was working, and at some point he said, ‘I want my voice to be heard,’” Charney said. “And his mother left, put him in the car and came back, burst into tears and said that he hadn’t spoken before then for years.”

When he assumed the role of director, Charney persuaded artistic director Clay Martin to join him at Tech for his graduate study, and in tandem they crafted the connection between the School of Theatre & Dance and the Burkhart Center.

At the time, Martin had

experience in regional theater, education theater, Broadway productions and play writing at New York University.

Being neurodivergent himself, Martin said the greatest challenge he faced when forming the BurkTech Players was overcoming the limitations and expectations he had created in his own mind.

“I came in knowing that theater was scripted social interaction, and people on the spectrum, you know, could benefit from practicing social interaction,” Martin said. “It took me one class to realize that all the people in that room were as talented as I was, and that I

wasn’t going to be teaching them anything.”

Through collaborations with interested members, support from the university and everpresent evidence of the benefits of the work being accomplished, Martin said the BurkTech Players consistently dismantled the boundaries expected of them.

“I think what it became really quickly was defining the expectations of what this group could do, because I know that there were some, you know, expected limitations,” Martin said, “and I don’t know if we’ve ever hit that yet. I doubt that they have found a limit to what they can create.”

I

The differences present within the BurkTech Players community have not acted as an excuse for members involved. It is simply a theater company that happens to consist of neurodiverse individuals. “I like the word neurodiverse because it means everybody, but it really acknowledges that we’re not all the same,” Martin said. “I think that’s an important thing we all learned very quickly, is that everyone’s on the spectrum. It’s just what part you’re on.”

as an artist, is to keep making work with great artists.

“I had a lot of experience. I did. By far one of the most, if not the most, profound experiences in my career has been working at Texas Tech, the work I did there.”

think that’s an important thing we all learned very quickly, is that everyone’s on the spectrum. It’s just what part you’re on.

Martin said although the original idea for the BurkTech players began with him, it was the support of Charney, thendirector of the Burkhart Center Wesley Dotson, integral administrator Trevor Wise and many others that allowed the organization to succeed and transform from a project into a fullyfledged company. “It was the most creative and, I think, the best artistic work I’ve ever done,” Martin said. “And after working on Broadway and NYU to say that, like that’s what you want

Martin has since graduated from Tech, but said the program he left behind has transformed into something far beyond what he originally expected. While proud of the work he accomplished at Tech, Martin said the beautiful thing about the organization is its ability to live past its initial conceptions.

“We just started creating theater, and I think that’s what BurkTech is today: It is not a teaching apparatus, but instead it is just a theater company that produces good work. And I think, because of that, it teaches everyone,” Martin said.

“I hope that if there are any misconceptions or limits to expectations of adults on the spectrum, that BurkTech continues to break those assumptions.”

@AynsleyLarsenDT

JADON CHESNUTT/The Daily Toreador

The 2023-24 BurkTech Players cast members, director, co-artistic director and leadership team member stand on stage at the Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures building March 5, 2024 prior to their rehearsal. The BurkTech Players, an ensemble of neurodiverse individuals pursuing expression through the arts, is rehearsing for its spring performance of “Babes in Toyland.”

CLAY

MAKAYLA PEREZ/The Daily Toreador

Co-artistic director Sam Shreffler (left) and actors Spencer Ragland (middle) and Athos Colon take their final bows following the BurkTech Players abridged production of “Babes in Toyland” at the Louise Hopkins Underwood

Tech architecture rooted in history

“The Spanish Renaissance wasn’t just some Spanish take on the Italian Renaissance,” said Brian Griggs, author of “Opus of Brick and Stone: The Architectural and Planning Heritage of Texas Tech University.” “It was a melting pot.”

A product of the time period, the Italian Renaissance and Muslim masonry influenced each other, thus creating the Spanish Renaissance revival architecture style.

“At Texas Tech, the architecture or style is Spanish Renaissance revival,” Griggs said. “When you get down to it here, it’s a particular period of the Spanish Renaissance.”

The Spanish Reconquista began around 722 with the Battle of Cavadonga, fought between the Islamic Moors of northern Africa and the Christian Kingdom of Asturias, located in northern Spain, according to the Brittanica website. The Reconquista ended in 1492 when the Kingdom of Castille and Leon conquered the Emirate of Granada, ushering in the Spanish Renaissance. “When the Nasrid Dynasty (Emirate of Granada) surrendered and left Spain, the artisans and craftsmen stayed,” Griggs said. “With this Muslim architecture merged with Renaissance architecture in a unique way.”

As World War II’s impact spread across the globe, building materials became increasingly expensive, as well as much of the workforce went off to fight.

Griggs said during the 1940s and 1950s, financial burdens made it more difficult to use classical styles for architecture. World War II was the greatest labor shift in American history and supplies had to be shifted elsewhere to help with the war effort.

Modern architecture is the architectural style that was widely used by the Western world between the 1930s and the 1960s. An analytical and functional approach to building design characterized it. Buildings in this style are often defined by flat roofs, open floor plans, curtain windows and minimal ornamentation, according to the Architectural Digest website.

In 1997 the Texas Tech University System established a master plan for the campus that reset Spanish Renaissance Revival as the style.

BRIAN GRIGGS

Griggs said as Tech approached its 75th anniversary, leadership realized they wanted to return to their roots and established the Texas Tech System, which was officially formed in 1999.

“In 1997 the Texas Tech University System established a master plan for the campus that reset Spanish Renaissance Revival as the style,” Griggs said. “It became a religion, especially to the Board of Regents. You had to design to that style.”

The architectural style not only has provided Tech’s landscape, it also has influenced its recognizable scarlet and black.

The architect of Tech, William Ward Watkin, chose Spanish Renaissance revival as the style to build the campus, Griggs said.

The first building constructed at Tech was the Administration Building. The building is modeled after La Universidad de Alcala, according to the University of Acala website. It was built in 1293 and founded as a university in 1499 by Cardinal Cisneros, the Regent of Spain at the time.

Griggs said when Ewing Freeland, Tech’s first football and baseball coach, first saw the Administration Building, his wife, Sammye Freeland, proposed the team should be called the matadors; She also said Tech’s colors should be red and black.

Griggs said the Board of Regents wishes to continue using the Spanish Renaissance revival style for future projects at Tech.

By PETER PIERUCCI Staff Writer