l monday,march 31, 2014 l serving texas a&m since 1893 l first paper free – additional copies $1 l © 2014 student media

thebattalion

THE BATTALION: Can you give me some background information about your winning piece?

VYAS: Warali paintings are a part of ancient Indian culture — ancient paintings done in a small town in India call Warali. These paintings are done to represent Indians’ culture and day-to-day activities. They are rudimentary paintings that use a very basic vocabulary like squares, triangles and straight lines. So what I did was take the Warali paintings, my culture, and used them to depict the A&M story — our core values, our traditions and a part of Texas A&M’s history.

THE BATTALION: Why did you name your piece the “Story of Aggieland in Maroon and White”?

VYAS: Because originally these paintings are done inside huts. The walls are given a fresh coat of Indian red mud and cow dung, which kind of makes a maroon background. The original paintings are done with a white paste of rice and water.

THE BATTALION: Why did you choose to use the Warali painting style to depict the story of A&M?

VYAS: It’s very symbolic art, every little thing symbolizes something. It has eight frames. The first frame has sun and the last frame has moon. My purpose of putting them in the first and last frames was to represent the endless circle of life in Aggieland. The six frames in between those have our core values.

THE BATTALION: How did you use symbolism in the Warali style to depict the core values?

For the third time since 2008, the Texas A&M women’s basketball team will play

in the NCAA Elite Eight — this time against the defending national champion Connecticut Huskies.

The Aggies (27-8, 13-3 SEC) are set to tip off in the Lincoln regional finals on Monday night. The win-ner will earn a ticket to the Final

Four in Nashville, Tenn.UConn (37-0, 18-0 AAC) de-

feated BYU 71-52 in its last outing, earning the Huskies their ninth-straight Elite Eight appearance. Ju-nior forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, who comes off back-to-back triple-double and double-double performances against St. Joseph’s and BYU, has led UConn through-out the tournament. Mosqueda-Lewis has averaged 15.5 points per game as well as 7.3 rebounds over the Huskies’ last seven games — a stretch where she has logged three of her season total four double-doubles.

The Aggies also will be tasked with stopping sophomore UConn standout Breanna Stewart. Stewart leads the Huskies in scoring with 19.6 points per game on a squad with five players averaging in the double digits. At 6-foot-4, Stewart leads the Huskies in offensive re-bounding and blocked shots.

A&M is 0-2 all-time against UConn, but the Aggies are confi-dent that they’re playing their best basketball of the season entering the contest.

“If we follow our game plan, play hard and not worry about the fact it says UConn on their jersey, we’ll be

fine,” said sophomore point guard Jordan Jones. “So many get caught up in the hype of it being UConn. It’s that mental aspect of it.”

The Aggies enter the matchup riding off an 84-65 rout of DePaul in the Sweet 16. A&M shot a sea-son-high 60 percent from the field against the Blue Demons, marking the Aggies’ best ever performance in an NCAA tournament game.

The Aggies held the Blue De-mons to a season-low 65 points, while every A&M starter scored in double figures.

“Yes, we can score points,” said head coach Gary Blair, “but we can

defend, too.”Sophomore guard Courtney

Walker scored 25 points against DePaul and extended her streak of double-digit scoring to 12 games. Walker said she and the rest of the team will have to continue to el-evate their play if they hope to keep their national championship hopes alive.

“The competition goes up,” Walker said. “Your play has to go up.”

The 3-seed Aggies will battle the 1-seed Huskies at 8:30 p.m. live on ESPN.

Perfect UConn looms in Elite 8

Patrick CrankThe Battalion

w. basketball

Aggies put NCAA run on line Monday in Lincoln

Bisma Pradana, Brooke Herschbach and Bryce Anderson celebrate Holi, the festival of colors, Sunday on Simpson Drill Field.

Festivalgoers unite through dazzling colorHOLI:

ArtFest winner’s work couples

heritage, tradition

STROKES OF AGGIELAND

QA& :Cassidy Tyrone, lifestyles writer, sat down with Yashwant Prakash Vyas, senior electrical engineering major, who was awarded Best In Show in Thursday’s Artfest with a Warali painting of Aggie traditions. Artfest was hosted by the MSC Visual Arts Committee and showcased the diverse talents of student artists in an art competition.

Tanner Garza — THE BATTALION

Yashwant Vyas, senior electrical engineering major, applauds fellow artists at the ArtFest awards reception on Thursday.

insideservice | 6The Big Event breaks recordsThe Big Event set new marks in job sites and student participants Saturday. International students gained new perspective on a Texas A&M culture of service.

sports | 5Reaction to suspended QB reflects unfairnessFollowing quarterback Kenny Hill’s arrest Friday, Sean Lester details the hypocrisy in the way people view athletes and alcohol.

people | 2Replenish o�ers clean waterA&M student donates water purification resources to those in need internationally.

Texas A&M will play host to pan-Asian events this April as

the Asian Presidents’ Council pres-ents “Breaking Stereotypes,” a series of games, activities and free movie screenings that aim to bring Asian Heritage Month closer to students.

Daniel Wong, junior business major and APC president-elect, said this year’s theme will contribute to the council’s overall message to Texas A&M.

“Our whole theme for this month is breaking stereotypes, and we are really trying to push that there are so many different types of Asian cultures,” Wong said. “We shouldn’t be limited to just these stereotypes.”

Ten events are scheduled throughout April that will cover dif-ferent facets of Asian culture. Movie screenings will be open to the pub-lic, and comedians Hari Kondabolu and Howard Chen will visit campus to perform a stand-up routine called “Comedy and Inspiration” and an-swer questions on how to improve the cultural environment of the fu-ture.

April to honor Asian heritage

Caroline Corrigan The Battalion

See Asian heritage on page 3

culture

Events take aim at dissolving stereotypes

See Vyas on page 4

Photos by John Benson — THE BATTALION

Students participate

in the Hindu tradition of

Holi as part of I-Week with

American music mixed

with Indian dance songs

at Simpson on Sunday.

BAT_03-31-14_A1.indd 1 3/30/14 8:21 PM

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THE BATTALION is published daily, Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer session (except University holidays and exam periods) at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. Offices are in Suite L400 of the Memorial Student Center.News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at Texas A&M University in Student Media, a unit of the Division of Student Affairs. Newsroom phone: 979-845-3315; E-mail: editor@thebatt.com; website: http://www.thebatt.com.Advertising: Publication of advertising does not imply sponsorship or endorsement by The Battalion. For campus, local, and national display advertising, call 979-845-2687. For classified advertising, call 979-845-0569. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Email: battads@thebatt.com.Subscriptions: A part of the Student Services Fee entitles each Texas A&M student to pick up a single copy of The Battalion. First copy free, additional copies $1.

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Qualifications for editor-in-chief of The Battalion are:

REQUIRED• BeaTexasA&MstudentingoodstandingwiththeUniversityand

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PREFERRED• HavecompletedJOUR301orCOMM307(MassCommunication, Law,andSociety)orequivalent;

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Application forms should be picked up and returned to Sandi Jones, Student Media business coordinator, in Suite L406 of the MSC. Deadline for submitting application: 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 1, 2014.

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PREFERRED• HavecompletedJOUR301orCOMM307(MassCommunication,

Law,andSociety);• Havedemonstratedabilityinwriting,editingandgraphicdesign

throughuniversitycourseworkorequivalentexperience;• Haveatleastoneyearexperienceinaresponsiblepositionon the Aggieland or comparable college yearbook.

It’s been a little over two years since Brian Lamb

found himself staring out an airplane window, mesmer-ized by the curvature of the earth and the body of water below him. He asked himself how one person could make a difference and in a moment’s time, he realized that his an-swer was one word — water.

On Feb. 1, 2012, the day before Lamb’s 19th birth-day, he founded Replenish, a ministry devoted to providing and distributing clean water resources across the globe. Now, the junior university studies major is in the process of gaining a 501(c) nonprofit status with hopes of growing his ministry to meet the needs of those without access to clean drinking water.

“I felt with how severe the global water crisis is and how popular bottled water is — if we could somehow correlate the two into one and get a ministry, I [thought] some-thing like that would defi-nitely take off, “ Lamb said.

The fall of his freshman year, Lamb gave a classroom speech over the TOMS “one for one” business model, which matches the number of goods purchased by custom-ers and provides them to in-dividuals in need. The model inspired him to do the same, he said.

“You can get something for yourself and give back at the same time,” Lamb said. “That’s brilliant. Why can’t we do that with every pur-chase we make?”

For every bottle of wa-

ter sold, Replenish donates one water purification tab-let, which can provide an individual with one liter of clean water. For every case of bottled water Replenish sells, a life straw is donated, which provides one to three years of clean water. Lamb said he ei-ther distributes the resources himself or sends them to Ro-tary International, nonprofits, non-government organiza-tions, Christian ministries and missionaries who can then distribute the items to those in need.

“[The life straw is] a porta-ble filter that you wear around your neck like a necklace,” Lamb said. “And you can go to any contaminated water, like a lake — you can even drink out of your toilet and you won’t get sick. It purifies like 99.9 percent of bacteria, viruses and even measles.”

Lamb said he initially planned to sell and donate cas-es of water. He realized more people could be reached if he could lessen the high over-seas shipping cost from water weight.

Replenish has impacted 12 countries, predominately in west Africa, but also in South America, Haiti and the Philip-pines, Lamb said.

“Rather than physically donating water, we donate resources to purify the wa-ter they already have, so in my opinion, it kind of takes donating to the next level,” Lamb said.

Leighton Jack, senior mar-keting major, learned about Replenish in its beginning stages, but recently has been in contact with Lamb as they are both entrepreneurs in resi-dence at Startup Aggieland.

Jack is a member of The Wells Project at A&M, a group that promotes aware-

ness of the world water crisis and raises money to drill wells in parts of Africa and South America.

“As a college student, as a young person in general, on any official endeavor, people almost think they need per-mission from somebody to be able to support it, and Brian [Lamb] is somebody who has kind of taken the horse by the reigns,” Jack said.

Jeff Brown, local real estate and construction management owner, lends a portion of his office space in downtown Bryan to Lamb to temporarily store his inventory.

Brown said Lamb doesn’t see age as an obstacle, but an opportunity. He said Lamb’s ambition answers the ques-tion, “Why not me?”

“It’s always encouraging to see young people that want to serve and want to do for oth-ers,” Brown said. “Whenever we hear that, it’s encouraging to us because we think we have a generation here that has a global awareness that no other generation has.”

In June, Lamb had the op-portunity represent his minis-try and to go to Haiti along with Living Water Interna-tional. They gave away Life Straws and provided more than 500 people with clean water. He described his expe-rience of seeing the extreme lack of resources people had as “surreal.”

“This is the 21st century,” Lamb said. “You think things like that aren’t going on. It’s ridiculous.”

Lamb said Replenish is a ministry of his Christian faith. He partners with ministries around the word that are able to distribute his water purifi-cation resources.

Michael Cozzi, senior marketing major and friend

of Lamb’s, said water was a metaphor for a different kind of nourishment.

“The thing about this ministry is that it’s getting clean water and that’s great, it helps save lives, but what Brian [Lamb] does is he uses the water purification to not only help physical needs but also to meet a spiritual need,” Cozzi said.

Cozzi said he encourages other students to think about what they can do with their passion.

“There’s so many students with great ideas and they have knowledge about certain things,” Cozzi said. “People know that there’s a problem and they know what needs to be done, and I think they should not be afraid of failure in whatever it is that they care about.”

Lamb said his passion lies in full-time ministry, which he plans to devote his life to when he graduates. He said he hopes that Replenish will continue to grow in its influ-ence.

“I think being able to travel and help people is the best job one could have,” Lamb said. “Experience different cultures — there’s something about that. It thrills me.”

Hope flows from student-run, clean-water initiative

entrepreneurship

Allison Rubenak The Battalion

Ministry works to provide nourishment

Brian Lamb, junior

university studies major,

is in the process of

gaining 501(c) nonprofit status for

his ministry, Replenish.

“I think being able to travel

and help people is the best job one could have,” Lamb said. “Experience different cultures — there’s something about that. It thrills me.”

— Brian Lamb, junior university

studies major and founder of the clean-water ministry Replenish

David Cohen — THE BATTALION

BAT_03-31-14_A2.indd 1 3/30/14 7:00 PM

Sherwin Chiu, senior busi-ness major and APC president, said “Comedy & Inspiration” will tackle the topic of stereo-types from a humorist per-spective.

“Comedy and Inspiration is really talking about how ste-reotypes are wrong and why it can actually be funny just how wrong they are,” Chiu said. “It is also a discussion of how these two men have been able to succeed in careers that are very conventionally not Asian.”

Chiu said even those on campus who should be well informed are limiting the Asian society to these stereo-types.

“I have a lot of friends who are better at history than math

and they find it difficult, they will go up and ask for help and the TA will say, ‘You’re Asian. Why don’t you understand this?’” Chiu said. “You start to feel like there is something wrong with you.”

Chiu said one of the ste-reotypes Asian culture faces is culinary in nature. To change this outlook, APC is hosting “Taste of Asia,” an exhibit of various Asian cultures that in-cludes food samples from dif-ferent Asian countries.

“We know a lot of people have an idea of what Asian food is and the sad truth is that the majority of Asian food here in America is very ‘Americanized,’” Chiu said. “It’s really not a good repre-sentation of what Asian food actually tastes like.”

Other stereotypes are more personal in nature and can of-fend the person on the receiv-

ing end. Wong said it is de-rogatory when people assume he doesn’t understand English despite his fluency.

“People always think that just because you’re Asian you don’t understand English,” Wong said. “I have witnessed it at the post office, the work-ers will raise their voice and talk slower to you. It is pretty insulting.”

Laura Atamosa, sophomore kinesiology major, said Aggies should be aware of different cultures on campus.

“I think people shouldn’t embarrass themselves if they don’t know the information,” Atamosa said. “Also, I feel that it is our responsibility as stu-dents at Texas A&M to know our surroundings, the people that attend here and to be well informed, not assume things.”

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For the last three years, the Student Athlete Advisory

Committee has provided an opportunity for students and student athletes to interact with Film on the Field, tra-ditionally held on Kyle Field. SAAC was forced to relocate the event due to Kyle Field renovations, and Movie at the Mound was born.

Matthew Hightower, ju-nior agricultural leadership and development major and SAAC fundraising chair, said moving the event was not as difficult as originally ex-pected.

“The move from the foot-ball field to Olsen was a big one, but it wasn’t that bad for our planning process — it has actually been relatively easy,” Hightower said. “People are attracted to the new ball park, and not to mention the new score board, which is beauti-ful by the way, is going to be great to play the movie on.

We’re doing a good job pro-moting the event at the new venue and I think it’s going to be extremely successful, if not more successful than it has in the past at Kyle Field.”

Janell Lysack, senior sport management major and pres-ident of SAAC, said in some ways the move to Olsen has made the setup process easier.

“I think it’s cool to change up the venue and it’s neat to be at another big arena of Aggie athletics,” Lysack said. “We saw it as a problem at first, but it’s taken a lot of stress off our seniors and ath-letes who are in season during the spring.”

Kelly Czumble, senior marketing major and mar-keting chair of SAAC, said volunteering gives student athletes and the student body a chance to meet on a com-mon ground.

“As athletes, we want to know what’s going on with all the students on campus and want to be a part of that too,” Czumble said. “These

kinds of events help us bridge that gap and we love meeting new people.”

Heather Sterling, vice president of Aggie Athletes Involved, said the event drew in about 500 guests last year and the attendance has grown with each following year. Sterling said the experience is phenomenal, and the event being timed for the night of the Alabama game will hope-fully draw an even larger crowd than in previous years.

“Since moving to the base-ball field, we’re trying to play off of the Alabama game, and are hoping for equal if not more attendance,” Lysack said. “We have a few factors playing against us, the wom-en’s Final Four, but that’s the only factor going against us due to our fans being dedi-cated to other sports.”

This year’s movie is “The Rookie,” and it will begin around 4:30 p.m Sunday. Admission is free.

Annual film event finds temporary home at Olsen

movie at the mound

Samantha Latta The Battalion

Asian heritageContinued from page 1

BAT_03-31-14_A3.indd 1 3/30/14 8:14 PM

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Departments receiving StudentService Fee monies will orient theStudent Affairs Fee AdvisoryBoard about their respective or-ganizations on April 2, April 9,April 16, and April 23, beginningat 6pm each night. The orienta-tion sessions, which are open tothe public, will be held in Suite117 of the John J. Koldus StudentServices Building. These meetingsare open to the public.

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VYAS: The fi rst is leadership — global leadership. Aggie leaders always tend to be global leaders and have a global impact. This is a kind of dance form they do in Warali and this is how it is represented. It is a lot of group effort and it is led by a leader. Also there are people who play music and guide this particular dance. They are like our advisors and organizations.

The next is selfl ess service. So I depicted Aggie Replant, the Big Event, the 12th Can; community service. Excellence. The bell tower, our academic building, the agricultural college that started A&M, Saw ‘em Off,

that represents excellence. Loyalty. When it comes to

loyalty, it is about the spirit of the 12th man. It is that spirit that can never be told. As an international student, as an outsider, I can guarantee that Aggie spirit is something that you have to experience for yourself. For me to explain my Aggie experiences is very diffi cult. I have to go that extra mile. I always have to work harder to explain my Aggie experiences.

Integrity. Integrity is a whole, complex process. It’s intricate. It’s very diffi cult, so that’s why all the intricate designs. That’s what integrity is about.

Then we come to respect. In the fi rst column you see gender equality. Then you see here the balance. So it’s human

equality, gender equality for eternity. That is respect. We all here at A&M come from different countries, different backgrounds, different beliefs. You have got to embrace that diversity and as Aggies we have to hold on together. The diversity here is what makes A&M what it is today.

THE BATTALION: Is there anyone in particular that inspired you to be an artist?

VYAS: I paint under my mom’s name, Ambica. My name and my signature are always at the back. You will not see my signature and my name. If not

for my mom’s encouragement I would have never pursued my hobby. It was her support, her encouragement, her sacrifi ces that I was able to pursue the art of drawing and painting. She is my inspiration.

THE BATTALION: Is your faith something you draw strength from for many aspects of your life?

VYAS: Yes I do. I have a very clear mindset of what I have do with my life. It has been a big journey from my small village in India to Texas A&M University. The kindness, the love that I have received from people

during this journey is one of the things that inspires me and makes me feel obligated to serve society and give back. When I came to A&M people were so kind to me. That’s what got me into the Aggie spirit. “Howdy” made no sense to me. But just in one day, after spending time with these people, “Howdy” replaced “Namaste” and became my normal way of greeting people. That kindness, that help that I have received, is what inspires me to give back.

VyasContinued from page 1

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sports thebattalion 3.31.2014

page5

Sean Lester: Kenny Hill’s arrest showcases how we view student-athletes at A&M

THE MICROSCOPE

ATexas A&M student knows the Northgate District of College Station for many things. The nearly four block area spanning from Chimy’s to The Corner and beyond can be home to a student’s best and worst memories, while others choose

to never visit.

John Benson — THE BATTALION

The theme for the Ag-gies this week was fin-

ish, and finish they did. The No. 17 Texas A&M

softball team swept the Ar-kansas Razorbacks (23-14, 2-6 SEC) this weekend in a three-game series that be-gan as a rainout for the first game.

The Aggies and Razor-backs played a doubleheader on Saturday, which resulted in two Aggie victories, 8-7 and 9-8 respectively. The Aggies completed the sweep Sunday by a score of 11-7.

A&M (26-9, 7-5 SEC) capitalized on an assortment of Razorback errors, leading to many runs for the Ag-gie offense. Head coach Jo Evans said it’s tough to get

a sweep in the ultra-competitive SEC.

“It’s really tough to do — to go anywhere in

the SEC on the road and sweep,” Evans said. “For us to come here and take care

of business like this in some hard-fought games — in every game we were behind at some point — was huge. What we did so well was an-swer back. Every time they scored, we answered right back. I’m really proud of our kids. I thought our ap-proach was really good, and our mentality. I felt like we were here to win games.”

Senior Amber Garza had a big day at the plate, pick-ing up six RBIs on a double and a home run while add-ing a base hit and a walk to her tally. Garza’s six RBIs were a season high for her and tied the most of her ca-reer in a single game.

Senior Nicole Morgan was 2-for-3 on the day with two base hits, two walks and four runs scored. Senior Cassie Tysarczyk was also a major part of the Aggies’ production, reaching base four times on the day with three base hits and two runs scored.

The Aggies will next trav-el to Houston to continue play at 6:30 p.m. Wednes-day against the University of Houston, which was sched-uled for earlier in the season but was postponed due to rain.

A&M completes Arkansas sweep

softball

Milkyas GashawThe Battalion

Amber Garza tallies season-high 6 RBIs Sunday

voices

From Stephanie Jergens, Class of 1985

Just caught a look at the photo posted of Kenny Hill passed out in Northgate. To the three individuals in the picture: one filming, one laughing and one Heisman-ing: WHAT? This isn’t funny, this isn’t film worthy, and this isn’t how Aggies take care of Aggies. What happened to no one left behind? What happenend to wing-men, what happened to all who go out, come home. This isn’t TMZ, this is life. You have now posted a picture and film that will be on the internet for life. This young man made a poor choice that you have exasperated because of your poor choice. I hope this never happens to you because one thing that does happen is 19 year olds make poor choices. We would all like to believe that college students know the law and are law abiding citizens, but that didn’t happen in 1985, 1950, 1900 and it sure isn’t going to happen any time in the present or near future. College kids drink! It is a part of going to college. So is having each others’ back, taking care of our own, protect the institution, being a member of the 12th Man. If this is what you think is funny, maybe we should let the 12th Man go to Seattle.

MAILCALL

After four days of the 87th Clyde Littlefield

Texas Relays, Texas A&M accumulated seven victories in front of a total attendance of 39,985 at Mike A. Myers Stadium. Shelbi Vaughan broke her own school re-cord in women’s discus while setting leading marks on a collegiate and national level.

Vaughan’s victory is her sixth win at the Texas Re-lays over the past four sea-sons. By throwing a mark of 198 feet and 10 inches, she toppled the current school record of 193-4. The dis-tance ties Vaughan for No. 10 on the U.S. collegian all-time list.

“It was really exciting to throw a PR and school record, I was just hoping to do better than last week-end (182-10) since I wasn’t happy with that,” Vaughan said. “I was a little hesitant because last year I was here in May with a hurt back and threw three fouls. I threw from the same ring today, so I just put the nerves behind me and went out and threw a good one.”

The Aggie men’s 4x200 won the relay for the third-consecutive year, clocking in at a world-leading time of 1:20.78. The relay team included Michael Bryan, Prezel Hardy Jr., Shavez Hart and Carlyle Roudette.

Wayne Davis II edged out Florida’s Eddie Lovett to win the 110 hurdle title. Both clocked in at 13.45, but after taking the time to 1000ths of a second, Davis had the victory, 13.442 to 13.448. This was Davis’ first win ever at the Texas Relays due to an injury last season.

“This is my first win ever at the Texas Relays,” Davis said. “I’m really happy about it, especially since I’m way ahead of where I was at this time last year. I feel blessed and I’m thankful.”

Other A&M wins includ-ed a first-ever victory in the sprint medley relay for the women, and a win in the tri-ple jump by LaQue Moen-Davis with a collegiate lead-ing distance of 43-4.25.

Texas prevailed in a close race with A&M in the women’s 4x200 relay with times of 1:31.58 and 1:31.82, respectively.

The Aggie foursome, including Hardy Jr., Hart, Bryan and Deon Lendore hoped to complete a sweep of the 4x100 and 4x200 but were edged out by .01 sec-onds by Florida who would claim the victory.

“Overall we had a great Texas Relays,” said Texas A&M head coach Pat Hen-ry. “We set a school record in the 4x100 with a 38.30. In all my years of coaching I’ve never had a relay run that fast this early in the sea-son. But we get out-leaned at the line by Florida.”

Track teams find success at Texas Relays

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various authors and forum participants in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of Texas A&M University, The Battalion or its staff.

MAILCALL GUESTCOLUMNSMake your opinion known by submitting Mail Call or guest columns to The Battalion. Mail call must be fewer than 200 words and include the author’s name, classification, major and phone number. Staff and faculty must include title. Guest columns must be fewer than 700 words. All submissions should focus on issues not personalities, become property of The Battalion and are subject to editing for style, clarity and space concerns. Anonymous letters will be read, but not printed. The Battalion will print only one letter per author per month. No mail call will appear in The Battalion’s print or online editions before it is verified.

Direct all correspondence to: Editor in chief of The Battalion

(979) 845-3315 |editor@thebatt.com

EDITOR’SNOTE

Elizabeth Kamenicky The Battalion

In the early morning hours on Fri-day, Texas A&M quarterback Kenny Hill was like your classmates and friends. Enjoying a night on Northgate.

Hill’s night ended around 2:57 a.m., according to police reports, which said that he was found by police officers passed out in a “planter full of rocks and plants in front of the restaurant-bar.”

Hill then incorrectly answered that the current president of the United States was “Bush” and falsely identified himself as “Kennedy.” By the end of the night he had been booked for pub-lic intoxication, according to the police department’s website.

At that moment, Hill was no longer a student among students at Texas A&M. He instantly became the hopeful starting quarterback of the Aggie foot-ball team underneath the microscope of Aggie fandom.

In line with two other candidates, Hill is hoping to fill the shoes of former A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel when A&M kicks off the 2014 season in August against South Carolina. Instead of having his quarterback skills and development analyzed, Hill has started receiving comparisons to Man-ziel off the field.

Manziel was arrested the June before his breakout 2012 season after an alter-cation on Northgate. Friday, as news surfaced of Hill’s arrest, Aggie fans began the jokes and comparisons of the two arrests.

Maybe the Heisman Trophy success in Aggieland begins in handcuffs.

But comparisons of Hill and Manziel are entirely unfair. The two young men are completely different people. While both made mistakes, Hill has the chance, like any Aggie, to show his character and integrity by learning from his mistake.

Jabs at Hill from current or former students are perhaps the most frustrat-ing part of the incident.

Should Hill, at the age of 19, have been consuming alcohol illegally? No.

Should Hill have been more in con-trol of himself on Northgate? Yes.

But every person reading this story knows at least one person who has been in Hill’s position before. Where were Hill’s friends that night?

To persecute Hill for doing some-thing that Texas A&M students, and college students across the nation, engage in routinely is a crime in itself. If you haven’t seen the Arizona and Wisconsin University riots from this weekend, I suggest you Google them immediately.

Hill acted on extremely poor judgment, but if we can laugh at the TAMUMakeOuts Twitter account each weekend, how can we judge our potential starting quarterback for doing something that we are so okay with

otherwise? The fishbowl that is

College Station doesn’t allow for a student-athlete to simply get away with the things that other students do in their free time. We sympathize with other student-athletes who cannot simply buy a coffee without being both-ered for an autograph in this town but should he, or she, step out for a night it’s accusations aplenty?

The other side of this argument is that the football student-athletes have millions of dollars invested in their suc-cess, people’s jobs riding on their play, and yet they find themselves arrested on public intoxication and possession charges among other things.

Like any other college student who has made a mistake, Hill will get a host of lectures from his elders. But outside of the wrath from his parents (Hill’s father, Ken, is a former Major League Baseball player) he will also receive verbal whippings from the athletics department, head coach Kevin Sumlin and his staff, Texas A&M fans and, unfortunately, his classmates as well.

But as Hill is suspended indefinitely, per athletics department protocol, he has the chance to either have this particular inci-dent define him or defy him. No one will feel bad for him, as it should be, but Manziel was able to leave his arrest behind him and is now known more for defeating Ala-bama on the road than for falsely identifying himself.

Hill has the chance to use this experience as a stepping-stone in his life, something he will learn from, as both an athlete and as a student who is in college establishing who he is just like the rest of us. But first we have to give him the chance.

Sean Lester is a senior agricultural communications and journalism major and sports writer for The Battalion

Provided by Aggie Athletics

Senior Wayne Davis competes at the Texas Relays.

BAT_03-31-14_A5.indd 1 3/30/14 9:45 PM

thebattalion

newspage 6

monday 3.31.2014

With 20,503 stu-dents participat-ing in The Big

Event on Saturday, coordi-nators and speakers expressed the same idea — thank you for helping us say, “Thank you.”

David Trigg, The Big Event operations execu-tive, said The Big Event was able to post record-breaking numbers in fundraising, stu-dent participation, jobs re-cruited and completed and day-of vendors and sponsors.

“The Big Event at Texas A&M has set a new prece-dent,” Trigg said. “Our team, faculty and student body put on the largest and greatest ser-vant leadership experience-based event in the country,” Trigg said. “We could not have done this without the

phenomenal support of every Fighting Texas Aggie who helped and participated in The Big Event.”

Ben D. Welch, director of Halliburton Programs at the Mays Business School, was the keynote speaker. In ad-dressing the thousands of stu-dents gathered outside Reed Arena on Saturday morn-ing, Welch said participants showed where their priorities lie by sacrificing their Satur-day morning.

“I thank you for that re-spect that you show every citizen, because how many of us have heard that expres-sion, ‘You never get a sec-ond chance to make a first impression?’” Welch said. “And for so many of our citi-zens, this may be the first time — through their church, through their residential home — to be impacted by our students. You are show-ing them that respect that we

are known for.”Welch said students par-

ticipating in the event repre-sent A&M to the local com-munity.

“I know that there are many citizens in this com-munity that perhaps have lost a loved one,” Welch said. “All of the sudden they are facing that loneliness, and you are that individual that shows up and while you are there to serve you are serving in so many other ways that may be intangible. With that spirit that you show them, they may want to talk about when they had a loved one at A&M or what class that they graduated from, and you are impacting them in a way that we cannot put into words this morning.”

Kevin Brooks, The Big Event outreach executive, said he hopes the Aggies who participated left with a greater appreciation for the com-

munity members of Bryan-College Station and a greater love for the Texas A&M core value of selfless service.

“Texas A&M has the greatest student body in the world,” Brooks said. “This is proven through having the

largest turn out for a service project in the world. We cannot thank the students, residents and administrators enough for all they have done to make this service project possible. Thank you all for everything.”

Service helps international students bridge cultures

Aimee Breaux & Lindsey GawlikThe Battalion

Painting houses, plucking weeds, fixing fences and plant-

ing flowers, a wide range of stu-dents came together Saturday to give back to Bryan-College Station with The Big Event.

One organization involved was the International Student Men-tor Association, ISMA, which encouraged international students studying at A&M to volunteer for the event. ISMA has several men-tors who work to integrate inter-national students into the Texas A&M culture.

Clarisse Natividad, a junior pe-troleum engineering major who has worked as a mentor for a year, said she has always made an ef-fort to teach international students about various traditions at A&M. She said The Big Event is a won-derful tradition at A&M and a great way for international students to

get involved. “I suppose The Big Event can

be a bit intimidating for interna-tional students, just because it’s so big,” Natividad said. “But it’s a great way for students to learn about the big service culture we have here at A&M.”

For Sravani Jaligama, doctoral

student in electrical engineer-ing and ISMA member, student volunteer work wasn’t a foreign concept. Jaligama said she volun-teered with several other students at her undergraduate university in her home country of India to teach children in a neighboring village.

“There were no public schools in the village for education, so we helped them have the opportunity to learn,” Jaligama said. “It was very laid back and peaceful.”

Jaligama said she saw a lot in common with The Big Event and her volunteer experience in India.

“While over here, the size and magnitude are much larger, [but] the people here and [India] work with the same passion and I was ex-cited about that,” Jaligama said. “At the end of the day, I got the same level of satisfaction — whether it’s teaching or doing garden work — that I helped out the community.”

Duoduo Ding, freshman busi-ness major, is a member of ISMA from China. Ding said ISMA has helped her to further integrate into the culture and traditions of Texas A&M and get involved in other activities as well, such as MSC ALOT, with whom she chose to participate in The Big Event.

Ding said she was excited to volunteer at The Big Event, par-ticularly because she found a love for community service while vol-unteering for Habitat for Human-ity in high school in China.

“It’s really great to be able to be in a school that focuses a lot on community service projects just like my school back in China,” Ding said.

Ding said she enjoyed the entire experience of The Big Event, in-cluding the kickoff with its speech-es and upbeat music, but said for her and other students the concept of cleaning a backyard, or even having a backyard, was new.

“In China, we never had back-yards,” Ding said. “So we didn’t

need to garden. It was my first time to do that and I didn’t know how to do it at first, but after I learned and cleaned the garden I got a sense of accomplishment.”

Jhon Lin, sophomore biological and agricultural engineering major and ISMA member, has lived in Taiwan and Bolivia. He said back-yards are virtually non-existent.

“Well, having that much space was not a common thing for the places that I have lived,” Lin said. “It emphasized the idea of Texas — that everything is bigger, you know?”

After Lin’s group finished with its work, the homeowners served them sandwiches and they ate in the backyard together. He said he liked the experience of being able to make conversation with people he had only met hours earlier.

“Community service is a way to see the real world,” Lin said. “In my opinion, it really lets you see society from different perspec-tives.”

For many students, The Big Event provided more than just a volunteer experience. Natividad said The Big Event sometimes serves as a window into the culture of an American household, some-thing international students rarely get to see.

“Most of the time, international students are around other students in general,” Natividad said. “When the students go to The Big Event, they can see how people here run their household and have a family.”

Jaligama said her experience with volunteer work, particu-larly The Big Event, has gradu-ally changed her perspective about why volunteering is important.

“I realized that I can help others, and even if it’s in a very small way, at least I am helping,” Jaligama said. “With each time I help others, I feel better, they feel better, and to-gether as a community we grow.”

Roger Zhang — THE BATTALION

Photos by Roger Zhang — THE BATTALION

Sravani Jaligama (above), Stephanie Gonzalez (left) and Kaushik Sinha (right) participate in The Big Event with ISMA on Saturday.

Record breaker: Big Event hits 20,503

Students prepare for The Big Event

on Saturday.

Victoria Rivas The Battalion

BAT_03-31-14_A6.indd 1 3/30/14 9:45 PM