Strange doings at Reed McDonald

A few weeks ago, ace investigator Kelly Brown '89 sent me some mysterious goodies from campus: a pic of the exterior of Reed McDonald and one of a large tank of liquid nitrogen which she says "now sits outside Reed," plus a video from inside the elevator, which she notes "got a face lift, but the building did not."



I believe what's going on here is RDMC's conversion into a snazzy new chemistry lab building. An architecture firm called PGAL has a Web page describing such a project here, and of course RDMC is right across the street from the current Chemistry building and the "Chemistry Fountain"/H2O Fountain, best known for having exuberant chemistry students turn its waters into maroon or varicolored foam.

Reed McDonald, for any of you New Army punks (I kid! I kid because I love!), is the rathole part-chemistry/part-journalism building where strange experimental happenings as well as our wonderful journalism professors and the Battalion itself were stored for many years. The Batt had upstairs offices with windows until somebody started shooting at 'em; well, I'm sure that's not the real reason, but it is true that in later years the Batt newsroom was down in the sunless, airless, joyless basement. For many years, in fact, we could say that while the A&M newspaper was put together in an ugly burnt-orange building, at least the tu paper was produced in a maroon building.

A new Humanities and Liberal Arts building is underway -- groundbreaking was set for early this year and completion is set for July 2012. It will be located in a fairly prime spot: close to the circle drive at the "front" of campus. This description (which also includes a rendering of the building) says it's between the Jack K. Williams Administration Building and the Glasscock Center. I marked those two buildings on this map, so you can see where the new Liberal Arts building might fall between the red arrow-thingies:

Tales from the Battcave '05-'06 and Battapus captured!

I think most of us who spent waaay too much time in the Battcave will find some memories that resonate with our own in these blog posts (scroll down to the "My Life as a Journalist" entries) by Rob Saucedo '07, a 2005-06 Batt staffer and section editor, who writes very descriptively of his time working at the Battalion, both good times with his coworkers and harder times as the choices of editors came into conflict.

Also, Saucedo has been kind enough to give me a photo of the "Battypus" (or "Battapus"), a creature that was featured on Battalion staff T-shirts of this era. Love it!


In his series of nine posts, Saucedo includes some reasons why he didn't get invited back to interview then-University President Robert Gates a second time, and how his fear of the gruff Battalion adviser Ron George grew into great respect and admiration.

He also gives his view of the blackface YouTube video scandal, which made national news, and the Battalion's handling of it. "From talking to the students in question, it became obvious that the purpose of their video was to lampoon the perceived second-class status of minorities at Texas A&M. This message, unfortunately, was not obvious in the video," he writes.

(In his discussion of the controversy and coverage, he gives an opinion or two that, were this more than a blog post, I might contact other parties for comment about. But he keeps it nice and it's so clearly his own opinion that I'm sure I'd do more harm than good by raking up old differences. Just so you know.)

Having been, during my own time at the Batt, privy to the truth inside another "racist" scandal that blew up into the national news, I can tell you for absolute certain that even though there likely are race problems at A&M as elsewhere, people can be WAY too quick to tag Aggies with the racist label. In my case I'm speaking of an editorial cartoon that was latched onto by a black lawmaker as racist. I am as confident as anyone can be that the person who drew that cartoon had NO intention of including race as a factor (in fact, I think I recall that the cartoonist did not actually know the race of the lawmaker).

One factor that's the same in both cases: young people not realizing how their actions will look to outside viewers. But I digress! Share your own stories of too much time spent in the newsroom, or other Battalion tales... the comments section is open, and you can e-mail me at aggiejournalists@gmail.com.

Got a little Old-Army Batt staff story for ya on LinkedIn

Awww, this is cool. There's some spontaneous sharing of Battalion staff tales going on over at our LinkedIn group. Very cool of Chuck Neighbors '54 (Batt managing editor, 1953-54) to get that ball rolling. Y'all jump in.

Multimedia reporting, both 1950-style and 2001-02 style... ridealongs with a Houston cops reporter in the 1960s... I'm looking forward to reading what's up next.

Somebody want to tell for the record how that bullet-hole got in the window of the Batt editor's office?

(Just click to join -- we have to "approve" you, but if that doesn't happen fast it's just 'cause Sara and I haven't logged in recently; feel free to shoot us an e-mail)

Martin's plaque joins honorees on Batt's wall

FJSA Hall of Honor plaques in The Battalion newsroom.

Photos by Jonny Green/The Battalion

Roland Martin '91 was inducted Oct. 11. See the entire roster of honorees at http://www.aggiejournalists.com/fjsahallofhonor.


Many thanks to Mr. Wegener for sending these photos!

Batt in Princeton Review Top 10 college papers

The Batt came in No. 8 in the nation in the Best College Newspapers category of the Princeton Review, as determined by popularity with students surveyed at 368 universities and colleges.

From the A&M release:

Texas A&M ranked first in the nation in the “most conservative students” category and placed second for “best athletic facilities.” It also garnered “top 10” ranking in categories for best college newspaper and “future Rotarians and Daughters.”

From the Batt: Carlin leaves legacy at A&M

Kenny Ryan has a good story in today's Batt about the journalism scholarship George Carlin created at Texas A&M. He talks to Bob Rogers, who was department head at the time:

Creating a scholarship is a far cry from the establishment-challenging Carlin seen on stage. Carlin established the scholarship without fanfare and away from attention.
"He didn't tell us he was doing it," Rogers said. "It was a real tribute on his part to somebody who had been helpful to him when he was young and unknown, and he didn't want to make a big deal about it, no publicity.
"It just appeared one day, he had come in and done his thing and gone before we even knew anything was happening."

(Katherine Coburn '09 won it this year.)

From the Batt: Ol' Sarge cartoon's creator dies

Excellent story by Kenny Ryan in Tuesday's Batt on Pete Tumlinson '42, who created the caricature of Ol' Sarge as Aggies today know it. Tumlinson, a former Marvel Comics artist, passed away in Calvert last week, it says.

In 1938 Tumlinson identified the character in a comic as an ex-con from Brooklyn who was considered "too tough" for Alcatraz, and sentenced to A&M. The character was named "Magarkin" later and turned into an upperclassman in the Corps who frequently appeared with his freshman buddy "Fish Blotto."

1933: 'Little Possibility of Beer Being Sold'

Just 75 short years ago today! Again, digging the deco nameplate. Click below for dramatic interpretation of the article headlined

"Little Possibility of Beer Being
Sold on A&M Campus If Texas
Should Repeal Prohibition Law
Students Will Have To Go To
Bryan Or Welborn To Get
Beverage."



More old Batt pages:

1912: Old Main burns; "Valiant Fire Heroes"
1966: "Aggies In Saigon Muster"
1914: "Spirited Contest Against Plucky Opponents"

Welton Jones '58: Sandiego.com senior arts critic

Sandiego.com posted a nice lengthy piece yesterday on the 50-years-and-counting career of arts critic Welton Jones II '58, credited most recently with founding and building the arts part of that Web site. It even shows a clip with his mug from the Battalion in October 1957 and reprints the text of that first review.

The article traces his career from the very beginning, from a junior high school paperboy, to the Batt, on to the Lubbock A-J and the Houston Post, to Shreveport and then to San Diego in 1965. He retired in 1999 from the San Diego Union-Tribune as critic-at-large and then took on a new challenge, it says:

In 2000, he began writing for this site, sandiego.com. He's been instrumental in pulling together a team of erudite, enthusiastic and dedicated writers that cover nearly all of the professional performances in town, winning awards in both 2006 and 2007 as the dominant arts reviewing group in the city.

Also provided are lots of links to his work, including his biography of Gregory Peck, descriptions of his theater work including writing, producing and directing, and more. The article mentions he cofounded the San Diego Press Club and sits on the board of San Diego's Save Our Heritage Organisation.

We love us some Lovett

YankDog's comment on "A few Aggies in print and in music" prompted me to recall that my own paper just posted a story about Lyle in which he mentions reporting for the Batt (and reveals his eye for detail):

As a student journalist at Texas A&M, you wrote feature stories about songwriters like Steve Fromholz, Willis Alan Ramsey. I heard you knew everything about Ramsey in those days, down to the color of his shoes.

Well, yeah. He used to wear those Adidas SL 72s, my old track shoes. I loved watching the way he stood, and the way he tapped his foot on the base of the microphone stand to simulate a kick drum. Willis — more than any of those guys I admired — made me feel OK about trying this (life as a musician).

He also talked about writing for the Batt in this '98 Austin Chronicle interview:

AC: And you were studying journalism. Did you ever wind up interviewing musicians?

LL: I never worked as a journalist. Fortunately, I've never had a job. But I did get to do some interviews with performers as they came through town to play at Texas A&M. I did interview Steven Fromholz, and I interviewed Michael Martin Murphey, and I interviewed Willis Alan Ramsey. I interviewed Nanci Griffith. That's how I met her. The first interview I did with a musician was Don Sanders, who is a longtime Houston singer-songwriter and also a big influence. I also interviewed Eric Taylor. I had a really great time talking to singer-songwriters and trying to pick their brain and see how they worked.

While I'm at it, for the sake of future reporters writing stories about Lyle and Robert Earl Keen, let me throw in a pre-emptive correction to a commonly misreported fact — I think I committed this one myself when I was writing for the Batt. The San Antonio paper, among others, got it right:

Contrary to popular belief, Lovett and Robert Earl Keen, another singing-songwriting Aggie, were not roommates at A&M. Keen has long contended that Lovett is far too neat of a person to have lived in Keen's College Station digs.

For those who prefer a direct source (and who doesn't), here's Lyle in the Chronicle interview again:

LL: I lived down the street from Robert. Robert lived in a house that everybody sort of hung out at in between classes at school. There were always people at Robert's house, whether he was there or not. There was always somebody sitting on his porch, playing a guitar or playing a fiddle. So we all just kind of met up over at Robert's. And that's how I got to know him, just wandering by and seeing people outside playing.

(While reading the interview, I cannot stop myself from noting that one of Lyle's favorite REK songs is also mine: "Rollin' By.")

And oh, what the heck, while we're dispelling commonly misreported A&M-type items I'll throw in this: Freebirds World Burrito is based in College Station, but did not originate there. First store was in California. Anybody got any others?

How the new Batt/Aggieland newsroom came to be

Many, many thanks to Mr. Wegener for all of the following!

On Sept. 16, staff members will celebrate the one-year anniversary of producing The Battalion and Aggieland in the Memorial Student Center (after more than 30 years in Reed McDonald). Check out the following timeline and slide shows. Better yet, drop by and see us.

From 013 Reed McDonald to 032 Memorial Student Center in 11 months, 6 days, 21 hours and 47 minutes…


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

TIMELINE

Oct. 11, 2005 — Christmas comes early for The Battalion and Aggieland:
Dr. Dave Parrott, associate vice president for Student Affairs and dean of Student Life; Dr. Carol Binzer, director, Offices of the Dean of Student Life, and chair, Student Media Board, and Bob Wegener, general manager, Student Media, tour space formerly occupied by MSC University Plus Craft Center (wood shop, pottery wheels, glass working, and darkrooms). Oh, the possibilities!

Oct. 26, 2005 — Texas A&M Council on Built Environment endorses the relocation (also, supported by MSC Council and Vice President for Student Affairs Dean Bresciani).

Nov. 8, 2005 — Deal is sealed.

Dec. 16, 2005 — Wegener meets with University architect Dan McGuire to come up with preliminary architectural plans for renovating MSC Room 032 for Student Media operations. The challenge: What sort of workspace best attracts and prepares the journalists of tomorrow? How might the Aggieland yearbook, Battalion print, broadcast and online media, and the Student Media professional staff (including a server room, phone closet and storage area) be integrated into 4,000 sq. ft. of space (on three levels)?

Jan. 17, 2006 — For the next six months, plans are shown to everyone Wegener can corral for feedback. So many choices: paint colors, doors and hardware, carpet, linoleum, ceiling tiles, placement of electrical, phone and computer outlets, desks and chairs and their arrangement, fabrics, mini-blinds, TVs, etc. Inspiration from Texas A&M's Bright Football Complex and Wehner Building, University of Oklahoma Gaylord Hall, Savannah Morning News, Washington Post…

June 15, 2006 — Construction begins.

Sept. 15, 2006 — Student Media moves to 032 MSC (assistant general manager Trish Heck and advertising/sales reps pave the way by moving a week earlier). The final Batt from Reed McDonald is produced on Sept. 14. Staff members at 013 RDMC put out the paper on Thursday night (summer EIC Allison Miles, fall-spring EIC Melissa Filbin and Wegener finish packing at 3 a.m.!). Batt staff reports to the MSC newsroom on Sunday the 16th and never misses a beat. Sept. 17 issue is the first Batt from the MSC. Oh, yes, convergence: The Battalion and Aggieland staffs share a common space (except for offices for the editors in chief).

Price tag — $375,000 to demolish, renovate and furnish 032 (funding comes from Student Media)


WHAT'S GREAT ABOUT 032 (according to Batt staffers who also worked in RDMC)?

• Location, location, location
vs. being hidden in basement of a building that nobody knows about
• Technology: new computers, software, plasma televisions, video cameras, etc.
• New furniture
• More efficient use of space
• Proximity between section editors
• Easier to communicate with professional staff
• Regulated temperature
• Multi-purpose media conference room
• Professional: looks more like a newsroom
• Lighter, brighter


THERE'S MORE

It's not just the state-of-the-art facilities, it's the pros who in 2006-2007 joined news adviser Cheri Shipman and students for "JOUR 400" and newsroom "roll-up-the-sleeves" sessions: Michael Landauer, The Dallas Morning News; Michael Mulvey, The Dallas Morning News (Pulitzer Prize winner); Marissa Alanis, The Dallas Morning News; Chris Wilkins, The Dallas Morning News; Bryan Butler, The (Bryan-College Station) Eagle); Doug Pils, San Antonio Express-News; Honny Pils, San Antonio Express-News; Kelly Brown, The (Bryan-College Station) Eagle; Selwyn Crawford, The Dallas Morning News; Sherolyn Carroll, Texas A&M assistant vice president for Communications; Mike MacKenzie, special asst. to the Texas A&M athletic director (Pulitzer Prize winner at Kansas City Star and Times), and James Bernsen, Bernsen Consulting. Also, Dr. Randy Sumpter and 2007 Journalists in Residence: Roy Bragg, San Antonio Express-News; Sue Owen, Austin American-Statesman, and Kathleen McElroy, The New York Times. Daily critiques prepared by Dr. Doug Starr. And, one-hour conversations in the newsroom with Texas A&M Interim President Eddie J. Davis, Head Football Coach Dennis Franchione, and Chief Marketing Officer and VP for Communications Steve Moore and Assistant VP for Business Development Mike Huddleston.


Journalism education is alive and well at Texas A&M.

July 13, 2003: The Batt's fight for the JOUR department

My thanks to True Brown '04 for his account:

Four years later, I’m still amazed by the events of the summer of 2003.

While the majority of A&M’s current students weren’t yet in college the day Aggieland closed the doors to its Department of Journalism, the ramifications of those events have been far-reaching for a number of reasons. But I won’t rehash all those here; this choir, to borrow a phrase from former Battalion adviser Ron George, is already singing from the same hymnal in that regard.

The events that took place the following weeks, however, are memories that still stir strong emotions today.

First, a little background…

That spring, I was tabbed to be The Battalion’s editor in chief for the summer 2003 semester. With rumors swirling that the department’s closure was imminent, the Batt staff had a good idea that we would be the ones covering the story when it finally broke. Then, on July 13, Dean of Liberal Arts Charles Johnson sent his final recommendation to A&M officials that the department be closed—effectively axing the program and associated major.

That’s when the public fight began in earnest.

The Battalion became the unofficial voice of the Journalism students with several stories and editorials in the ensuing days. Since the closure came in the summer, there unfortunately was not a tremendous amount of statewide press surrounding the department.

That quickly changed, however.

(A quick nod is due here to FJSA, and especially former students Kelly Brown, Jon LeBas and Kirstin Voinis for their help in the public fight against Journalism’s closure. Many of the following events were a direct result of their hard work and dedication.)

Kirstin, who ran a PR firm in Austin, launched a series of press releases to basically every media outlet in the state announcing that the Battalion editors were going to fight the department’s closure. Former Batt editor Brady Creel ’03 also got in the mix, designing our SaveJournalism.com web site, complete with an online petition and links to every news story we could find.

The first release led to a smattering of coverage around the state, both print and TV. The big bombshell came a week or so later.

After much debate, managing editor Dallas Shipp and I decided that the best editorial we could script would be one in which we didn’t really have to script anything. We eventually ran a blank Op/Ed page, which read at the top:

“The Texas A&M administration’s vision of journalism:”

(Blank page to bottom)

“www.savejournalism.com

Let your voice be heard!”

Another press release went out that morning announcing the blank page.

The response this time was absolutely overwhelming. By noon, I had at least a dozen messages from reporters seeking comment. The Associated Press picked up the release immediately, and within days, stories about the blank page (and more importantly the lack of a Department of Journalism) were everywhere. We occupied space in every daily newspaper in the state, were interviewed by TV stations in B-CS, Dallas and Houston, scored a segment with Shepard Smith on FoxNews and prompted editorials by countless college newspapers and metropolitan dailies.

Our online petition went nuts after the stories came out. We had about 4,000 signatures the next week, and they didn't come from just Aggies. People from across the country chimed in, and there were countless people from Texas, Baylor, Tech and UNT, among others, who signed the petition and sent encouraging emails. It was truly amazing to see the number of people who were on our side.

Many of the comments, whether they were from Aggies or otherwise, shared the same sentiment: educating aspiring, young journalists is vitally important to the health of Texas A&M, the State of Texas and the United States.

For me, those countless positive responses and comments made the entire battle worthwhile, and hopefully all those who have dedicated their time and effort to furthering the success of journalism at Texas A&M feel the same way. It’s certainly what made the summer of 2003 so memorable.

Aggie journalist jokes

How can you tell if a reporter's an Aggie? You ask if his story's going to run over 10 inches and he has to take off his shoes to answer.

How do you know which copy editor is an Aggie? She's the one with white-out on her screen.

And a contribution from my buddy, Statesman columnist John Kelso: You can tell the editor's an Aggie when he makes you put the sheep higher up in the story.

DeFrank, Santos to speak at commencement

Talk about your distinguished speakers: Tom DeFrank '67 speaks to the liberal arts, science, medical and Council of Deans grads at 9 a.m. Friday, and Rolando Santos '78 has the architecture, engineering and George Bush School grads at 2 p.m. Friday.

Santos is CNN's vice president for international relations and DeFrank is Washington bureau chief for the New York Daily News.

Details in Rick Rojas' story for the Batt include why you may not want to play cards against Santos.

Also, DeFrank bears the distinction of having been canned by General Rudder when he was editor of the Batt:

Before a career spanning nearly four decades covering presidents and politics, DeFrank, Class of 1967, was the editor in chief of The Battalion - and a controversial one at that.

After working in various positions for three years, he became the top editor in the fall of 1966. But President Rudder wasn't pleased with his work, because - as DeFrank said - The Battalion did actual journalism, not public relations for the University as Rudder wanted.

"(Rudder) wanted a student newspaper that only reported good news," he said. "Any self-respecting journalist wouldn't do that."

So, Rudder fired him.

"Each year, the censorship and repression got worse," DeFrank said.

Though, he said he understood why Rudder acted the way he did: The University was in the midst of an evolution, and the stalwart president represented a dictatorial generation.

"It was a different time, a different era; it was a time of transition for A&M," DeFrank said. "President Rudder was a great man, but of a different generation."

Almost there!

It's the middle of final exams and commencement's May 10-11. Good luck to all concerned!

1912: Old Main burns; "Valiant Fire Heroes"

May 31, 1912. Dig the groovy nameplate! Click below to hear the first part of the story read by my husband in his best old-timey-newsreader voice.

2007: 'Here'

Friday, April 20, 2007

1966: 'Aggies In Saigon Muster'

Friday, April 22, 1966. (The photo on the left is the campus Muster; cutline reads "64th ANNUAL MUSTER SEREMONY." Everybody needs an editor.)

Text reads in part, "The largest muster was held in a downtown Saigon restaurant but there were others in Da Nang and Cam Ranh Bay. Revelry and poignancy intermingled as the graduates of the oldest public university in Texas bent elbows, swapped stories, paid tribute to deceased classmates and watched a football game film."

Softly call the Muster,
Let comrade answer 'Here!'

1914: "Spirited Contest Against Plucky Opponents"

Nov. 18, 1914

Click here for the dramatic newsreel-style reading of the text!


Official histories of Kyle Field give its beginning as 1927-1929, but that's apparently the date for the construction of the concrete stadium. Before that, I'm guessing Kyle Field was a .... field!

'Area 51' moved out of RDMC

A reader asked whatever happened to "Area 51" upstairs at Reed McDonald -- the restricted-access levels that occasionally afforded glimpses of gleaming steel or mysterious lab-coated experimenters.

An Eagle story from September 2006 reported that the Texas State Chemist's office moved from Reed McDonald to new quarters on Agronomy Road.

It did get a little spooky sometimes:

"Dave Mayes, associate head of agriculture communications for the A&M System and a former Battalion editor, has worked in the Reed McDonald Building for several years. He said the chemists upstairs were not always typical office neighbors.

" 'You were never sure what you would see in the elevator,' he said. "There were people in white lab coats with trays or carts of who-knows-what. You would think, "Hmm, that's interesting." ' "