Issuu

THURSDAY, SEPT. 18, 2025 VOLUME 100 ISSUE 2

COMMUNITY

Professor’s passion inspires life-saving outpouring with IgA nephropathy, a disease in his kidneys which has raised his blood pressure and caused frequent miOne of the first rooms in the Me- graines for the past 35 years. Until chanical Engineering North building, recently, Hanson said his symptoms Jeff Hanson’s office is rarely empty. It were manageable. “That’s just the way it is,” Hanson teems with students working problems on his wall-sized whiteboard, asking for said. “The rest of me feels fine, right? edits from the “go-to guy” for resumes I’m a healthy guy.” Since the beginning of this year, his or simply hanging out in the busy, disease has progressed. Hanson said a personality-clad space. He’ll often lose track of time in walk to Tech’s Student Union Building that room, he said, so caught up by will leave him with aching hips and the questions he’s answering and the the feeling of 10,000 pounds weighing on his back, and his feet most often conversations he’s having. Hanson has taught roughly five feel the tell-tale tingle of having just classes a semester at Tech for the last fallen asleep. Instead of his typical energetic per17 years, and his open-door office polformances at the front icy welcomes anyone of his classrooms, seeking his help. He Hanson recently has and his wife will inopted to stay seated vite students to their during lectures. home for picnics and My students are the The lack of energy dinners, building re- reason I want to get to do things, to help lationships with them, healthy again. his students, is what’s regardless of whether they sit in his classJEFF HANSON killing him, he said. “I’m only 58, and rooms. SENIOR LECTURER I can’t live like this,” “We only have two Hanson said. “Before, kids, but we really have about 17,000,” Hanson said. “I’ve I could live with it. It was just high blood graduated about 20,000 engineers in pressure and headaches, but the fatigue the time I’ve been here. Those kids are … . Something’s got to change.” That change began with a social mejust — they’re like my kids.” It was these kids — both blood and dia post from Hanson’s sister asking for bonded — that stuck by Hanson when individuals willing to donate a kidney. The response was immediate. his health declined. Hanson said he battled with the idea In 1990, Hanson was diagnosed By AYNSLEY LARSEN MaNagiNg editor

of a living donor transplant, and never expected the response he received from his students. “What happens if you get sick? I would feel, I would feel awful about that,” Hanson said. “I mean, how do you ask somebody to do something like that? I mean, I just can’t imagine.” Jennifer Cox, a 2016 mechanical engineering Tech graduate, saw the Facebook post from Hanson’s sister on Aug. 21 detailing the extent of the instructor’s disease and his now-urgent need for a transplant. The post was the first Cox had heard of Hanson’s kidney disease in her near-decade of knowing him. She signed up on his donor list that day. “To be entirely honest, it wasn’t a decision,” Cox said. “I didn’t have to stop and think about it. I’m relatively young. I’m healthy. I have two propJACOB LUJAN/The Daily Toreador er-functioning kidneys. Why wouldn’t Jeff Hanson, a senior mechanical engineering lecturer, talks to a student about his I do that?” resume Sept. 12, 2025. Hanson hosts open office hours for any student needing help. The text exchange between Cox and Hanson when she told him she tested first day as a Tech student. Entering col- but it looked different from the cozy, to be a donor went like this: lege in her mid-20s with a husband and student-filled space he has now. Hanson: You sweet thing. I love twin daughters — who couldn’t join her Tucked into a small corner, his office you so much. I don’t understand why in Lubbock until months into her first sat maybe two students at a time, Cox someone would do that for me, but I am year — Hanson quickly became family. said. Instead, a stranding-room-only beyond grateful. I really love you from “To this day, I consider him as close, hallway leading into his office held the bottom of my heart. I wish you were if not closer, than my blood family space for Hanson’s students, each of close. I have the biggest hug for you. which he took time to know. members,” Cox said. Cox: Because I love you and I have Though it hurts him to even walk Now based in Everett, Washington, a spare one, and you need it. It makes Cox is a senior engineering manager sometimes, Hanson hasn’t closed his perfect sense to me. This is a no-brain- at Boeing. office doors. er. Hanson had his same open-door Hanson’s was her first class on her office policy when Cox was a student, SEE COMMUNITY, PG. 3

ALUMNUS

TECH SYSTEM

Baskerville’s NFL dreams hindered by injury Creighton By KETIH INGLIS

sports reporter

On Oct. 25, 2024, former Texas Tech defensive back C.J. Baskerville went down after a routine assisted tackle against Oklahoma State – a collision he didn’t know at the time that would end his hopes of playing in the NFL. The two-year Red Raider was projected to be selected in the back end of the 2025 NFL Draft. Of the 257 life-changing calls made from

league offices to top prospects, that didn’t label him with the Baskerville received designation weren’t the one he wasn’t interested in his hoping for. talents. I’m a God-fearing man. He stepped The collision I believe God puts me in resulted in a stinger. outside his home situations and has me and picked up He received two do things and has things bowls and discs in the phone, only happen to me for a certain his spinal cord. The to receive news reason that 26 teams medical process had medically C.J. BASKERVILLE became something red-f lagged him. FORMER TECH ATHLETE that not many teams Baskerville said the were fond of, as word other six teams in the league spread quickly throughout the

league. “I’m bulging at two millimeters, and paralysis is at four millimeters,” Baskerville said. “I’m already halfway there. All it would take was a hit in the right manner, and I would be paralyzed.” With not many teams willing to take a shot, the Denver Broncos invited Baskerville to their rookie mini-camp in May to evaluate him shortly after the draft ended.

From finding artifacts, to people eagerly wanting their history preserved, the role of an archivist is tedious and requires patience, diligence and empathy. The Southwest Collection/ Special Collections Library was founded in the mid 1950s and houses many archives of rare books, southwest music, Texas Tech memorabilia and the Sowell Family Collection. Lynn Whitfield, a university archivist for Southwest Collection, works exclusively with original artifacts about Tech. She said the library primarily researches and

SCOTT’S JAKE COOPER/The Daily Toreador

Texas Tech Southwest Collections archivist Lynn Whitfield explains how SWC preserves the history of Tech through file keeping and the art of archiving history.

SCOTT’S COMPLETE CAR CARE

COMPLETE CAR CARE

News editor

collects original materials, with a large number of them being directly tied to the university. “I’ve actually had an alumnus bring me some of (her) band costumes and her dad’s band uniform jacket,” Whitfield said. Katie Fortenberry, a second-year master’s student from Lubbock and assistant for the archives, said the task of processing materials is a lot of work, including taking inventory and putting artifacts in their specific locations. It’s an incredibly special moment when they’re able to be a part of organizing someone’s personal life. SEE ARCHIVING, PG. 3

SEE TECH SYSTEM, PG. 2

SEE ALUMNUS, PG. 4

Southwest Collections perserves history, Tech pride Features writer

By ALLIE SCOTT

The Texas Tech System Board of Regents voted unanimously Sept. 4 to name Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, as the sole finalist for the System’s next chancellor. Creighton has played a central role in shaping Texas higher education as chair of both the Senate Committee on Education K-16 and Subcommittee on Higher Education since 2023. In recent years, he authored legislation banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public universities; restricting campus protests and restructuring faculty governance. Andrew Martin, tenured art professor who leads Tech’s American Association of University Professors chapter, said Creighton has authored legislation that opposes the AAUP’s core values, which include academic freedom, shared governance, tenure and stable funding, according to the AAUP website. “We want our students to be capable of being informed, critical thought, and without that I don’t think you can really be free, and so we see that as one the things that’s most important to ensure continues,” Martin said.“I want to believe that Senator Creighton, as our future chancellor, believes in that.”

ARCHIVING

By ERIN DEMBO

to be next chancellor

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