NEWS
GRADUATES FACE UNCERTAIN JOB MARKET PAGE 3
OPINION
SPORTS
MIDDLE EASTERN & NORTH AFRICAN MISCONCEPTIONS
TWINS TAKE OVER TXST TRACK AND FIELD
PAGE 4
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TUESDAY June 2, 2026
K O C U O T R
VOLUME 115 ISSUE 31
FEATURE
Student musicians set the stage for community By Leo TchoulanovEzhevsky Life and Arts Contributor
In cramped dorm rooms and crowded student hallways, two Texas State bands found something louder than their genres; they found each other. Cuerno and Michael
on the Counter may sound nothing alike, one fueled by beatdown rock, the other by indie softness, but both bands were shaped by the same foundation: the chance encounters and tight quarters of Texas State student housing. Their origins reveal how campus spaces can become
Father released from ICE custody
CITY
By Arabella Dichristina News Editor
CADY CLEMENTS | LIFE & ARTS EDITOR
Anthropology junior and vocalist for the band “Cuerno” Leo Saldivar performs Saturday, April 11, 2026, at Private Park in San Marcos.
incubators for connection, giving students room to experiment, collaborate and build friendships that outlast the semester. Cuerno Cuerno chose its name, Spanish for “horn”, because the members liked its
punchy sound and the visual possibilities for merch. Its members consist of Leo Saldivar, anthropology junior and vocalist, Jack Furbee, film junior and drummer, Michael Flores, education junior and guitarist and Desarey Elizondo, electronic media junior and bassist.
After a successful habeas corpus filing, Gerardo Reyes, a San Antonio father, is being released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after a traffic stop in March that led to his arrest and later detention by ICE. Gerardo Reyes was released at 5 p.m. from the T. Don Hutto ICE Detention Center in Taylor, Texas on June 1, after over 60 days in detention. A habeas corpus claim challenged the legality of Gerardo Reyes’s detention and allowed a judge to release him from the detention center while his immigration case is pending. “Gerardo is coming home,” Guadalupe “Lupe” Sarinana, Gerardo Reyes’ daughter, said in a press release sent out by Eric Martinez, executive and policy director of Mano Amiga.
SEE ICE PAGE 2
SEE BANDS PAGE 6 CAMPUS
TXST elects first Black woman student government president By Cady Clements Life & Arts Editor
In conversations with students across campus, Johanna Ajayi kept hearing the same quiet frustration: leadership rarely looked like the students it served. She decided to change that. Ajayi, Texas State’s first Black woman student government president and finance junior, saw
representation in positions of power as non-negotiable and thought she could fill the gap she was seeing. She created the Bobcats in Bloom campaign with Keller Hammack, Student Government vice president and accounting senior, to elevate the voices of every group at Texas State. Ajayi and Hammack built a campaign around the phrase “Texas State: Where every
SPORTS BRIEF
voice blossoms.” They plan to accomplish that goal by filling their cabinet with people from as many walks of life as possible. “One of the things that I want to accomplish by the end of the school year, or even with my cabinet specifically, is for students to look up and see themselves in these leadership positions,” Ajayi said.
SEE STUGO PAGE 5
PHOTO COURTESY OF JESSE IJEMEH
Chief of Staff Anaysa Guerra (left), President Johanna Ajayi (center) and Vice President Keller Hammack (right) at the Meadows Center, Wednesday, March 11, on 211 San Marcos Springs Dr.
TOURNAMENT
Women Gymnastics Program reintroduced, first in Texas By Ayden Ordeson Sports Editor
Texas State athletics announced Monday morning that they will be bringing back women’s gymnastics. This marks a historic first as this will be the first institution in the state of Texas to sponsor an NCAA Division I Women’s Gymnastics program. This comes with Texas State’s planned entrance to the Pac-12 in July alongside being in a state that is a hotbed of talent but had only one program within the state. The Bobcats will join five other programs in the Pac-12 that field a women’s
gymnastics team; including Utah State, Boise State, Oregon State and Southern Utah. These programs have been nationally competitive, and Texas State will have to adapt fast to these programs that have been around for decades. The competitions and meets will take place at Strahan Arena, with the head coach search underway as their first season is expected to begin in Spring 2028. Texas State’s once nationally-recognized program competed in multiple Division II championships before being shuttered in April 1986.
TXST Baseball falls short at Regional By Ayden Ordeson Sports Editor
In what felt like a microcosm of their season, the Texas State Bobcats went through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows when they took part in the 2026 NCAA Tournament at the
AIDEN FRITSCHE | MULTIMEDIA EDITOR
Players walk to a huddle, Sunday, May 31, 2026, at Blue Bell Park at Texas A&M. The Bobcats were eliminated from the playoffs after losing to USC 15-4.
College Station Regional, from Friday, May 29 to Sunday, May 31. Despite the elimination, Texas State’s first regional in four years featured senior third basemen Chase Mora, who arguably had his greatest moments as a Bobcat in their comeback victory against the
Southern California Trojans (USC) and Texas State setting a new single-season conference record in home runs by a team in the Sun Belt Conference.
SEE BASEBALL PAGE 8