Students at Texas A&M University want to revive a 90-year-old tradition that was put on hold after a fatal accident several years ago, and Aggie administrators should seriously consider one group’s efforts and hopes to rekindle old flames.
Traditionally, Texas A&M students held a bonfire each year on the eve of their team’s football game against its intrastate rival - the University of Texas - but the tradition came to a halt in 1999 when a 59-foot-high bonfire tower collapsed during construction. The stack of 5,000 logs toppled over the crowd, killing 12 people and injuring 27.
While the school was right to put an end to a tradition that had grown dangerously out of hand, it seems the time may have come revive the old way in a safer manner.
One group of Aggie students and alumni are set on lighting a 10 to 15-foot-high bonfire Nov. 24, five days before the university’s rival takes the field. The group is concentrating on a safety-first approach.
The group, Unity Project, uses a defined hierarchy of construction personnel, requires on-site safety courses before participants begin construction, uses machines to compact the log stacks instead of people and prohibits alcohol at the work site.
The group’s effort is not supported by Texas A&M officials, who are right to discourage a tradition that claimed the lives of a dozen of its students. In the years leading up to 1999, the bonfires became increasingly more elaborate, massive and dangerous. The school holds tremendous liability if construction were to go awry again.
In addition, this tradition might be a sad reminder for friends and family members who lost loved ones in 1999’s collapse. Essentially, not all traditions are good, despite a tendency to be sentimental toward long-running events.
But traditions are as much a part of university life as course enrollment. If students and alumni are willing to learn from past mistakes and address safety concerns in hopes of maintaining a beloved tradition, university officials should consider hearing their voices.
