awesome. i actually didn't know that, but i wouldn't want to put my name on it.

quote:

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it could be supervised better. a safer structure could be built. waivers signed by everyone who works on it. how's that for starters?

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I can assure you that "waivers" will never be accepted by the university as satisfaction to the problem of indemnification. For defendants with deep pockets, waivers do not protect very well.

Finding an adequate, affordable insurance policy for what the industry considers an extraordinarily risky operation, given its history, will be one of the hardest obstacles to bringing the tradition back on campus.

Insurance will be one of the trickiest hurdles to cross.

texmet,

You've got a point, but things have changed since you were there. We don't have "an environment where we ran anyone out of town who might have raised an intelligent question like 'is it really safe to have college kids build a large structure without detailed blue prints?'"

We have an environment in which Reslife has sent letters to everyone asking a similar question. In which student organizations have to submit lists of physical, reputational, emotional, financial, and facilites risks prior to approval.

Aggies make the traditions; traditions don't make the Aggies.

Though it would certainly help to have it back on campus, Bonfire is far from dead. A lot of things have changed since 1999, but that is a fact of all things in life. Though it is still small in relativity and still has a few issues that it has to iron out, SB is growing every year in student participation and campus awareness. We have to realize that SB is still in its infancy when compared to pre-’99 Bonfire, and it will take time before we have a routine system, effective means of recruitment, and a working form of advertisement that does not violate the moratorium (which is a going to be a fact of life until the litigation is over…sorry). I'm sure if we were to look at it, the first few Aggie Bonfires were far from coordinated and patroned by the mass of the University. Though SB may never be like the Bonfire of the 90’s, that does not mean that Bonfire or the Aggie Spirit is dead. The fate of Bonfire, of tradition, and of the Aggie Spirit is not in the hands of a president, a governor, or a board of old men. It is in the hands of the student body. My classmates and I work everyday to preserve the Aggie way of life, and everyday I see that way of life shine through around campus, at Midnight Yell, at Sbisa, and at cut site.

I really didn’t understand what it was to be an Aggie before I got here sometime ago…many students who come to College Station don’t. I do now, though, and be damned if I don’t see it continue. Be damned if A&M just turns into “a giant education factory”, and be damned if Bonfire and the Aggie Spirit does not continue to burn.

- Werley
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Lekner Hall,
Got it made!
We go to class
cuz we get paid!