I witnessed in FHK how having a new hall director can change everything. The hall director my freshman year told the RA's to write to watch the "Bonfire" guys and as a result, people were written up and kicked out of the dorm for inane things. People were not even allowed to paint pots in the dorm because that promoted bonfire. However, after we got a new hall director the next year, she and the RA's worked with us and if there was a problem with Bonfire people, she would call one of the chiefs to come take care of it. It made sense because she didn't want to have the whole dorm hate her and try to make her life a living hell.

what are some of these inane things people were allegedly kicked out of the dorms for? I still have a very very hard time believing that bonfire folks were essentially targeted for removal and that everybody from the RAs up to upper administration was out to get them.

I agree with you Square.

And even if it is true that the bonfire kiddos were/are targeted, why were they? what reason did they give to be so discriminated against? I don't really feel like there has been an answer to this question.

You're not likely to get one because there isn't one. The types who get into trouble use their ties to bonfire as their sole reason for getting in trouble in the first place, conveniently overlooking the fact that their actions, not their affiliations, were what got them into hot water.

Make no mistakes, the overhaul and change in Moses is due to piss poor conduct on behalf of its soon-to-be former residents, not that it's a "bonfire" dorm.

[This message has been edited by SquareOne07 (edited 4/10/2007 11:27a).]

Inane things
- having flyers in their window about off-campus bonfire
- one guy broke a 8 foot long piece of 1/8 plywood that had been sitting outside for 2 weeks in the rain (read very flimsy, rotted board) over somebody's back, and that was called hazing even though the board could barely be swung and the supposed hazee said they were just messing around
- saying that the entire suite had to be 21 and up to have alcohol even though it is specifically stated in Reslife rules that only those in the room must be
- having one person go buy a whole bunch of spray paint and then let people from the dorm use that spray paint for a fee. This was accused of running a business out of their room, even though they were losing money.

The Bonfire guys are discriminated against for multiple reasons. First, there was some belief by RA's and Hall directors that there could be no mention of Off-campus Bonfire in the dorms. So therefore they did everything possible to keep the upperclassmen from talking about it to the freshmen. It was actually said to the upperclassmen that if a freshmen came to the hall director or RA and said that they were talked to about off-campus bonfire and they didn't like it, that upperclassman could be written up and subsequently kicked out of the hall.
Also, there were still some RA's and hall directors around that were personally affected by the collapse and didn't want the tradition to continue at all. They told as many freshmen as they could about how terrible bonfire was and how destructive it was to the university as a whole.
Finally, assumptions are made that they only people who would do destructive things are the bonfire people. If something was done by a non-bonfire person, but they didn't have any idea who it was, they would come accusing the bonfire people of either doing it or instigating another dorm to do it.

Yes, I am fully aware that some Bonfire people try to use their affiliation as a cop-out. However, it also must be looked at as since the bonfire people are typically the ones who sit on the benches, go to dorm dinner, and go to all of the hall events, they are the ones that the RA's and hall directors know by name and face. So if they see something happening, even if the people try to run away, they know who they are.

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No, that is not my opinion. As I think I previously stated, not all of the aspects of Moses dorm life were negative. A great majority of the things you mentioned are very positive and demonstrate positive feelings towards The University.

Teaching your underclassmen to follow in a negative way, however, is not loyal. Teaching them poor manners and bad habits does not reflect on our school in a positive light. Every university has the college mentality, sure, but boldly chanting "we rape women, etc" does not represent The University in a way that needs to be represented. When you have the lowest GPA on campus continuously, and are proud of it--that is not loyal to The University. Being loyal involves doing your best to preserve and show respect, and do your best for yourself and for your school--to achieve great, to learn, and to apply your knowledge. You just don't **** where you sleep. And that's the reputation that Moses Hall, Red Ass B@stards, has gained for themselves by all of the extreme "fun" that those kids have.

Great, your dorm builds its own bonfire every year. I understand first hand what the benefits of hard work with your buddies and your new friends for life can give you. It still doesn't give you the right to destroy one of the historical buildings on campus, to have to "f!ck you, I'm from Moses (or any dorm, for that matter)" mentality.

I'm not questioning Ben's loyalty, personally. I know that he's the kind of guy to give someone $20 when he can barely afford it, because he knows that his buddy really needs it to eat. I know the caliber of a kind of guy--but "that dorm" that he's so proud of--not so much.

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I can see your point on many things, and thank you for responding with thought and care, rather than with ad hominim attacks.

As I have also stated, Moses had many negative aspects. Most of these negative aspects were the more visible aspects, but to simply pigeonhole a dorm with very little knowledge on the subject is pretty closeminded, and that was pretty much my main point throughout my posts. Alot of people have spouted off about something they truly have minimal understanding of the dorm dynamic that we had.

I lived there for three years and never once locked my door. That's true of the majority of the residents there. We never had to worry about thieves because they weren't tolerated. All the upperclassmen had an open-door policy, which made us much more accessible for advice or just to hang out.

As for lowest dorm GPA being a valid point, I'd like to point out that the only person responsible for his/her GPA is that individual. It's not up to the profs, it's not up to the dorms, it's not up to the parents. It's up to the individual students. Some of the highest GPAs I've run across from graduates come from the Northside dorms, and from guys that were involved in those dorms. My buddy Bump graduated with a 3.7 or so in Civil Engineering. He was also the dorm Yellowpot in Fall '03, in which semester he pulled a 4.0 if I remember correctly. Not because he was from Moses, or that he built Bonfire, but because he accepted PERSONAL responsibility for his grades. This is college, not high school. No one else is in charge of your grades, so why is dorm GPA even looked at? It's not the dorm's fault, it's either lack of study or lack of time management on each student's part.

And as for an "F you, I'm from _____" mentality, trust me, ours wasn't the only dorm, let alone student group that was like that. Lord knows almost every Corps outfit I ran into during my short stay on the Quad had that mentality. Lord knows K2, H1 and the Cav sure as all hell did. It's a naturally competitive us-versus-them mentality that draws people closer together within their respective communities. Is it always positive? No. But it does serve the purpose of closely tying people together. At the same time, you can ask anyone from our "rival" dorms that it's generally a friendly rivalry, and rarely escalates beyond simply yelling at each other.


Lastly, I'd like to point out that the temperament of the current residents of the dorm, along with their destructive tendencies have mellowed _drastically_ compared to where things stood in Spring '03 when I moved in there. The only significant fact regarding write-ups and such are that we used to have RAs that would calm us down and talk to us if we were in a screaming argument or being too rowdy late at night rather than write people up. They expected us to act like adults, and actually treated us like adults when we stepped mildly out of line. They used to pull us aside and actually get to the bottom of what was going on rather than just write up everyone and let SCRS sort it out. Showed a lot more maturity and trust on their part, and in turn we trusted them alot more to the point where we'd actually talk to them for advice BEFORE things got horribly out of hand.


I've been in the Corps, I lived in Crocker for eight weeks after leaving the Corps, I lived offcampus when I came back to A&M in Fall of '03 , then moved into Moses in Spring of '03. I've seen every type of living situation there is in college, even to the point of having been homeless more than once. And I can honestly say the sense of community, belonging, and Aggie Spirit was by far the best in Moses, even taking the bad with the good.

"thatguy"

I would say that for you to call someone
"holier-than-thou", would be the pot calling the kettle black.

Having spent some of the best times of my life on the RAB 4th floor of Moses, this blows! I just recently registered on TexAgs, but have been lurking for a long time. Back then, Moses was a keeper of the traditions that helped make A&M. Sure, we were a little rowdie, but it was all good bull. When we screwed up, we fixed it or made amends. This sounds like more "political correctness" BS.

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"Three generations of imbeciles are enough." Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

I think it's more that The University was looking for a dorm to execute their plan on, and Moses Hall fit the mold due to their "causelotsofdestruction'ness" and it was a good excuse to seperate all those kiddos.

Damn,

Who'd of thought Moses would become a Red Ass dorm. But it looks like my old hall (1977-1981), Davis-Gary, Things just got out of hand.

When I was a fish, the upper classmen met with all of us and essentially encouraged us to have some "fun". And unfortunatly to the extreme. Of course, 30 years will change one's opinions about matters.

To the Moses residents, don't let them get you down. You'll figure out how to keep the Moses tradition alive. Keep it alive!

I echo Reiuxcat, Keep it Alive! I had some good buddies that lived in Damn Gay, I mean DG, Reiuxcat, but they would mostly have been two years behind you in the class of '83. You're right about how time(and kids of your own)changes your opinions, but the spirit needs to remain, albeit on a safer/tamer level. They threatened to break up our Fourth Floor Empire a couple of times during my four years in Moses for things that I would not want my kids to do now. That said, there were still a lot of positive things that came out of the closeness of the dorm residents during those days that will never be forgotten. It is that spirit that needs to be preserved in a positive way. Now this is starting to sound sappy, so I will end it here.

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"Three generations of imbeciles are enough." Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

ResLife has been infiltrated by gigantic ******bags since 2001, this is nothing new.

Same ****, different year.

I now know why all the old people say "this isn't my A&M anymore." It's not your fault guys, it's not your fault.

Nothing new here...when DG got out of hand, they turned it into a girls dorm after years of trying to sort the wheat from the chaff by kicking out the worst of the troublemakers. I was a fish in Moses when DG went to being a girls dorm. Starting with the semester before they renovated the dorm when we had free reign to trash the place, it was just destined to be a long downhill spiral before Moses went the way of DG. I am sure some other northside dorm will pick up where Moses left off, until eventually there are no more all male northside dorms.

Well, 100% co-ed dorms was part of the plan Dr. Bresciani spoke about in one of our Hall Council meetings back in Spring '05. That and more single-occupancy rooms. I would be fairly surprised if that goal has changed much in the intervening two years.

wow just happened to check on the bonfire board b/c of the court case & saw this.

i was a Moses RAB back in '94-'95. some of my best memories. pretty wild, that's for sure. didn't realize that over a decade later it was still going on. still have a number of close friends just from the dorm.

don't condone the damage, but hard to argue w/the sense of community that dorm has created. many doors just stayed wide open all the time. the upperclassmen really took care of the underclassmen - kind of a big brother type of thing. you know, the hold-you-down, sit-on-your-face-&-fart type of thing, but would step in when the schoolyard bully was picking on you.

even back then, one of the head admin honchos (VP for student affairs or something like that) called a mtg and said if we didn't shape up they would break the dorm up in the middle of the semester. said we had more damage cost than all other dorms combined.

can't say i'm proud, but a few things i remember:
- toilet ripped of floor & flying out a 3rd or 4th floor window
- plastic liner down 1st floor hallway during a rainstorm for a slip & slide
- never an intact piece of glass in the entry doors
- trash cans overturned every football victory
- first in last out, bonfire cut - i didn't go more than a few times but some crazy sheet went down
- for some reason there were always bikes hanging from the tree above the bench outside... and fires being set by the bench...

oh well

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ah so were going to improve life for the fish at the expense of the upper classmen.....wonderful...

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the fact that you're an 08 and you still live on campus is just sad.

Sad? I lost my guaranteed room as a fifth year senior back in the early eighties when that rule was first implemented. I was not happy.

I loved living on the north side of campus, a short walk from the Chicken and Dudley's and the fairly decent food at Sbisa. (Of course there were some failed soy steak experiments, but this is not what this post is about.) A short bike ride through the physical plant to Zachary. A short carry to the birthday boys to the fish pond.

I can proudly point to two harmless but now illegal diversions that made the verboten list for dorm life that I took part. Every March DG against the world during DG week was the best damn water fight every year. When the "elite" south side started spouting crap, did the north side let it slide? Hell no! We went to their turf and showed them what RED ASS meant. (At least until the pig poop was cast about. Then us smarter ones watched until the smell was too much) LOL

Forget the frat rats. Apparment life sux. There is NOTHING like dorm life on the North side.

Again, I state, I want and hope the Moore residents to keep their red ass non reg spirit alive.