Issue date: 11/18/02 Section: Front Page

Three years after the 1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse, students are still divided on how central Bonfire was to maintaining unity at Texas A&M.

Students from off campus, on campus and the Corps of Cadets expressed different views about what Bonfire meant to the A&M community and what A&M means now without Bonfire. But students agreed that Bonfire's suspension has had an enormous impact on the community of A&M.

After a year-long process seeking to reinstate the annual Thanksgiving fire for this fall, in February, then-University President Dr. Ray M. Bowen announced that Bonfire would not burn again, saying the stakes were too high. Twelve Aggies were killed and 27 injured when the 60-foot-high stack swayed and fell at 2:42 a.m. on Nov. 18, 1999.

Bowen said students should face the inevitable and focus their energies on creating a new tradition that replicates the camaraderie of Bonfire but does not entail the danger and expense.

The fate of Bonfire is now in the hands of University President Dr. Robert M. Gates, who has made no indication of his thoughts about what will happen with Bonfire since his term began Aug. 1.

John Parrish, a senior civil engineering major and member of the Corps' Squadron 17, said his group was one of the the most active units during the building of Bonfire in 1999. The group was awarded Center Pole, the most prestigious of the logs, for their efforts at the site around the clock.

"Bonfire is something that all the other traditions were built around," Parrish said. "Not everyone understood Bonfire, but they respected it."

When the unique bonding experience of working together for a common cause is taken from students, it can't be replaced, Parrish said.

Student Body President and senior agricultural development major Zac Coventry said Bonfire was a unifying experience for some, but didn't include all Aggies.

"I never saw an international student in all the time I worked on Bonfire," he said.

That's something the International Student Association is seeking to change if Bonfire is brought back to campus, said Molina Warty, the organization's president and a senior economics major. Ninety percent of international students are graduate students who are here for two years, don't live on campus and don't have much of a chance to get involved, Warty said.

"They don't really feel involved in campus activities," she said. "It takes a lot to reach out to everyone, but that is one of our goals, to get more international students involved."

The culture of Bonfire and the University's "tunnel vision" in dealing with issues related to the student-run fire was cited by the commission that investigated Bonfire's collapse as a primary factor in creating an environment where Bonfire's construction remained unquestioned. According to some students who worked on Bonfire, racism and sexism were a part of that culture.

Senior anthropology major Nicholette Lawson attended cut her freshman year and lived in Lechner Hall, an active and all-freshman Northside dorm. She said since Bonfire fell, there has been less chauvinism and less of a "good ol' boys club" feel to the school.

"Some people think that's bad, but I think it's one of the best things that ever could have happened at A&M," Lawson said. "Females were not respected as much as the males."

Senior English major James Murray IV said the degradation of women in Bonfire was one thing that "definitely needed to go."

"Grode yells" have been a focal point of change. Neeley Hall, a women's residence hall on Northside, has a yell detailing the performance of fellatio on members of the different halls, Murray said.

"Women were there to bring water and to flirt with the pots," Murray said. "Sleeping with the pots was a cool thing to do for girls."

Lawson said some of the sexism stemmed from safety issues: workers had to be strong enough to cut and carry the heaviest logs. But the activity could have been more inclusive than it was for women, she said.

"Bonfire was an amazing thing," Lawson said. "A&M will not be the same without it. But Aggie's Spirit is not Bonfire."

But Parrish said the Aggie Spirit took a hit when Bonfire fell and the only way to revive it is to bring Bonfire back.

"It took 91 years to make it the tradition it was," he said. "We have to start somewhere, and it doesn't matter if it's something as small as the original Bonfire when it first began."

The University should be less concerned about their image and think more about what it meant and still means to students, Parrish said.

The Unity Project is a group of students building a smaller version of the Aggie Bonfire off campus in an attempt to keep the experience alive until the tradition can return to campus. Spokesman Luke Cheatham, a senior civil engineering major, said the most important aspect of working on a bonfire now is making sure students still know how to cut and stack.

Though some aspects of Bonfire should change, such as hazing and drinking , Cheatham said the fire can be built safely.

"If you take all the bad things out, and leave the good things like friendships, and emphasize safety, you can't surpass the experience of Bonfire," said Cheatham, who is also a resident advisor at Walton Hall.

The Unity Project bonfire will burn at about 7 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 24 at the Boondocks Recreation Ranch, 10 minutes outside College Station along Highway 30.

"The biggest change since Bonfire is the lack of participation on the part of campus groups," said Charles Johnson, senior molecular and cell biology major. Johnson lived on campus his freshman year, and has remained active in student organizations despite moving off campus.

"The dorms used to have a huge presence in everything that was done," Johnson said. "Bonfire brought everyone, regardless of where they lived, together for a common experience, the type of experience that builds friendships and lifelong camaraderie."

Several activities have been initiated since Bonfire's suspension, including a fall Replant, Reveille Ball, a revised All-U Nite, Aggie Nights in the Memorial Student Center and the Sbisa Semi-Formal.

But Parrish said the University-sponsored events are "empty efforts."

"The University thought that by giving us something to do, we would forget about it (Bonfire)," he said.

The Fall Activities Council, chaired by Coventry, will host the Farmer's Fight Festival on Nov. 25, during the week Bonfire would traditionally have burned. The Festival will include games and a yell practice.

Resident advisers have been working to start new hall traditions to forge a similar kind of hall unity that once existed with waking up at dawn to attend cut, said John Gabrysh, Lechner residence hall adviser and senior electrical engineering major.

"Residence halls are getting better at figuring out how to promote community without Bonfire, because the people that have never known Bonfire are moving into leadership positions," Gabrysh said. "We're searching for something to build the community around."

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