Spring Break
Bonfire-related merchandise makes a campus comeback
By: Sonia Moghe
Issue date: 3/8/04 Section: News
Texas A&M President Robert M. Gates lifted the moratorium on the sale of Bonfire-related merchandise Friday morning and will commit $50,000 a year from all University merchandise sales toward building a Visitor Center and a Bonfire museum.
"I am lifting the moratorium in the hope that the memorial image of Bonfire will help keep always fresh in the minds of Aggies...and also to help ensure that the Bonfire Memorial will always be tended," Gates said in his statement.
The moratorium, which didn't allow the sale of Bonfire-related merchandise, was enacted to prevent people from profiting from the 1999 Aggie Bonfire Collapse.
Alex King, chair for the Bonfire Coalition for Students, said he is pleased with Gates' statement.
"(Lifting the moratorium) is pretty much the next-to-final step to getting Bonfire back," King said. "It was the number two platform on our goals for getting Bonfire back - now all we have to do is actually get it back on campus."
In April 2003, the moratorium was lifted for the Aggie Moms Club to sell merchandise at Parents' Weekend.
In Gates' statement, he requires that all vendors who plan to sell Bonfire paraphernalia submit samples of their designs to be approved before the merchandise can be sold.
Luke Cheatham, founder and director of Student Bonfire Unity Project, said he thinks Gates' move isn't noteworthy.
"This is a small step in terms of an on-campus Bonfire," Cheatham said. "We've played the waiting game since 1999. Being able to sell something is nothing compared to what we want and really has nothing to do with what we want, which is an on-campus Bonfire."
King said the lifted moratorium is essentially allowing the University to be associated with Bonfire again.
"Having the name association - the words 'Aggie Bonfire' - back out in the public all around town and on campus just gives students and former students a lot of hope for (Bonfire's) return," King said.
Gates plans to put $50,000 of the money earned from University merchandise sales toward building a Visitor Center and a Museum at the Bonfire Memorial. The money will also be used for maintenance of the memorial.
"The administration continues to distract students with half-hearted gestures - like the building of a monument--while the tradition those students died to protect has been put in exile," said Robert Steinhagen, Class of 1993 and public relations director for Student Bonfire. "The only fitting monument for the 12 who lost their lives is to bring the tradition back."
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