Organizations try to revive campus traditions

Traditions on the campus of A&M-Commerce almost seem to be something of the past. Therefore, a small group of students from the Residence Hall Association and other organizations have come together to try bring back a few customs to the university.

Bringing back traditions is important, according to freshman special education major Carol Lambe.

"Traditions are made to keep going, which is why they are called traditions," she said.

These recently forgotten rituals include blue and gold Wednesday, making the East Circle the place for events, and helping the university reclaim weekends on campus.

Since students came back from the fall semester, blue and gold Wednesdays have just been another Wednesday. Even last semester, those celebrating were few and far between.

According to Residence Hall Association communication coordinator Candace Foots, bringing back blue and gold Wednesdays would require getting students involved.

"In order to get students involved we need to work on marketing the events to students better," she said. "We have come up with a few marketing ideas such as banners, signs, T-shirts, and finding a way to get information about events to students like a week in advance, instead of the day of the event."

Bringing back blue and gold Wednesday could offer the students on campus something to look forward to. In this revised version, students would purchase T-shirts, where different classifications of students would have different colors. Organizations could pair off and host events with competitions.

One example, presented by Associate Director of Bands Scott Atchison, is to have students compete to write lyrics for the school's fight song.
Atchison also stressed the need for communication between the RHA and other groups on campus, like the Harvey Martin Classic Committee, who are all working towards the same goal: getting students involved on campus.

Spirit rallies are another idea to help bring back events to The East Circle. The goal is to help recognize some of the athletic teams on campus, especially those that do not usually get a lot of extra attention.

"The struggle in doing this is that the traffic is not centered around The East Circle anymore, because all the traffic that used to be there has now been moved over with the new student center," Foots said.

The idea of yell leaders came from former mascot and executive Vice President of RHA Jerrod Williams.

"The yell leaders would be spirit leaders who teach chants during orientation," he said. "Most often yell leaders would be guys who would also run the flag during touchdowns at home football games."

The last tradition the RHA is attempting to reclaim is encouraging students to stay on campus during the weekend.

"Since this is a commuter school, not much happens on the weekends," Foots said. "If we could get something started the attendance would be low at first, but I think it would spread through the word of mouth. If I am the only person on my floor to attend something then perhaps if I say I had a good time, I could get others to stay for the next event and so on."

The biggest key to bringing back these traditions on campus is communication not only with students but between organizations.