Silver Taps on Tuesday night will honor six Texas A&M students

Texas A&M University will hold Silver Taps at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, in Academic Plaza to remember six students who died while enrolled, the university's Division of Student Affairs announced.

The university describes Silver Taps as one of its most sacred traditions and one of the last tributes paid to an Aggie who was taking undergraduate, graduate or professional courses at the time of death. Ceremonies take place on the first Tuesday of the month, September through April, when needed.

Honorees

Texas A&M listed the six students as:

• Branson McNeel Bean, a sophomore majoring in Agricultural Leadership and Development, of Cypress
• Victoria Claire Burkett, a master's student in Human Resource Management, of Friendswood
• Nicholas Stephen Heinrich-Barna, a doctoral student in Computer Engineering, of Lucas
• Alan Delynn Moore, a doctoral student in Engineering, of Houston
• Mastura Safayet, a doctoral student in Geography, of Ithaca, New York
• Graham Andrew Wetherell, a freshman majoring in Construction Science, of Houston

What to expect

Campus lights go dark at 10:20 p.m., according to the university's announcement. Students, families and friends gather without speaking in the plaza facing the Academic Building. At 10:30 p.m., members of the Ross Volunteer Company march in at a slow pace and fire three rifle volleys.

Buglers on the Academic Building then play "Silver Taps" facing north, south and west and skipping east, "because the sun will never rise on that Aggie again," the university says.

The university asks people who live on campus to cover their windows, keep noise down and stay silent while walking to and from the plaza.

Condolences for the families can be emailed to silvertaps@tamutraditions.net or dropped into any of four memorial boxes: in Academic Plaza, in 12th Man Hall at the Memorial Student Center, on the Quad, or outside the West Campus Dining Facility.

Sources

stories.tamu.edu

tamu.edu