NACOGDOCHES, Texas (AP) _ A county-wide burn ban has prompted an East Texas university to adorn its homecoming bonfire structure with electric lights instead of torching it with flames.
Stephen F. Austin State University dean Adam Peck says the college has traditionally set a bonfire structure ablaze for homecoming but the state’s prolonged drought makes that “inadvisable” this year.
The Daily Sentinel reports that since there won’t be a bonfire, students won’t be burning shirts printed by other colleges as they’ve done in the past.
Peck says school officials will collect the shirts and donate them to the needy instead.
The university’s torchlight parade will go on Friday night as planned but with lanterns, glow sticks and other portable lights guiding the way to the bonfire site instead of lit torches.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)