News release from Texas A&M University:
Silver Taps will be held at Texas A&M University Tuesday (Dec. 2) to honor the memory of three students who have died since the last ceremony was held.
Those to be honored Tuesday with a Silver Taps ceremony include Christian Amadeus Taylor, a senior biochemistry and genetics major from Killeen, who died Oct. 17; Maria “Maya” Stavrianakou, a doctoral student in neuroscience from Greece, who died Oct. 22; and Chad Alexander Holub, a junior industrial engineering major from Spring, who died Oct. 31.
Silver Taps is a tribute paid to an Aggie who, at the time of his or her death was enrolled in undergraduate, graduate or professional courses at Texas A&M.
One of the university’s most solemn traditions, Silver Taps was first held in 1898 upon the death of the university’s president, Lawrence Sullivan Ross, and has changed little from that time. It is held the first Tuesday of the month between September and April in the event a student death occurs.
On the day of the ceremony, all campus flags are flown at half-staff, and the names of those to be remembered are posted at the base of the flagpole in the Academic Plaza. A box is placed at the foot of the Sul Ross statue, where students may place letters of condolence. These are then passed on to the family of each student to be honored. The family is notified of the ceremony and sent a floral arrangement by university officials.
The campus will be darkened at 10:20 p.m. In the darkness, students, family and friends will silently gather in the plaza in front of the Academic Building. At 10:30 p.m., an honor guard from the Ross Volunteer Company will march across campus from the Corps of Cadets area to the plaza, where its members will fire three rifle volleys to honor the memory of these students. Buglers from the Aggie Band, unseen in the darkness, will play a special arrangement of “Taps.” The tolling of the Albritton Tower bells will signal the end of the ceremony.
In case of rain or dangerous lightning, the ceremony will be moved to Duncan Dining Hall. Free parking in the University Center Garage will be available between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. For more information, go http://studentaffairs.tamu.edu/sas/silvertaps.
For more information, contact Student Assistance Services at (979) 845-3113.