Ring Days connect future alums with tradition

By Alec Jennings
University News Service
October 3, 2008

During Ring Days, Texas State students with more than 75 hours of class work will meet with representatives from Balfour to be sized and select grades and stones for their personal university ring bearing the official Texas State design. Taking part in Ring Days will guarantee that they will able to participate on Dec. 9, when students, family and university officials will gather at Strahan Coliseum and take part in a traditional ceremony linking them with alumni from years past.

"It's pretty cool," said Lauren Williams, assistant manager of general merchandise, Texas State Book Store. "University officials, students and families gather at the coliseum where there's a fountain filled with water from the San Marcos River."

The students will then symbolically rinse their hands in water from the river before placing their new rings on their fingers. The ceremony has grown in popularity over the past few years as more students and their families take part in the tradition.

"It used to be held at the LBJ Ballroom," Williams said. "There have been so many people who participate that we had to move it to Strahan Coliseum."

All rings bear the official Texas State design. The Texas Lone Star sits atop surrounded by oak and laurel leaf wreaths inside the Texas State name and its official founding date. Old Main is engraved on the left side with the Texas State initials decorating the right hand side. The school flower, Gaillardia, is engraved on the inside.

For more information about Ring Days, the Ring Ceremony or the official university ring, please contact the Alumni Association at (512) 245-2371.