Campus Life

Aggie Ring Statue Coming to Galveston Campus

Former Maroon Delegates Vice President Deidra Dittmar '19 and former President Andres Barboza '18 have partnered with campus officials to bring an Aggie ring statue to Texas A&M University at Galveston.

For more than 100 years, the Aggie ring has been a symbol of excellence and belonging that Aggies hold close to their hearts.

Now a fundraising initiative is underway to commission and construct a statue replica of an Aggie ring for the Texas A&M University at Galveston campus. This project is inspired by the beloved Aggie ring statue in Haynes Ring Plaza on Texas A&M University’s College Station campus.

Since its unveiling in 2009, the bronze replica statue at College Station has become an iconic fixture. A gift from the late Harold J. Haynes ’46 and his wife Reta, it has become a gathering place for Aggies past, present and future. Every year thousands of students and visitors pose and take pictures around the ring, many anxiously awaiting the day they receive their own piece of Aggie gold.

The Maroon Delegates, a Galveston Campus student ambassador group, are spearheading the Galveston Aggie Ring project with assistance from the Sea Aggie Former Student Network, the Galveston Board of Visitors, and other individual donors to see the project through.

Andres Barboza ’18, who was president of the Maroon Delegates during his senior year at the Galveston Campus, said the idea for a ring statue arose during a visit to the College Station campus with the delegates’ vice president, Deidra Dittmar ’19. Inspired by the College Station statue, the pair decided to formally present the case for a Galveston statue to Galveston Campus administration.

Barboza envisions the ring statue acting as both a visual motivator for underclassman and a symbol of the ring’s prestige.

“It would mean so much to see the ring represented in a central part of campus, ” he said. “It’ll remind students what they’re working toward every day and reinforce what it means to wear the ring as a member of the Aggie family. ”

COO of the Galveston Campus Col. Michael Fossum ’80 lent the project his abiding support.

“Our students are proud Aggies in every way, and nothing more prominently displays that pride than the Aggie ring, ” he said. “We have other items on our campus reflective of our heritage, a premier sea component of Texas A&M’s land-, sea- and space-grant mission, and it makes perfect sense to add an Aggie ring statue to those offerings.”

Click here to donate to the Galveston Campus Aggie Ring Statue project.