Starting Sep. 1, football fans will have new guidelines to follow if they plan on camping out for ticket pull. The updated system aims to comply with safety measures, such as keeping fire lanes clear and limiting the amount of tent hazards. One major change is when campouts can begin: Tents will not be permitted to set up until 6 a.m. the Sunday before ticket pull.

“We want to keep the tradition,” Vicki Dobiyanski, associate vice president for Student Affairs, said. “We want this to continue. We need our Ags to help and to be available to follow these things so that we can do it safely because we don’t want a student or anybody else to get hurt or have any other issue that causes this tradition to stop.”

The updated guidelines come after discussions over the summer among administrators and students about how to keep campouts on campus, while still following safety regulations. The Student Government Association, or SGA, was especially involved in planning this year’s system, including Student Body President Cade Coppinger.

“This is something that makes Aggieland unique,” Coppinger said. “You see it all over social media, and it’s like, no matter what record it is or what the weather is, and we have students out there. But the moral of the story is that safety comes first, above all else.”

The central topic of discussion was how to continue the campout tradition with as little alteration as possible, as well as how to plan for moments like the Texas game in November. That game will likely have its own set of guidelines, which will be announced in more specifics closer to the date.

“The students have been fighting to keep it, the administrators have been fighting to keep it and there’s been a concerted effort to keep it,” Dobiyanski said.

To help campouts run smoothly, SGA and Student Affairs are looking for two organizations per game to manage the tent line. Organizations that sign up would send up to 10 members to be present at the 6 a.m. start time as well as check in on the camp out periodically — those 10 members would then be first in line for ticket pull. Kathleen Parks, who serves as SGA’s executive vice president of student engagement, said that SGA is excited to bring student organizations into the process.

“This is a huge tradition at A&M that we love and want to keep as much as every other student,” Parks said. “It’s really special that student organizations — since they play such a huge role in student life at A&M — get to help maintain that tradition.”

SGA is the first organization signed up to manage the tent line. Interested groups can email Parks at [email protected]. For more information on the new campout guidelines, students can visit the Student Affairs website.