According to local legend, the Auburn seal in front of Langdon Hall is not to be stepped on.
Richmond Gunter, SGA treasurer and senior in finance, said doing so means you will not graduate on time, will not find true love at Auburn or have seven generations of Alabama fans.
But what if your class ring "steps" on it?
On Thursday, Dec. 4, Auburn SGA placed roughly 350 class rings onto the Auburn seal, introducing a brand new tradition to the Auburn family called Ring Night.
According to Gunter, the idea surfaced last summer when Taylor Rowell, senior supply chain management, brought the idea to his SGA peers.
"We were looking at other programs around the country," Rowell said. "They'd tie it in with something at the school to try to integrate it with an ongoing tradition at the school."
Rowell said the Auburn seal curse, which focuses partly on not graduating on time, would be an interesting tradition to tie to graduates' class rings.
The box of ordered rings spent part of the night on the seal in front of Langdon Hall. Gunter said they placed the rings on the seal at 6:56 p.m., which is 18:56 military time, symbolizing the year 1856, when Auburn University was founded.
The rings then remained on the seal until 8:14 p.m., or 20:14 military time, bringing the rings into the present.
"The rings are gaining the Auburn spirit but also being cursed," Gunter said. "At the ring ceremony on Sunday, every ring recipient will take their ring and dip it in water from the president's fountain, thereby reversing the curse but keeping the Auburn spirit and tradition."
Colson Smith, SGA executive vice president of programs and senior in biomedical science, said after seeing the hard work SGA put into creating the event, he was thrilled to see people taking part in the new tradition.
"I was super pumped to see this tradition kick off," Smith said. "It's very rare to see a new tradition start. The turn out was awesome."
Any student with at least 75 credit hours at Auburn can order a class ring and participate in Ring Night, which will happen each semester.
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