COLUMN: Maintaining the USU Tradition of True Aggies

I come from a long line of Aggies. Aunts, uncles, parents, cousins – all have graced the halls of Utah State proudly. Thus when I was accepted to USU, it was a joyous event; one my family celebrated by immediately rehearsing to me all the Aggie traditions. My mother taught me the fight song and about Aggie ice cream. My cousins showed me around campus. My grandparents caught me up on the USU family history.

A few days before I left for Logan, my mother started telling me about True Aggies, a tradition we all know means a moonlight kiss atop a cement sculpture of the letter A. My mother had been a True Aggie, so had my father and my aunts and uncles, and figured I would someday become one as well.

Although my mom seriously hoped I’d wait a year or two, I was a little excited. I figured I’d get it over with as a freshman and then be able to brag a little bit through the rest of college that I had become a True Aggie my very first semester.

But when I got to school, I discovered the True Aggie tradition had changed a little bit since my parents were here. It had picked up some bad innuendoes and mixed emotions from the student body, and even developed a sadistic cousin called True Blue Aggies.

For the most part, nobody I knew was a True Aggie. My roommates weren’t. My friends weren’t. My cousins weren’t. We had broken the family chain, and I was bummed. But my cousins explained it to me.

True Aggiehood was now associated with public make-out sessions, something members of my family weren’t accustomed to. So, as a freshman, I put off my True Aggie dreams with much disappointment.

But as the last few years have gone by, I have been able to go to a few True Aggie nights, and am happy to report it’s not as bad as I was told. There are always a few there that give True Aggies their poor reputation, but I think the integrity of the tradition still exists.

It could be better, obviously. I understand what my family and friends were telling me. Most often, the kisses we see on the A are not the innocent pecks my mother and I were picturing when she told me about this event. In fact, they are far from it in many cases, and it can be expected to make parts of the student body uncomfortable.

Now, I’m not an old bitty by any measure. I’m not against minimally passionate kisses in public. But I would seriously hope those kisses mean something besides be used solely for becoming a True Aggie. You can become a True Aggie for far less, so why give up more than you have to.

I don’t want to beat this to death. But if a few people could tone it back a little bit, it would make this tradition much more comfortable and easily reachable for a majority of the students. It’s just a thought.

Mikaylie Kartchner is a senior majoring in journalism. Comments and questions can be sent to

mikayliek@cc.usu.edu.