The university gave the National Forestry Hero Award to an employee of Steely Lumber Co., James Gibson, for rescuing students. By January 2000, Texas A&M spent over $80,000 so students and administrators could travel to the funerals of the deceased, including $40,000 so 125 students and staff could attend a funeral in
Turlock, California by way of private aircraft; most of those on board were students. The total amount of funds spent by the university on all disaster-related expenses by that date was $292,000. For two years, the university pondered options for reinstating the tradition. University president Ray Bowen formed a task force, which proposed a new design. The task force recommended that students be allowed to participate in building the bonfire as long as they were monitored by professional construction experts. Current and former students debated whether the proposed division of labor could be considered a student project. The debate was rendered moot when the university discovered
liability insurance for the revamped project would cost more than $2 million per year. In 2002, Bowen announced that the bonfire was officially cancelled. An official memorial service was held less than seventeen hours after the collapse. Over 16,000 mourners, including then
Texas Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry, packed
Reed Arena to pay tribute to those who died and those who had spent all day working to rescue the injured. At the end of the service, as A&M University President Ray Bowen presented roses to the families of the dead and injured students, the crowd spontaneously stood in silence, linking arms with those standing next to them, before quietly singing "
Amazing Grace". Only after all of the rescue workers and family members had left the facility did the audience depart. The
Texas Exes student chapter canceled Texas' corresponding rivalry pregame tradition, the
Hex Rally, in favor of a "Unity Gathering" on November 22 at the
UT Tower and extended an invitation to all Aggies and their friends. The tower was darkened out of respect for those who had died in the collapse or been affected by it, and participants lit white candles instead of the usual red in memory of the fallen Aggies. On November 25, the date that the bonfire would have burned, Aggies instead held a vigil and remembrance ceremony. Over 40,000 people lit candles and observed up to two hours of silence at the site of the collapse, before walking to
Kyle Field for
yell practice. At the stadium, fans relit their candles as the
Parsons Mounted Cavalry fired the Aggie cannon twelve times, once for each victim. Former US President
George H. W. Bush attended with his wife
Barbara, as did his son
George W. Bush,
Texas Governor and future US President, with his wife
Laura. The Bonfire Memorial Commission collected the hundreds of thousands of items that were left by grieving visitors at the site of the collapse. At the Systems Building, Texas A&M leaders erected pictures of the deceased students. There, over a dozen seniors left behind their
Aggie rings, permanently donating them to the students who did not live long enough to earn their own. Various organizations also established funds in memory of the victims and to help with expenses incurred because of the accident. In total, the funds received exceeded US$250,000. ==Investigations==