According to an Associated Press article, the city of College Station, Texas, home of Texas A&M University, will be marketing a section of its cemetery for A&M graduates. Although other schools have them, this is the first university-related cemetery in Texas. The price of a plot is $2,000 compared to $950 in the regular section. Residents will have a “view” of the football stadium and, as the marketing director of the cemetery put it, “This is another opportunity for former students to be someplace close to campus when they’re gone.”
I wonder, since the cemetery is a monopoly, whether it is extracting all the consumer surplus from the Aggies, because $2,000 seems like a low price to me. I also wonder whether cemeteries at other schools would be or are already charging more. The price charged might be a good measure of the price elasticity of demand by decedent alumni at different schools.
A neat project would be to infer the extent of school spirit from the estimate of the price elasticity implied by the prices that different university cemeteries charge.
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For those who qualify, there is essentially no cost, as in any National Cemetery [e.g., personally purchased headsones, as opposed to those provided by the VA]. The cemetery dates from 1869 and due to the limited space now available, burials are limited basically to those who attain Flag rank while on active duty. The Columbarium dates from 1987 and is available to all graduates of Canoe U. [aka the Boat School]. There are certain exceptions to both. For more info visit
This is the first I’ve ever heard of a university cemetery. The thought of spending eternity next to my economics professor…….
“The thought of spending eternity next to my economics professor…….”
Bonus: your tombstone can also be the vehicle for irreverent college pranks for an eternity!
As a Big 12 undergrad and a ‘shade of ivy’ post-grad living in Texas, it’s not like walking around every weekend for your adult life looking like a college golf team walk-on wasn’t bad enough….geesh.
Notre Dame has a cemetery on the grounds – for nearly 100 years. Until they built some classroom buildings recently you had a good line-of-site to the stadium. They recently build a place for storing cremation remains. My Mom & Dad (ex-professor) bought spaces there and call it their “last dormitory”.
Perhaps the embalming is done by mortuary students, so it reflects a discount like pet checkups at veterinary schools, haircuts at beauty schools or meals at culinary schools. I assume morticians have to go to college somewhere, and it seems like the kind of practical 19th century art one should be able to study at a Land Grant intitution.
Just poking at the article, it sounds like it’s not TAMU, but really the City of College Station that’s doing this. A&M’s simply licensing trademarks.
As a student currently at Texas A&M, the whole idea seems kind of creepy, but I suppose I don’t blame the city for trying to get more money from Former Students.
If it were the university actually doing this, I’d imagine that it would cost a great deal more.
University of Alabama has a cemetery across the street from the football stadium. If thats not university related, I dont know what is.