As the students and citizens living in Ames, we have a lot to be proud of. We live in a beautiful city full of parks and rich history. We have great schools, both for children and those studying at the university level. Ames is a family-oriented city with the fun and vibrancy of a college town.

Iowa State and the city of Ames have plenty of opportunities to be in the national limelight in a positive way. Whether it’s groundbreaking research, record enrollment or even last season’s Sweet 16 appearance, Ames and Iowa State have plenty of opportunities to receive praise and positive attention on the national level.

Unfortunately, all of those great aspects of our community have been overshadowed by all of the negative news to come from Ames in recent months. Nowadays, it seems as though negative news gets far more attention than the positive and that certainly has been true for our city and school.

As a university, we should be concerned with the way our school is being viewed. Great things are happening at Iowa State, but they are far too easily overlooked because of the “bad news” casting its large shadow over our accomplishments.

Not long after last school year started, a car chase ensued on Ames streets and continued through the heart of campus during the school day. The chase was followed by a shooting on Central Campus, and things did not get better from there.

The school year saw a professor get arrested for prostitution and another for fabricated AIDS research. Numerous student-athletes were arrested through the course of the year and into the summer. We saw yet another Veishea riot and the cancellation of our beloved, age-old tradition. 

And when the school year ended and the students left, the negative news continued. In the last month, an ISU alumnus and an ISU graduate student were arrested by the federal government, one charged with possession of explosives and the other with attempting to smuggle military technology to China.

But we cannot let those negative national stories define our community. It is a shame that our city and school are now recognized for all of the negative news to happen in this last year because we all know there is so much more to Ames than this.

We, who live, learn, work and play in Ames, know just how special our city is. We should be able to be proud of our community and all it has accomplished. We must embrace all of the positives.

Unfortunately, there is not a clear answer to our problem. There is not one thing to do or say that will keep Ames from getting negative national attention. So in response to all of these unfortunate events, all we can hope to do is continue creating positive news in hopes that the negative will soon die out.